Many young British and European scientists came as a rite of passage for advanced training in top American Universities and now they mostly come from East Asia and India. I went home after a year at Duke and came back 25 years later to cap my career with a faculty post. All my life, I admired America as a scientific superpower which, combined with its economic heft and enterprise culture, made the country flourish and prosper. Breakthroughs from federally funded research in medicine, agriculture, and technology created countless jobs and healthier lives.
Thousands of grants and programs are now being slashed nationwide with North Carolina only second to Washington state in proportion to total funding. The cuts get less attention than news about tariffs, stock markets, and global alliances because science is done out of sight and its wounds are invisible until they hurt. Consider a farmer who wants an excellent harvest but makes a false economy by sowing fewer seeds to save money. The seeding of research with federal dollars has already declined to 0.3% of GDP (excluding defense), and deeper cuts will hand the advantages of technological superiority to foreign competitors.
There is no stronger warning than the responses of young scientists. Fewer will come. Three-quarters of trainees in a survey said they were considering options to pursue careers abroad. We will regret casting the seed corn of science to the winds of political dogma.

Letter to the editor of The Daily Press (4.24.25)