UNM post-docs forewarn threats to research at Stand Up for Science event

Yahoo

09-05-2025

Graduate student Alex Connolly signs a letter to U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) as part of the New Mexico Stand Up for Science outreach on the last day of spring semester classes. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
On the last day of classes for the spring semester, organizers for the New Mexico Stand Up for Science tabled at the University of New Mexico, asking more students to join efforts to protest White House efforts to dismantle funding mechanisms for science research.
'The intent really is to make sure that people don't lose steam throughout the summer,' said Nina Christie, a post-doctoral researcher studying substance use.
The group is part of a national movement seeking an expansion of research science funding and reinstating research cuts under anti-diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
UNM could face $20 million in lost funding under NIH rule
The cuts, led by Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, have impacted billions of dollars in research — including a UNM neuroscience researcher studying impacts of repeated traumatic brain injuries, who spoke at an earlier protest at the New Mexico Legislature.
About two dozen students stopped by over the course of 45 minutes. Some UNM employees also visited, including undergraduate advisors Madison Castiellano-Donovan and Dylan Velez. Velez told Source NM some of the psychology students whom they advise are expressing uncertainty in finding future jobs, wanting to graduate early or 'considering switching majors altogether' due to the cuts to higher education.
Matison McCool, a post-doctoral researcher in substance abuse research, said lost funding will close doors for upcoming students.
'Without general training grants in place, without that infrastructure, there simply won't be pathways to get into science anymore, for people who want to do that,' he said.
McCool said he also hoped the effort to organize will push the university to further protect funding.
'I want to hear concrete steps the administration is going to take and plan on taking to help continue funding researchers who lost their grants, and finding the resources for funding science,' he said.
McCool said the recent 2026 Budget Request from the White House proposes Congress halve the National Science Foundation by more than $4.7 billion, and cut the National Institutes of Health budget by more than $17 billion dollars.
'That will devastate cancer trial research, substance trial use research — that is a fact,' he said. 'We cannot fund these studies that are solving these problems, people will die if these studies don't exist.'
His own five-year research grant hasn't been impacted yet, but he's concerned that research will only get more limited, and he worries the grant could be rescinded at any time.
'The hardest part is looking at these White House proposed budgets and thinking 'I don't have a job in five years,'' he said. 'This may be the only science I ever get to do.'
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