About

Daniel Goroff is President and CEO of the Social Science Research Council. A longstanding champion of research and scholars, Goroff joined the SSRC following a distinguished tenure as vice president and program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation where he supported and incubated hundreds of social science research projects and initiatives. 

While on loan from the Sloan Foundation, Goroff served as Deputy Director for Science and Society at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and, before that, as Division Director for Social and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation. Previously, he held faculty positions at Harvard University and then at Harvey Mudd College where he was Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Goroff holds a Ph.D from Princeton, having also earned advanced degrees at Harvard University, Boston University, and the University of Cambridge.

A tireless advocate for rigorous research, institutional innovation, and evidence-based policymaking, Goroff has helped launch major initiatives such as the Institute for Research on Innovation and Science, the Science Philanthropy Alliance, the Societal Experts Action Network, J-PAL North America, and the Economic Measurement Research Institute. Committees of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives have called on him to testify about economic and research policy. 

Goroff is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a former board trustee or director of organizations ranging from Smith College to the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation. Other recent honors include the 2020 Links Lecture Award from the American Statistical Association and the 2023 Leadership Award from Society for the Science of Science and Innovation.