STAT+: Young scientists say they may abandon research as their career options shrink amid Trump cuts
Across New England and the country, thousands of budding scientists have awoken to a stark new reality, following funding cuts by the Trump Administration.
Becks Padrusch‘s fondest memories growing up were of trips to Boston’s Museum of Science, where the Arlington native got to touch animal organs and watch with fascination as chickens hatched in incubators. As a toddler, Padrusch, who uses they/them pronouns, insisted on bedtime stories about the solar system and how the planets formed.
By age 5, Padrusch knew they wanted to be a scientist.
So Padrusch felt overjoyed when they received an offer to work at a UMass Chan Medical School genetics laboratory, studying how organisms evolve and react to molecules. “It felt like paradise,” said Padrusch, a research associate at the Worcester lab. “I felt that same sense of wonder that I did as a child.”
