NSF appoints Adam Russell to lead $1.5B X-Labs initiative

The new NSF X-Labs initiative will fund ambitious research institutions, led by a former DARPA/IARPA/ARPA-H operator

Fantastic news from NSF: Adam Russell has been appointed to lead the new $1.5 billion X-Labs initiative to fund ambitious & innovative research institutions. Adam previously worked at DARPA, IARPA, and helped launch ARPA-H. Hard to think

Ranked #28 on backlist 2026-06-16 (16 Jun 2026 UTC) · by @AlecStapp (Alec Stapp) · view on X ↗

How it ranks: Backlist reads my Twitter/X timeline, scores every tweet for substance with an LLM rubric (not engagement), and publishes the daily top picks with a one-line takeaway. Curated by Surya Dantuluri.