Ryan Comes

We lost ~30% of our international students over 2 years. These folks aren't just going to forego their education. Who do we think is educating them instead? And then whose tech companies, medical research companies, and hospitals do you think they're gonna work for? www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/o...

Improving financial workflows alone would be a big boost. We all spend way too much time on grants accounting and monthly receipt bookkeeping. The Ass. Dean and Ass. Vice Provost phenomenon has to started with administrators saying they want fewer administrators. They could, but I'm not optimistic.

I'm reviewing a very good paper that I am going to write a favorable review for shortly. I might have already written it if the figures were embedded in the main text and I wasn't going back and forth every time they come up in the narrative. 🙄

There are so many scientists and science policy types who have sold out in the name of VC funding and political sway. That didn't happen in the last Trump administration. They all have to know what they're doing and we should never take Kratsios-types seriously in the future. 🧪⚛️

And this matters for US science because scientists are also tempted to engage only on scientific issues with people like RFK and Kratzios, and that is folly. We have to discuss the junk science alongside their political agenda and the donors’ goals.

This is the kind of deal the Democrats need to investigate immediately if they take Congress. An oil deal in Alaska which actually might be a gift to the Russians with Trump involvement. www.ft.com/content/e9cf...

BREAKING: Major shakeup in NSF leadership. Brian Stone, who has been performing the duties of NSF director since April 2025, is retiring on Dec. 31. Rebecca Keiser, who has been acting chief of staff, is also retiring, Oct. 31. Unclear who will replace Stone, since O'Neill's nom hasn't moved.

Correct. Vought and Bhattacharya want to do to NIH what they have gotten further with at NSF- turn it into a slush fund for their political preferences. But peer review is popular, and it is required by law. So they are slowly chipping away at peer review process in an effort to break it.

I was literally funded for a federal project last month with AI in the project title. I also received an email from a DOE lab with "AI-driven discovery" in the subject line this morning. We are all his enemies now. ⚛️🧪

Out of all the immigration policies they have put forward, this one would be the most devastating to STEM graduate students and it isn't even close. It is going to be delayed by the courts, but my faith in SCOTUS is low. 🧪⚛️ Cc @coons.senate.gov @bluntrochester.senate.gov @mcbride.house.gov

And to think, we used to think it was a good idea to attract top-tier global talent to American universities…🤷🏻‍♀️

Live look in to your university’s administration

🧪⚛️ Just tragic. Remember, this kind of thing could happen to other parts of NSF or DOE or NIH, if OMB is resolved, agency leadership is wobbly or nonexistent, and Congress does nothing. Even if Congress is opposed, unless they're willing to sue the executive branch, the potential is still there.

Killed. NSF’s SBE was killed, in violation of law. The President does not have the power to choose to kill programs at a whim by defunding them. The imperial presidency was a mistake and we are in a separation of powers constitutional crisis.

Unless Congress reclaims its power, this will just become the new normal. A good first step would be to impeach Vought. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/u...

Good end-of-FY coverage by the Times. The amount of unspent funds has wiggled but it was pretty clear for some time now that NSF was simply not going to spend a substantial portion of its congressional appropriation this year.

Russell Vought. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/s...

I wish I could say I was surprised at my former administration and the board, but I'm not at all surprised. If you're thinking about a faculty job in a deep red state you have to take this kind of threat seriously.

Hope this holds up!

Absolutely devastating for US research and for the thousands of students who will be harmed by this policy. ⚛️🧪

A must read--an infuriating read--from @Timodc. "Eissa is in an ICE processing center...The Kafkaesque nightmare we are putting this family through is hard to wrap your arms around. They are stranded there with no way out, no charges, no trial, no jury." www.thebulwark.com/p/marco-rubi...

I'm a firm believer that university boards do far more harm than good. This is why.

🧪⚛️ NSF, NIH - when agencies spend (or do not spend) money in ways that seemingly defy congressional appropriations. Article I only means something if the majority in Congress wants it to mean something. nanoscale.blogspot.com/2026/09/nsf-...

Our government is run by racist, repugnant trolls.

Very good point here: A lot of university leaders will think, "the Trump administration just wants us to make some vague statements - we can live with that." They are not counting on the DOJ using those statements as the basis for legal investigations. Which this DOJ will be willing to do.

🧪⚛️ 1/7 We are one month away from the end of the federal fiscal year. Right now, the NSF is on track to issue about 4000 fewer (!!) awards in FY26 than it did back in FY21-FY24, and 2000 fewer than it did in the tumultuous FY25 (with its government shutdowns and mass cutbacks in agency personnel).

Pete Hegseth has failed in every mission except one: keeping his job. But firing or forcing out everyone else in the Pentagon will not make Pete Hegseth into the secretary of defense America and its men and women in uniform need. Me on Driscoll's resignation: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

🧪⚛️ 1/3 If you needed any more evidence that OSTP and OMB are out of step, here you go. Kratsios' "Golden Age" report talks about funding individuals not ideas, loves the GRFP. The report says:

🧪⚛️

Oh FFS…

Scoop: For nearly a year, NSF has struggled to make new grants. Now we know that it will not catch up. In fact, NSF will award just 6,100 new grants—a 30% y/o/y decline, itself down from a previous avg. of 11,000+. In fact, the last time NSF awarded so few grants was in the early '80s.

NSF is touting a dozen new solicitations announced this week as evidence that basic research still rules. But that's not what's really going on. www.science.org/content/arti...

Thanks for posting about this. My institution also. The list includes most of the top research universities in the US.

Trump 2.0 has blown up US scientific research in a way that will take decades to roll back. Labs that took years to build have closed, young people have left science. NYT Mag published a long report on Dismantling Cancer Research. Why does Ross Douthat lie like this?

In case you're looking for schools to avoid. I'm not surprised by WashU, ASU or KU, but Daniels has a lot to answer for by contributing to this. JHU's the single school most heavily reliant on federal research $, but that's a lousy excuse considering how the Trump administration has targeted them.

This would completely destroy international graduate education in the US. That's obviously the point, because they want fewer legal immigrants period.

I may be the only person who would say this, but Dulles is ... fine? I've never really understood the hate. Plus it's got Metro now. The people movers even have a certain stupid charm.

The editorial from Science this week (by @holdenthorp.bsky.social and citing @cdelawalla.bsky.social and @standupforscience.net ) is also good (by different). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

If you want an example of why having political appointees deeply involved in grantmaking... www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...