The National Science Foundation is homeless

During my career, I was principal investigator on three NSF grants. I also served on five grant review panels for the NSF. 

The NSF always struck me as a tightly run, parsimonious science agency. They are scrupulous about *not* funding biomedical research, so as not to compete with the much bigger National Institutes of Health. They stick to the basic science mission.

 

“But out of the blue yesterday, word emerged that the Department of Housing and Urban Development is taking over the NSF’s building, evicting all of its more than 1,800 employees. . . . Adding to the wildness, the top floors of the building are, according to the AFGE Local 3403, going to be retrofitted into a kind of executive mansion for HUD Secretary Turner, including an executive suite, executive dining room, reserved parking for the Secretary’s five cars, exclusive use of an entire elevator, special space for his various assistants and a planned gym for the Secretary and his family. Turner wouldn’t be the only Secretary with nice office space. But this does sound like it’s on the extreme end of the spectrum. Equally eye-catching, there appears to be no plan for where the NSF staff will go.”

Research is the “seed corn” on which future discovery and progress is made. The Trump Administration is in the process of burning down decades of investment and expertise in the US. Trainees are now looking overseas for science jobs, and other countries are actively recruiting our best and brightest scientists. This is another symptom of the contempt Trump has for America.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/national-science-foundation-to-be-requisitioned-as-mansion-for-hud-secretary-and-also-hud-office

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