Introducing: The “Defunded Science Series”

By Sheeva Azma

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post do not reflect the official opinions of any entity other than the author.

The federal government undertook a months-long (and ongoing) process of laying off workers with President Trump’s Executive Order 14210 implementing the “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE workforce optimization initiative in February 2025 directing federal agencies for large-scale RIFs and submit plans for reorganization. The order aimed to eliminate waste and bloat in the federal bureaucracy and has impacted scientists disproportionately, since science in the US is primarily funded by the federal government.

It has been an unusual time for science in our nation, and I am trying to learn as much as possible about the impacts. That’s why I have been speaking to #FiredFeds and science grad students affected by the funding cuts. If you have been affected and would like to be interviewed, please contact me.

The first #FiredFed I spoke to was Stephanie Morrison, a science communicator formerly affiliated with the National Institutes of Aging who had spent 20 years as a public servant.

I was next interviewing Mia Sievers, a Harvard PhD student and member of Brookline, MA’s town government, when, just over 39 minutes into our conversation, I decided to ask, “Have you personally been affected by the budget cuts from the federal government at Harvard?”

“I have been,” Mia replied. “I was an NSF GRFP recipient,” she said, referring to the prestigious graduate research fellowship awarded to a select number of PhD students yearly. “I had a nice fellowship from the NSF that was cancelled with the budget cuts to Harvard.”

What started out as a conversation about getting involved in local government became a discussion of the hyper-local impacts of federal funding decisions…and with that, the Defunded Science Series began.

I then talked to Dr. Beth Linas, an infectious disease epidemiologist and former government contractor who was working on tackling the opioid epidemic when she was fired due to the federal budget cuts.

Next, I talked to founders of 27UNIHTED and Fired But Fighting, which are organizations founded by fired feds at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seeking to restore public health’s place in governance and society.

The conversations continue. Watch all the videos in our Defunded Science series playlist below…and if you’d like to be part of it, please reach out.