US Science Conferences: Will They Become an Endangered Species?
June 26, 2025
Due to high federal budget cuts and fears of border issues, the United States may be experiencing a brain drain. Some smart people (aka people tech bros like to hire) are leaving the country. Leadership in some high profile outfits are saying, ““Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Others get multi-million pay packets to remain in America.
Nature.com explains more in “Scientific Conferences Are Leaving The US Amid Border Fears.” Many scientific and academic conferences were slated to occur in the US, but they’ve since been canceled, postponed, or moved to other venues in other countries. The organizers are saying that Trump’s immigration and travel policies are discouraging foreign nerds from visiting the US. Some organizers have rescheduled conferences in Canada.
Conferences are important venues for certain types of professionals to network, exchange ideas, and learn the alleged new developments in their fields. These conferences are important to the intellectual communities. Nature says:
The trend, if it proves to be widespread, could have an effect on US scientists, as well as on cities or venues that regularly host conferences. ‘Conferences are an amazing barometer of international activity,’ says Jessica Reinisch, a historian who studies international conferences at Birkbeck University of London. ‘It’s almost like an external measure of just how engaged in the international world practitioners of science are.’ ‘What is happening now is a reverse moment,’ she adds. ‘It’s a closing down of borders, closing of spaces … a moment of deglobalization.’”
The brain drain trope and the buzzword “deglobalization” may point to a comparatively small change with longer term effects. At the last two specialist conferences I attended, I encountered zero attendees or speakers from another country. In my 60 year work career this was a first at conferences that issued a call for papers and were publicized via news releases.
Is this a loss? Not for me. I am a dinobaby. For those younger than I, my hunch is that a number of people will be learning about the truism “If ignorance is bliss, just say, ‘Hello, happy.’”
Whitney Grace, June 26, 2025
Comments
Got something to say?
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
