Senate Confirms New White House Science and Tech Advisor in Historic Vote

Former Director of DARPA, Arati Prabhakar, (L) and coanchor of CNBC’s Squawk Alley, Jon Fortt, speak onstage during "What Are They Thinking? Man Meets Machine" at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 20, 2016 in San Francisco, California.

Former Director of DARPA, Arati Prabhakar, (L) and coanchor of CNBC’s Squawk Alley, Jon Fortt, speak onstage during "What Are They Thinking? Man Meets Machine" at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 20, 2016 in San Francisco, California. Mike Windle/Getty Images for Vanity Fair

Dr. Arati Prabhakar is the first woman, immigrant or person of color to serve as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The Senate on Thursday voted to confirm Dr. Arati Prabhakar as the next director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, making her the first woman, immigrant or person of color to serve in the position. 

Prabhakar, who previously served as director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency from 2012 to 2017 and as director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology from 1993 to 1997, was confirmed in a 56-40 vote. She was the first woman to serve as NIST director and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to lead that agency. 

President Joe Biden announced Prabhakar’s nomination to serve as OSTP director in June, saying in a statement that she was “a brilliant and highly-respected engineer and applied physicist.”

“I share Dr. Prabhakar’s belief that America has the most powerful innovation machine the world has ever seen,” Biden added. 

OSTP was established by Congress in 1976 to “maximize the benefits of science and technology to advance health, prosperity, security, environmental quality and justice for all Americans.” Under Biden, OSTP has worked with the National Security Council to develop the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan and leads the White House’s Cancer Moonshot initiative. Alondra Nelson has served as acting OSTP director since February, when former director Eric Lander resigned from the position amid reports that he bullied and mistreated his staff. 

“The historic bipartisan confirmation of Dr. Arati Prabhakar is a testament to her sterling track record of leadership and innovation stewardship, as well as her extensive expertise in science and technology policy,” Nelson said in a statement following the Senate’s confirmation vote. “We are thrilled to welcome her to OSTP and begin a bright new chapter.”

In her role as OSTP director, Prabhakar will also serve as Biden’s chief advisor for science and technology and as a co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Prabhakar will also serve on the president’s Cabinet, following President Biden’s decision in 2021 to make OSTP a Cabinet-level agency. 

The Senate Commerce Committee voted in July to approve Prabhakar’s nomination. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who chairs the committee, praised Prabhakar ahead of the full Senate vote, saying in a speech that Prabhakar “will help deliver a message that young women all across America need to be involved in the sciences to help our nation in the next phases of innovation.”

“Our nation needs devoted, experienced and exceptional public servants like Dr. Prabhakar to ensure that our research and development investments make America stronger, safer and more competitive,” Cantwell added. 

Outside of her federal roles, Prabhakar spent 15 years in Silicon Valley as an executive and venture capitalist, and also founded the nonprofit Actuate in 2019 to use “solutions R&D” to help address challenges related to climate change, data security and personal wellness.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.