Who is Sethuraman Panchanathan? NSF chief resigns amid Trump's funding cuts
While he did not explicitly cite reasons, the timing coincides with mounting pressure from the Trump administration to slash NSF's USD 9 billion annual budget, scale down staffing, and cut funding for programs aligned with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) — priorities Panchanathan strongly advocated.Who is Sethuraman Panchanathan?Born and raised in Chennai, India, Panchanathan is an alumnus of Vivekananda College, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and IIT Madras, where he completed his M.Sc. and M.Tech before earning his Ph.D. in Canada.His early academic focus blossomed into pioneering work in assistive and rehabilitative technologies, human-centered multimedia computing, and haptic user interfaces.Before leading the NSF, Panchanathan served as Executive Vice President at Arizona State University, where he also founded the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC). His work earned wide acclaim, including for developing technology that improved accessibility for individuals with disabilities.advertisementAppointed by President Trump in 2020, Panchanathan's leadership at NSF saw deepened international collaborations, notably the 2023 US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies.Despite his initial appointment under a Republican administration, his strong advocacy for inclusive science and global research partnerships increasingly clashed with a shifting political climate that viewed many of NSF's initiatives as wasteful.
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