Susan Margulies to Lead NSF's Engineering Directorate

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected Susan S. Margulies—an ASME award winner—to lead the NSF Directorate for Engineering. Margulies will be the first biomedical engineer to lead the directorate and her term will begin on August 16, 2021. ASME has identified bioengineering as a core technology area in the mechanical engineering enterprise and convenes a Bioengineering Public Policy Task Force (BPPTF) to address policy needs in the space. The ASME BPPTF has published a Position Paper titled “Investing in Bioengineering: Securing America’s Leadership Role in a 21st Century Global Economy,” which outlines the group’s policy prerogatives.

“Susan Margulies' extensive experience and expertise is a valuable addition to the National Science Foundation's work to advance the frontiers of science and engineering research,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “Her strong leadership combined with her deep knowledge of research translation will help accelerate our nation's progress to be at the vanguard of discovery and innovation. I am looking forward to her insights and perspectives.”

Since 2017, Margulies has been a professor and chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, housed jointly at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. In her new role, Margulies hopes to advance programs to build the nation’s engineering workforce and embark on an integrated national and international strategy to advance engineering research and exploration.

Regarding her new position, Margulies comments, “It is my honor to join NSF to lead the engineering directorate. This is a moment in our nation's history when engineering and science are celebrated and supported as pathways to address urgent crises and improve our society and economy. … We can see the nation is turning to NSF to address some of the most pressing challenges facing science and engineering. To do that, we must forge partnerships with industry, agencies, foundations, institutions of higher learning, communities, and countries.”

The Engineering Directorate focuses on making investments in engineering research and education to address national challenges such as advanced manufacturing and sustainable energy systems. In recent years, the directorate has not only focused on programs that advance engineering research and development, but that train and develop an engineering workforce to propagate the U.S. engineering enterprise.