“A Pioneering Voice in Ethical Technology Governance”: Alondra Nelson Receives 2025 Honorary Doctorate from Amherst College

On Sunday, May 25, 2025, Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, was presented with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Amherst College.

Recognized by the College for “redefining how science serves our shared human dignity” and “illuminating the way toward a more humane technological age,” Nelson has emerged as a leading voice in AI governance and policy, both domestically and internationally. Nelson’s urgent, interdisciplinary work also spans science, technology, and society more broadly.

This has included tenures at both the White House and the UN: Nelson was deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and acting director and principal deputy director for science and society of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from 2021 to 2023, and served on the United Nations High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, among numerous other appointments.

Her major research contributions are situated at the intersection of racial formation and social citizenship, on the one hand, and emerging scientific and technological phenomena, on the other. She connects these dimensions in award-winning and acclaimed books, including The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome (2016) and Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination (2011). Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and TIME Magazine.

Nelson’s past honors include the MIT Morison Prize in Science, Technology and Society, the Federation of American Scientists Public Service Award, the Morals and Machines Prize, and the Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Social Sciences and Technology, among others.

At IAS, Nelson leads the Science, Technology, and Social Values Lab.

Read the full citation for Nelson’s honorary doctorate on the Amherst College website.