Smith Wrong About NSF Funding

The head of the House science committee falsely claimed the National Science Foundation funds “more than twice as many graduate students in the social and behavioral sciences as in computer science, mathematics or material science.”

In fact, 21.5 percent of the 22,821 graduate students funded by the NSF in 2015 were in math, computer science and material engineering, according to the latest data. That’s more than three times the number of psychology and social science students.  

Rep. Lamar Smith, of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, made his claim in a Nov. 30 , “Science That Leads,” published in the newspaper In his op-ed, Smith argues that, in order for U.S. scientists to