Alondra Nelson is the Harold  F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and a distinguished  senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. A former deputy assistant  to President Joe Biden, she served as acting director of the White House  Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Including Nelson in the list  of “Ten People Who Shaped Science” in 2022, Nature said of her OSTP tenure,  “this social scientist made strides for equity, integrity and open access. As  a science and technology policy advisor, she has provided guidance to local,  state, and federal governments, legislators, multilateral and international  organizations, academia, and others. Nelson was architect of the White  House’s landmark “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights,” which is a cornerstone  of President Biden’s recent Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and  Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. In recognition of  this work, Nelson was named to the inaugural TIME100 list of the most influential  list of people in AI in 2023. An acclaimed academic researcher, Nelson served  as the inaugural Dean of Social Science at Columbia University and was the  14th president and CEO of the US Social Science Research Council. She writes  and lectures widely on the intersections of science, technology, medicine,  and social inequality. Nelson is the author of several books including, most  recently, The Social Life of DNA. Her essays, reviews, and commentary have  been featured in national and international media outlets, including The New  York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired and Science.  Nelson is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the  American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Philosophical  Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the U.S. National Academy of  Medicine.

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