I wrote an op-ed on the world-class STEM research ecosystem in the United States, and how this ecosystem is now under attack on multiple fronts by the current administration:

I’m an award-winning mathematician. Trump just cut my funding.

The “Mozart of Math” tried to stay out of politics. Then it came for his research.

In response to a recent court ruling, the NSF has unsuspended its various grants to UCLA, including the one to IPAM (and my own personal grant). There is however the possibility of an appeal; and the (somewhat larger) funding from tne NIH to UCLA remains suspended at this time. Over the last week or so I have been involved in emergency fundraising (mostly on behalf of IPAM), and am heartened by the broad and significant support we have received, both for immediate funding needs, as well as offers to sponsor some future events at the institute. It is a small silver lining to know that there was a reservoir of goodwill and private resources that one could tap into in times of crisis, although the time and energy required to perform this fundraising was significant. In any event, this is no way to govern a country with a world-class research ecosystem, with quite unnecessary injections of uncertainty and chaos into what had been a predictable funding enviroment conducive to long-term planning.