Ramya Kumar, PhD

STAC Statement Thanking President Donald Trump for Signing the Senate Amendment to H.R. 7148, the Consolidated Appropriations Act

Except from Peter Drucker’s autobiography about scientists asking the new Nazi commissar for funding, after they expelled every Jewish faculty member.

MERE HOURS after the President of the United States posted an AI video of the Obama’s as monkeys, the Science Tech Action Committee (led by @aaas.org and @researchamerica.bsky.social) posted a THANK YOU to TRUMP for SIGNING THE BUDGET.

Shot. Chaser.

sciencetechaction.org/aboutus/

Tenuous biomedical funding has put first-year Ph.D. students in a bind First-year biomedical graduate students across the country said labs have been hesitant to take them in due to a tenuous funding environment

Excellent reporting by STAT on how first year PhD students are struggling to find lab/advisor matches due to funding cuts.

Tenuous biomedical funding has put first-year Ph.D. students in a bind www.statnews.com/2026/01/30/f... via @statnews.com

Adam, go fuck yourself.

The NIH has lost its scientific integrity. So we left “We can no longer lend our credibility to an organization that has lost its integrity,” write four scientists and administrators who recently resigned from the NIH.

Powerful piece in STAT this morning from some NIH staff members who have resigned

www.statnews.com/2026/01/10/n...

1/3

NIH terminology for people within 10 years post PhD is early stage investigators (ESIs) not "early-career investigators". Nomenclature apart, if he wants to support UGs, PhD students, and postdocs, why cancel diversity supplements, pull F31/F32 applications from review, why cancel IRACDA?

Kidnap or abduct would have been better words. If Modi had been whisked away from his sleep in New Delhi or Putin from Moscow, would we still call it "capture"? Also Trump is doing a terrible job running his own country; the idea of him running Venezuela (to the ground) is chilling.

I don't understand why election day is not a federal holiday in this country when racist anniversaries like Columbus day are USPS holidays. A day off on election day would reduce the burden on mail in ballots.

Good case study on sensitizers and PPE use. People should stop consuming meat from BigAg industrial farms. Not everyone can go vegan/vegetarian but at least be mindful where you buy your meat from. The industry not only costs animals their lives but also humans with life-threatening work conditions.

This has crossed a red line. ICE is now terrorizing Minnesotans of Somalian heritage, most of whom are American citizens, in a blatantly racist operation. What should we brace ourselves for next? Raids on Indian-Americans in New Jersey, Iranian-Americans in LA, Cuban-Americans in Florida?

This this this

🤬

Wow! Take a bow, Mayor Wu, you are a talented musician as well as politician! I wish all our politicians were as smart and accomplished.

Trump snaps at reporter’s Epstein questions: ‘Quiet, piggy’ | CNN Days before reversing his stance on releasing the Epstein files, President Donald Trump called a reporter “piggy” after she asked about his name being raised in emails sent by convicted sex offender, ...

A little louder @nytimes.com, who is it that is ruining the workplace?

www.cnn.com/2025/11/18/u...

Alert for scientists: NIH institute director vacancies are posted! Please apply so we get actual scientists in these positions instead of just political appointees!!!!

Sadly, we continue to reward "ambitious, arrogant, misogynistic, and opportunistic" people like Watson, who "managed to get himself into the right place at the right time." We should reward careful, methodical researchers and not just narcissists in a hurry who would rather be wrong than be last.

Not surprised at one nepo baby giving a leg up to another. JD was propped up by Thiel etc and now he is doing the same.

Trump to impose $100,000 fee per year for H-1B visas, in blow to tech The Trump administration said on Friday it would ask companies to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B worker visas, prompting some big tech companies to warn visa holders to stay in the U.S. or quickly return.

I have to keep this deliberately vague, but this is a total disaster for academic research.

And imposing it so suddenly is just cruel. I’ve got friends scrambling to get back to the US before midnight tonight. Do you know how hard that is to do on 36 hours of notice?

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say.

This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand.

All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

Trailblazers: Chemists with disabilities rethink how we do science C&EN’s 2025 Trailblazers issue, curated by guest editor Mona Minkara, looks at how chemists can solve problems in new ways

I admit that when i started working on this project with @kvasquez.bsky.social, i didn’t think i knew any chemists with disabilities 🧵1/ cen.acs.org/people/profi... @cenmag.bsky.social

We need laser like clarity right now: political violence is abhorrent and so is the work of Turning Point USA. 11/

The murder of Charlie Kirk was criminal, wrong, and should be condemned.

And Charlie Kirk was a horrible, hateful man who spent his life radicalizing young people to embrace their worst demons by targeting women, people of color, immigrants, and the marginalized.

I refuse to sanitize him.

The Supreme Court Just Gave the OK to Racial Profiling The court’s ruling allowing ICE to resume its indiscriminate roundups of LA’s Latino residents can only be described as one thing.

I wonder who is next after Latinos- Chinese, Indians, Koreans or Africans? Nobody is safe in a white supremacist nation.
www.thenation.com/article/soci...

I saw the video. Dystopian doesn't begin to describe it. Laws are not laws unless Congress makes them. A President cannot make laws. A President cannot overrule scientific consensus. This student is incapable of critical thinking and does not belong in college. "Our president's laws." Ugh.

RFK Jr., American Psycho He needs to go. Now.

We all deserve better than RFK Jr.

Great piece from @gregggonsalves.bsky.social

www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Graphic with the text: 10 TRUMP ATTACKS ON KIDS 1. Made the largest SNAP (food stamps) cuts in history. 2. Limits school lunch for kids by imposing new red tape. 3. Reduces after-school and summer programs for poor kids by requiring extra paperwork. 4. Slashes the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides health care for half of all kids. 5. Rips health care away by making it harder for parents to cover their kids through the Affordable Care Act. 6. Takes money away from public schools, meaning larger class sizes and fewer teachers per student. 7. Guts Head Start, which provides early childhood education, health, nutrition, and other services to low-income children. 8. Undermines public health and vaccines. 9. Freezes funds used to train teachers. 10. Shuts down parts of the Office of Civil Rights, which helps kids who get discriminated against in school.

The party of “family values” is attacking our kids.

I finished my PhD in 6 yrs. I can't imagine stopping my research mid-project, traveling back to India, waiting 3 months to renew my visa/status, and delaying my PhD. Who is going to fund students during this absence? Why should students suffer from delays in publishing? Keep D/S provisions intact!

Virtual should always be an option. Not just in this instance. I agree with you that ACS dropped this ball.

Evan, like your invited speaker, I am an immigrant and person of color. I considered withdrawing my abstracts due to fears for my safety in DC but decided to come. At least near the convention center, I feel safe, haven't seen military. I support your letter but things aren't as bad as feared.

Calling him Jayanta is not racist.

The EO reads like gibberish written by a high schooler. Do you have a read of whether NIH will slow down their grant issuance even more after this power grab, as you rightfully termed it? I am hoping they speed up and get grants out of the door with or without this EO.