President Biden Selects Morgan Vice President Willie E. May to Serve on the National Science Board

BALTIMORE—Providing another significant boost toward Morgan State University’s status as a national leader among public research institutions, President Joe Biden appointed Morgan’s vice president for Research and Economic Development, Willie E. May, Ph.D., to the National Science Board. With the six-year appointment, effective Oct. 23, Dr. May joined the 23 other leaders in academia, government and the private sector who make up the prestigious board, which serves as the governing body of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and as an independent advisor to Congress and the U.S. president on policy matters related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) research and STEM education. Dr. May’s work with the National Science Board is concurrent with his leadership of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): his one-year term as president of AAAS continues until Jan. 1, 2025. Among the many other honors and recognitions received for his work, Dr. May was elected as an AAAS Fellow in 2019.

“I, along with our entire university community, am immensely proud of this latest achievement by Dr. May, recognizing appointments of this caliber are not gifted by whim or circumstance but rather vested to individuals who are definitive leaders within their field of expertise,” said David K. Wilson, president of Morgan State University. “Under Dr. May’s direction and by his example, Morgan faculty, staff and students have advanced or supported Morgan’s forward momentum in STEM research and other fields. That momentum is palpable, and policymakers at the highest level are noticing.”

Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, during the era of Jim Crow segregation, Dr. May earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Knoxville College, a historically Black institution in Tennessee. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Maryland, during the sixth year of his four-decade career of outstanding achievement at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he began as a research chemist and rose to serve as NIST director and as undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology. Dr. May left NIST in 2017 at the end of the Obama presidency and came to Morgan in 2018.

“I am honored to be selected to serve with this extraordinary group of thinkers and doers on the National Science Board, as we commit ourselves to identifying and advising on the most critical science and technological challenges facing humanity today,” said Dr. May. “Paramount for me in this capacity is articulating the role that HBCUs and MSIs can, and must, play in providing the ‘missing millions’ in our nation’s STEM workforce who are primed to meet the growing needs of a diverse, interdependent society. I am gratified beyond measure to have a voice in the discussions that will lead to evidenced-based solutions to these issues that are existential to our nation’s prosperity.”

During Dr. May’s tenure as the head of Morgan’s Division of Research and Economic Development (D-RED), the University’s research enterprise has made tremendous strides, among them: receiving $260 million in grant funds awarded in fiscal years 2019–23, a nearly 53% increase from the preceding five-year period; publishing more than 1,000 peer-reviewed papers; awarding doctorates to more than 350 scholars; establishing several new research centers (some state-funded), all uniquely charged with addressing the challenges faced by today’s modern, urban communities; and filing more than 125 new U.S. patent applications. The 13 patents issued to Morgan in 2023 were the highest number ever issued to an HBCU in a calendar year.

Morgan’s ascent to the highest echelon of public urban research universities has accelerated under Dr. May’s direction. Last year, Morgan posted a record $88.5 million in new federal funding commitments for university research and training — a 6% increase over the previous year — and $50 million in research expenditures for Fiscal Year 2024. In the current fiscal year, funding is well on pace to eclipse the record-high established in FY24.

Since its establishment in 1950 through the National Science Foundation Act, the NSB has maintained its primary functions of advising the legislative and executive branches of the federal government and overseeing the NSF. The NSF is critical in driving U.S. scientific and technological leadership by investing in groundbreaking research. Through its nearly 2,000 grant partnerships with colleges, universities and other institutions across all 50 states, the NSF fuels innovation, supporting approximately 11,000 new projects annually from more than 40,000 competitive proposals.

About Morgan
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution offering more than 150 academic degree and certificate programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, and the only university to have its entire campus designated as a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.

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