Researcher leaves for China

A Pittsburgh infectious-disease researcher is leaving for China after his U.S. grant funding ran out this year. (wesa.fm) Jason Walsman moved to Pittsburgh in 2020 for a research job and later stayed in Pennsylvania while working remotely for the University of California, Santa Barbara. WESA reported that the National Science Foundation declined to renew his funding, and he is now moving with his wife and two children to Duke Kunshan University on the outskirts of Shanghai. (wesa.fm) Walsman studies infectious diseases in amphibians, including work aimed at preventing frog extinctions. At Duke Kunshan, he plans to add research on tick-borne illnesses such as Lyme disease in South Asia. (wesa.fm) His move lands in the middle of a wider squeeze on U.S. research funding. A White House budget outline released in May 2025 proposed $163 billion in overall spending cuts, including an $18 billion reduction for the National Institutes of Health, or about one-third of that agency’s budget. (wesa.fm) In Pittsburgh, those cuts have hit institutions that depend heavily on federal grants. WESA reported in 2025 that the University of Pittsburgh received more than $660 million from the National Institutes of Health the previous year, then paused graduate admissions and imposed a hiring freeze as grants were terminated. (wesa.fm) Researchers are also trying to keep projects alive outside formal government channels when federal support disappears. KUOW reported on April 22 that scientists behind the National Nature Assessment kept working after President Donald Trump rescinded the effort on his first day in office, and an 868-page draft is now out for public comment. (kuow.org) That assessment was designed to do for ecosystems what a census does for people: measure the condition of land, water, wildlife, and the benefits nature provides. University of Washington professor Phil Levin told KUOW the team was close to a first draft when the federal project was canceled. (kuow.org) Advocates say Walsman is not an isolated case. WESA cited Union of Concerned Scientists president Gretchen Goldman saying the United States is becoming a harder place to do science, and it also cited White House Office of Personnel Management data showing that more than 10,000 experts in science and related fields left federal agencies last year. (wesa.fm) Congress blocked some of the administration’s deeper science cuts last year, but WESA reported that the White House is again seeking major reductions for agencies tied to health, space, and environmental research in its 2027 budget plan. For researchers deciding where to build a lab and a career, that uncertainty is now shaping moves that used to be driven mainly by the science itself. (wesa.fm)