KDSN RADIO News
Prof: Federal cuts threaten UI’s space sciences research
A University of Iowa professor says funding cuts to the National Science Foundation -will- be felt on the Iowa City campus.
About 10-percent of the NSF’s staff were recently fired as part of the Trump’s administrations federal workforce reductions.
UI space physicist Allison Jaynes says the campus has traditionally attracted top talent from around the world, and without funding for research, the university won’t be able to lure those researchers.
“This funding goes to the states and affects each state’s economy, especially the ones that are heavily involved in space sciences and space technology,” Jaynes says, “and so if they don’t block these kinds of cuts, they’re going to lose out big time.”
Jaynes says some of her own students are talking about leaving the country because they don’t see a future here. She says it seems like there’s a war on science and academia.
“I’m frankly terrified about where this is going to take us,” Jaynes says, “because if we lose some of our institutional knowledge and our expertise — and we will lose it to other countries — it will take far longer to build it back than we expect.”
Jaynes made her comments on the Iowa Public Radio program River to River.
(Lucia Cheng, Iowa Public Radio)
