Our newest endangered species: The vanishing American scientist
The proposed federal budget slashes federal funding for scientific research at a tremendous cost to innovation and breakthroughs.
As readers of this Substack will know, I've been increasingly concerned about the destruction of one of America’s greatest competitive advantages: our university research system. Of particular concern are the current Administration’s budget cuts to university research and changes in immigration policies. It’s going to greatly reduce the number of scientists that work in the U.S.
This oped was originally published May 30 in the San Antonio Express-News.
No rational leader would declare, “We have too many scientists in our country.”
Yet this is exactly what the Trump administration seems to believe. It's pushing the U.S. to a future with fewer scientists and one in which the U.S. does not lead in science, technology or innovation.
Scientists do not simply emerge, fully trained, out of thin air. They are created during rigorous apprenticeships in the graduate schools of America’s research universities, where students earn Ph.D.s.
To fund these apprenticeships, professors often write proposals to federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, known as NSF, to conduct cutting-edge research. These proposals include money to pay the graduate students’ tuition and give them a stipend to live on. In return for this support, the students perform the lion’s share of the work.
As students work on their professors’ projects, they learn how to do research: how to ask good questions, analyze data, write scientific reports and communicate the results.
But the students are not just learning how to be scientists, they are also advancing the cutting-edge research that fuels the U.S. economy. These breakthroughs — ranging from the internet to GPS technology to MRI to smartphones to advanced pharmaceuticals — are central to America’s competitive advantage and are so economically beneficial that the research more than pays for itself.
President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts to scientific research will take a sledgehammer to this system. The NSF faces a staggering 55% budget cut, slashing funds from $9 billion in 2025 to $4 billion for 2026.
NASA’s science budget may shrink by over half, and the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, faces a 44% reduction.
With less funding comes less support for graduate students, leading to fewer scientists. This will immediately slow basic research. Breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, advanced materials and climate-safe energy will continue to be made, just in other countries. This will hand technological and economic leadership to our geopolitical competitors, including China.
These cuts threaten not only homegrown talent but also America’s ability to attract and retain the world’s best minds. Because the U.S. Ph.D. is the most coveted graduate degree in the world, the smartest people from every country want to come here to study. In the past, we have welcomed the most talented international graduate students to study and complete their Ph.D. education here.
The brightest of these foreign students stay in the U.S., attracted by the intellectual freedom and strong commitment to research by the federal government. Some have continued their innovative work in academic institutions, while others launched groundbreaking startups. More than half of America's billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrants, with many starting out as international students in university research labs.
That is how it used to be, at least. Now, due to Trump’s immigration policies, top foreign scholars who might once have chosen American universities view studying in the U.S. as too risky and are going elsewhere. The breakthroughs they make and the associated economic benefits, therefore, are going elsewhere, too.
The erosion of American scientific capacity isn't theoretical — it's underway. Research programs across the country are already shrinking as a direct result of implemented policies.
Thus, America faces a choice: Will we defend the government-university partnership that made us the world’s scientific superpower, or will we surrender our scientific leadership?
That's why it's essential to reaffirm our commitment to science. One immediate way to do that is to restore funding to NSF, NIH and NASA that supports university research and the production of future scientists. If we choose to surrender our edge in scientific research, it won't be easy to regain it.
Andrew Dessler is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University and director of the Texas Center for Extreme Weather. You can read more of his writings at theclimatebrink.com.
Completely agree with your remarks. This administration is destroying one of our greatest sources of "soft power". It is bewildering to see and tempts one into believing that the intend to wreck our country. But why?
Serenity Now!
I finally decided to enjoy the peace and tranquility available to everyone through the judicious application of the Substack “Block” function. I highly recommend it. Now if I could just apply it to all my news feeds for “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.”