My question about this move is one of loyalty. He accomplished the top prize of his profession in a country that, after he accepted it by becoming a citizen, is struggling with political controversy. Yaghi’s choice is to run to the highest bidder, not to stay and fight for the stability of the program. Watch out China, his loyalty lies with his individual desires of easy access to what he needs to succeed, not the real-world challenges of competition of justification for funding real-world problems.
Loyalty goes both ways and need not be blind. Dr. Yaghi, like myself and many thousands of scientists both foreign and American, is facing the reality that this administration intends to neuter the research infrastructure that has supported the country's progress for decades. New OMB rule changes will subject all federal grants to review by political appointees, superceding apolitical scientific peer review (https://www.asbmb.org/advocacy/omb-proposed-rule). Universities have had all research grants instantaneously and illegally withheld. There is no logic to stopping research into life saving antibiotics over entirely unrelated claims of antisemitism (https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/even-short-disruption-sets-us-back-years), beyond trying to break the academic research system. VP Vance has openly described universities as "the enemy" (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/06/maga-republicans-us-universities). Dr. Yaghi is not the only one who can read the tea leaves here. 3/4 of US scientists polled are considering moving abroad (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-scientists-are-being-lured-abroad-and-they-arent-looking-back/). . Loyalty can keep you on a sinking ship, but it shouldn't keep you in a building that somebody is putting to the torch.
May I add a 4th essential which ties in to the three? We need interested, enlightened, educated citizens who register to vote and then actually vote.
My question about this move is one of loyalty. He accomplished the top prize of his profession in a country that, after he accepted it by becoming a citizen, is struggling with political controversy. Yaghi’s choice is to run to the highest bidder, not to stay and fight for the stability of the program. Watch out China, his loyalty lies with his individual desires of easy access to what he needs to succeed, not the real-world challenges of competition of justification for funding real-world problems.
Loyalty goes both ways and need not be blind. Dr. Yaghi, like myself and many thousands of scientists both foreign and American, is facing the reality that this administration intends to neuter the research infrastructure that has supported the country's progress for decades. New OMB rule changes will subject all federal grants to review by political appointees, superceding apolitical scientific peer review (https://www.asbmb.org/advocacy/omb-proposed-rule). Universities have had all research grants instantaneously and illegally withheld. There is no logic to stopping research into life saving antibiotics over entirely unrelated claims of antisemitism (https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/even-short-disruption-sets-us-back-years), beyond trying to break the academic research system. VP Vance has openly described universities as "the enemy" (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/06/maga-republicans-us-universities). Dr. Yaghi is not the only one who can read the tea leaves here. 3/4 of US scientists polled are considering moving abroad (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-scientists-are-being-lured-abroad-and-they-arent-looking-back/). . Loyalty can keep you on a sinking ship, but it shouldn't keep you in a building that somebody is putting to the torch.
Also, if economics are the only concern, every dollar put into and NIH grant yields a $2.57 return (https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2026/03/11/nih-research-grants-drove-94-billion-in-national-economic-impact-for-2025/). The US has enjoyed the fruits of being the preeminent country for scientific research since the prescient establishment of the current system by Vannevar Bush after WWII