we are losing a generation of scientists: speaking at aot

posted on Oct 31, 2025

danny caballero

This was a draft I forgot to post in July

Back in July, I had the chance to speak at a public event hosted by Astronomy on Tap Lansing. I was asked to share my perspective on STEM education, research funding (at that time), and the challenges we were beginning to face with the numerous executive orders and policy changes that seemed to be capriciously announced without much forethought or input from anyone with expertise in the field.

The slides that I presented appear above (also available as a PDF download). You can see that right around Slide 16, I began to present some of the information and data that the community had gathered on the impact of the executive orders on REU programs, graduate student funding, and research labs more broadly. That information was pulled from the available data at the time.

The situation was dire then, and I preempted the passing of the Big Beautiful Bill by a few weeks. What I explained came to pass, and was even worse than anticipated.

Not only does this bill fail to address any real issues in STEM education and research funding, but it also codifies many of the harmful policies that have already been implemented. Moreover, it fails to provide anything other than massive tax breaks to large corporations and wealthy individuals, while leaving the rest of us to deal with the fallout. Critically, and well beyond my initial concerns, the bill removes many social safety nets for Americans, including cuts to healthcare and food assistance programs, which will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations in our society. This bill, now passed, will have long-lasting negative effects on our society and economy, not just on STEM fields.

a public service

Immediately following my presentation, I was engaged with questions and comments from the audience. A reminder that these presentations occur in a public space with alcoholic beverages available. The audience is often a mix of scientists, enthusiasts, casual attendees, and, just people who happened to be at the bar.

The first interaction came from a person who identified themselves as woman and an engineer. She indicated to me that my facts were false, and there is no under-representation of women in STEM fields (as evidenced by her employer or her employment, that was not clear). She went on to indicate that I was wrong in advancing the idea that funding for STEM education is needed as we “need to pay our bills” and all that DOGE and the Trump administration was doing was getting rid of “waste, fraud, and abuse” in government spending.

On her first point, she is and was categorically wrong.

There is a well-documented under-representation of women and many other marginalized groups in STEM fields. This is not a matter of opinion, but a matter of fact. Numerous studies have shown that, and continue to do so. Moreover, as a non-White male who has worked in STEM fields for my entire professional life, I can attest that this person’s employer must be one of the most progressive and inclusive in the country, as my experience has been quite different. And frankly, I doubt that was the case.

On her second point, she was wrong and remains wrong.

She was wrong in the moment, and continues to be wrong. There is no evidence that any of our administration’s actions are to reduce “waste, fraud, and abuse” in government spending. In fact, the opposite is true. We have seen our national debt balloon under this administration only in the last nine months. We have seen an administration willing to spend enormous amounts of money to terrorize Latino communities, fund massive expansions to our miliary and police forces, and provide tax breaks to the wealthy. There is no evidence that any of these actions are to reduce waste, fraud, or abuse. In fact, all the evidence points to the contrary. Individual cabinet secretaries have been caught engaging in wasteful spending, and there is no evidence that any of the policies implemented have reduced fraud or abuse in government spending.

The economic policies of this administration are focused on creating crises, and then claiming their solutions are necessary to address those crises. This is a well-known tactic that has been used throughout history to justify harmful policies. In point of fact, the economic turmoil that we are currently experiencing is a direct result of the policies that this administration has implemented. Creating crises, and then “solving them” by returning to the status quo is not a solution, it’s incompetence and weakness at best, and malevolence at worst. Frankly, it’s like observing a child playing with the dials of a complex machine they do not understand.

However, it served no one to chastise this person publicly. In that moment, I was a representative of the entire STEM community (to that person and to that audience). There was no point in embarrassing her or making her feel bad about her views on these matters. That is not how we make progress as a society. Education and understanding are the only way forward even when attacked in public.

As my mind quickly searched for responses, I realized it was more likely that she has been misinformed by the media she consumes, or more likely, that she holds very strong beliefs and biases that prevented her from hearing my words and the data I presented. As I learned from her and her husband, they are both conservative engineers who voted for President Trump who listen to a particular radio show that reinforces their beliefs. They are not alone in their thinking or media consumption. Many of my family members have shared similar perspectives.

After this lengthy exchange where this person attempted to educate me and the rest of the audience on the truth of the matter, I offered to walk over and talk to her directly. I asked that she wait until after I heard from others in the audience, but that my first move would be to talk with her about her concerns and questions.

Mind you, this entire exchange took place in front of the entire audience, and all my kids were present.

we must talk to each other

Once the audience questions had been addressed, I walked directly over to her table and asked if I could buy her and her husband a beer. I sat down with them, and to their credit, we talked for 30 minutes. It was a calm and civil conversation; jokes flew but also I addressed her points directly with data. I explained to her that my facts were not false, and that there is a well-documented under-representation of many groups in STEM fields. I explained to her that her experience, while valid and important, is not representative of the broader STEM community. This was clearly evident to her when she had asked the audience to raise their hands if they were women in STEM (and only one or two hands went up).

But through that conversation, I learned a lot about her and her husband’s perspective and we shared common ground on some issues. They were both concerned about the economy and the future of our children. They agreed that STEM education is very important, and that STEM fields are critical to both our economy and the future for our children. On that point, I found a root of our disagreement, she and her husband believe that STEM in America is for Americans.

Set aside the nativist tones of that statement, and, believe that is was delivered with the kind of tone that my Brown ass has heard before. It’s frustrating to have a civil conversation that trips into casual racism. But, she is also not entirely wrong. Our US tax dollars are supporting STEM education, and in her view, that money is not going to Americans or rather, the right people.

Again, set aside the casual racism in that framing. I know it’s a lift, but we won’t make inroads without listening.

What she is seeing in her world is a bunch of money going to people that thinks should not receive it. Why?

Her media consumption was limited to right-wing radio and TV. She and her husband characterized their media consumption as “probably misinformation”, which showed some progress in our conversation. They did not want to tell me the names of the programs or media personalities they listen to. And I asked them directly as my information comes from doing research, from looking at data, and papers, and reports. Their sheepishness in sharing that information was telling.

I heard from others after I left – after shaking their hands and thanking them for their time – she went an apologized to each table for her actions. I deeply appreciate that.

final thoughts

In my presentation, I indicated that we are at risk of losing a generation of scientists. I believe that is even more clear now with universities cutting programs, colleges and departments pausing graduate admissions, and university administrators scrambling to respond to Trump’s latest approach to exploitation - an authoritarian compact. We’ve already erased diversity, equity, and inclusion from our vocabulary. And the administrative class seems all too willing to entertain these proposals and changes because they fear repercussions. It’s been far worse and more cowardly than I had anticipated.

But, this particular event reminds me that most people had no idea what was happening, and, even now, don’t see the long term impact of these short-term, capricious, arbitrary, and petty approaches to governance. It’s sad to call it governance at this point because we have a president who was given his construction toys to distract from the destruction of our country and its place in the world by craven, racist, and immoral people.

But the only way through this is running directly towards it.