‘Major brain drain’: Researchers eye exit from Trump’s America
WASHINGTON – In the halls of US universities and research labs, one question has become increasingly common as President Donald Trump tightens his grip on the field: whether to move abroad.
“Everybody is talking about it,” said Mr J.P. Flores, a doctoral student in genetics at the University of North Carolina.
The discussion was thrust into the spotlight after Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, a specialist in fascism, announced he is taking a new post in Canada over the Trump administration’s “authoritarian” bent.
“I made the decision when Columbia folded,” he told CBS News. “I made it in a split second.”
Columbia University, which the Trump administration has threatened with major funding cuts, said it has agreed to take steps to rein in pro-Palestinian protests, among other actions.
“It is not the time to cower and fear,” said Prof Stanley, who added that there is “absolutely no doubt that the US is an authoritarian country”.
With similar threats lodged by Mr Trump against other universities, many researchers are worried about the future of academic freedom in the US.
Coupled with the administration’s broad cuts to federal funding, some fear the country’s research field, once viewed as the envy of the world, may be losing its lustre.
More than 75 per cent of scientists are now considering departing the country over Mr Trump’s policies, according to a survey of more than 1,600 people published in late March by the journal Nature.
“The trend was particularly pronounced among early-career researchers,” the journal said.
‘Surreal’
“People are just so scared,” Ms Daniella Fodera, a Columbia PhD student whose research grant was cancelled, told AFP. Amid the uncertainty, several academic institutions in recent weeks have announced a hiring freeze and a reduction in the number of graduate student positions.
“That’s definitely messing up the academic pipeline,” said Ms Fodera, a biomechanics student.
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Dr Karen Sfanos, head of a research lab at Johns Hopkins University, said: “It’s kind of a surreal time for scientists because we just don’t know what’s going to happen with funding.”
She added: “There’s not a lot of clarity, and things are changing day by day.”
The situation is hitting the “youngest generation” relatively hard, she noted.
Ms Fodera, who studies uterine fibroids – benign tumours affecting many women – said she has begun to “actively look at positions in Europe and abroad for continuing my post-doctoral training”.
‘Generational loss’
With mounting concerns among US researchers, several European and Canadian universities have launched initiatives to attract some of the talent, though they may not need to try too hard.
“I know researchers already that have dual citizenship, or who have family in Canada, in France, in Germany... saying, ‘I think I’m going to go live in Germany for the next, you know, five years and do research there’,” said Dr Gwen Nichols.
The physician, a senior leader at a blood cancer research group, warned that the possible exodus could make the US “lose our dominance as the biopharmaceutical innovation leader of the world”.
“We’ll see the problem 10 years from now, when we don’t have the innovation we need,” she added.
Mr Flores, the genetics researcher, agreed, saying “it has become quite clear that there’s going to be a major brain drain here in American research”.
One young climate researcher, who requested to remain anonymous, said she has started the process of attaining European Union citizenship and that colleagues in Europe “have all been extremely sympathetic to the situation”.
But she noted that those with limited resources, like many recent graduates, would be the least likely to be taken on by European institutions and may decide to drop out of science altogether.
“This is a generational loss for science across all disciplines,” she warned. AFP
