08/09/2025
I need your help.
Since January, we’ve been running in emergency mode.
The first blow came when my A-team postdoc—a brilliant woman who earned her PhD at Stanford and is one of the sharpest, hardest-working scientists I’ve ever had to pleasure to host—lost her funding. $180,000 gone. There’s no easy way to replace that.
Every week since, there’s been another gut punch. Another policy accusing scientists of “fraud, waste, and abuse.” The new executive order on “improving oversight” of federal grants hands political appointees the power to cancel any grant at any time "for convenience." It effectively seeks to undo peer-review (expert evaluations), so that only research "aligned with the president's priorities" gets funded. It’s written in the same vile, dishonest language that’s been aimed at dismantling science since you know who took office. How is a political appointee going to evaluate the quality of our research applications? It takes the average person about 10 years of specialty training to be able to do that.
We’re running on adrenaline, frantically writing grants, chasing private funds, stupidly submitting federal applications even though the rule book changes every week. Its a waste of time! When I write grant applications, I am not doing the work that may ultimately save lives. A few labs might scrape by. Most won’t. And nobody in their right mind is not making a career Plan B right now to continue supporting their families.
I am deeply sad at least once a week:
- Because I watch the life’s work of friends and colleagues being dismantled in real time.
- Because the science I am dedicated to and my career are under threat.
- Because we are so close to figuring out something that could make a real difference for people who have (or will have) a traumatic brain injury.
- Because all this is happening even though science is for everyone, just because this administration considers people who think for themselves a threat. –That's what we do at universities. Train people to think for themselves and to evaluate multiple sources of information to approximate truth. The people in power don't want you to be able to do that.
I don’t want to live in a world where proper healthcare is only for the rich. Or where the work of doing science is only for the privileged few who can afford to take the hit when funding collapses. You will get sick whether we do research or not, climate will get more extreme whether you believe in climate science or not. But your chance to survive improves only if decisions are based on data—not stories that make you feel more comfortable right now.
It took since the 1940s to build the US research engine—this crown jewel that fuels innovation, public health, and economic growth (especially in states like Alabama). Destroying it takes a fraction of that time. And you can’t just “put it back together” when the political winds change. Ask UAB football: two years after it was cut, they brought it back—but the players, coaches, and staff were gone. Rebuilding cost far more than sustaining it.
It will take decades to restore research in AL and the rest of the country when you finally realize that it affects everything: health, finances, even seemingly unrelated jobs. Who do you think visits the farmers markets around here? People who work here. Why do you think, people from all over the country and world come to AL? Because of UAB research.
Once you dismantle the science infrastructure, the talent, the trust—you don’t just flip a switch and get it back.
Here’s what I need you to do today:
Contact your Senators and Representatives, no matter if R or D. Tell them to protect science funding and preserve independent, peer-reviewed grantmaking. Don't just do it once. I call them every other day. And I am writing and will share here call scripts related to research, science and health every week.
Share this message. Let people know this is happening now.
Ask your friends to join you in protest. This is not a partisan issue. It’s about whether we want a country that leads with knowledge or abandons it.
We can’t wait for the midterms. By then, the damage will be done. Once it’s gone, it will take decades to get it back. You may never–the reason people came here is because it was the best in the world. Well, it's not anymore. Science in Europe, Asia, Australia is just as excellent.
Below I share pics of the dorks (read: normally people who decided to take a pay cut to follow their passion and discover new things) I do research with and a bunch of brains. Because brains are cool!