I'm a public school kid who became a Harvard scientist. Trump's cuts impact me.

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21 hours ago

Growing up in Middle Tennessee, I often heard about Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a secretive location where brilliant scientists work. I was fascinated by Oak Ridge, classroom experiments and the concept of laboratories, but I never imagined becoming a scientist myself. It was just never in the cards.
During the late 2010s, the curriculum in my public high school was not oriented towards higher education — it was geared solely towards getting students to graduate. Aiming higher and attending college — especially graduate school — wasn't included. But I took a shot and applied for scholarships.
I was thankful for the Tennessee HOPE scholarship, the Middle Tennessee-based Scarlett Family Foundation and public funding from my college that allowed me to attend the University of Tennessee to study engineering.
While at UT Knoxville, I got to live a dream and work at the Oak Ridge I had always heard about, and it turns out that it isn't just about nuclear reactors.
I quickly learned that hundreds of scientists from around the world were in the hills of East Tennessee, finding solutions for problems in manufacturing and energy sciences for the United States. These experiences inspired me to continue my education and to help develop technologies that could improve people's lives.
Several years have passed since my time at UT Knoxville and at Oak Ridge. I have since participated in U.S. Fulbright and National Science Foundation fellowships that gave me the opportunity to share my knowledge internationally, as I continue to work to solve important problems in manufacturing.
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Today, I'm pursuing a Ph.D. in materials science and mechanical engineering at Harvard University, where I use 3D printing technologies to manufacture customized parts affordably. With 3D printing, we can customize everything we make for highly specialized uses, including for personalized medical devices or manufacturing in remote locations where there are long supply lines.
The technologies I'm developing are designed for accessibility, so that communities like those in rural Tennessee can one day have access to them, whether for medicine or customized agricultural seeding and crop monitoring.
However, the future of other prospective scientists is now in jeopardy.
As you may have heard, the current presidential administration is actively attacking universities and pulling federal grant funding. I've been directly impacted: The primary grant that supports my team has been canceled, and my National Science Foundation fellowship has been terminated — simply because I'm affiliated with Harvard.
These grant cuts aren't just numbers in a budget. They directly hurt students and young researchers like me.
Federal grants like ours are not given away. They are awarded competitively, and research groups earn them based on their responses to goals posed by U.S. government agencies. From nuclear power and MRIs, to life-saving vaccines for diseases like measles and polio, none would have been possible without public scientific funding that was guided by expert review.
But if defunding continues, we will lose our ability to track environmental changes that affect our food systems, and we will prevent the discovery of medical advancements that can save millions of lives.
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As researchers and scientists, our goal is simple: to understand, to improve and to serve, and we can't do any of that without financial support.
I implore you to stand up for science in the coming elections and show your support by filling out the Citizens for Science Pledge.
The fate of scientific progress is, in many ways, the fate of our country. If public school children in Tennessee can no longer dream of becoming scientists, astronauts or doctors — because we don't support them — what kind of future do we aim to build?
Jackson Wilt is a Middle Tennessean and Ph.D. Candidate at Harvard University researching low-cost 3D printing technologies. He also teaches engineering and science to K-12 and college students.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Trump's research cuts hurt students, scientists and you | Opinion