Sung joins OPP as Science Policy Advisor

Dr. Nancy Sung has joined OPP to help develop and coordinate OPP’s contributions to NSF’s science policy efforts as well as in interagency and international polar policy matters.

Before coming to OPP, Dr. Sung served at NSF for eight years, most recently as Science Advisor in the Office of the Assistant Director for Biological Sciences. From 2014-2018, she was Head of NSF’s China office and a Science Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Other previous NSF positions include Program Director for the East Asia and Pacific, as well as Acting Section Head for International Science and Engineering. She currently serves as Co-Lead for the Renewing NSF Goal Team on Partnerships, as a member of the NSF 2026 working group, and on the NSF Bioeconomy Coordinating Committee. Before coming to NSF, Dr. Sung was a senior program officer at the Burroughs Wellcome Fund in Research Triangle Park, NC, and was founding board chair of the Health Research Alliance, a growing consortium of over 70 private foundations. Dr. Sung earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine’s Institute of Virology in Beijing. Her research focused on the role of protein-DNA interactions in viral gene expression as well as on tumor virus genetic epidemiology