Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Amid the many attention-grabbing headlines of 2026, there is a recent one that may have flown under the radar but shouldn't have. On April 24, the White House dismissed the entire 22-person board that oversees the National Science Foundation. The NSF is an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering in all 50 states and U.S. territories. To discuss the impact of the NSF more broadly, its significance for university research, and the likely consequences of this move, UC Riverside News turns to a distinguished faculty member who has extensive experience with the organization. Tim Lyons is a distinguished professor of biogeochemistry at UCR. He serves as the director of UCR's Alternative Earths Astrobiology Center and the Wilber W. Mayhew Endowed Chair in Geo-Ecology.…