By Kent Chapman, ASPB President-Elect
ASPB President Elect
“Stand Up for Science” events came together on Friday, March 7, 2025, in Washington, DC, and many other cities to show support for science and to protest the recent seemingly indiscriminate cuts for research funding to agencies, institutes, and universities across the United States. It’s difficult to fathom the wide-ranging impacts that these cuts could have. Progress in entire areas of research may come to a halt. Programs and departments may be shuttered. Training opportunities, especially efforts aimed at increasing diversity and inclusion in the sciences, may become nonexistent. The topic of diminishing opportunities came up in my own one-on-one conversations with several of my lab members this week. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how these cuts to science funding will have anything but lasting negative consequences for food security, human health, public safety, education, and workforce development. Although these and other actions have caught many of us by surprise and may ultimately be blocked by court actions, it is clear: the time to stand up for science is now, and we are stronger together.
Don’t Miss!
ASPB wants to hear from you. We have been collecting feedback and specific examples of community members who have been adversely affected by recent circumstances. With the help of Lewis-Burke Associates, ASPB’s science policy consultants, we are matching individual respondents with relevant congressional leaders to provide for direct messaging and effective action. If you are moved to share your concerns directly with lawmakers, find your representatives here and check out the template letters we have on our “Become an Advocate” page. Elsewhere, ASPB leadership maintains continuous communication and has joined with other scientific professional societies in response to orders and actions that are contrary to our ASPB mission and values. In addition, ASPB leaders have scheduled a town hall/listening session to hear from the plant science community the ways in which we can best serve our members during these difficult and uncertain times. Please register here and join us for a live webinar on March 18, 2025 to offer your comments and suggestions. And our survey link continues to be open and available for you to share your experiences.
Join us!
The need for us to come together is as important as ever. So, please spread the word to your trainees and colleagues that ASPB wants to be their professional home, too. Membership in ASPB brings you into community with others who support plant science. Your membership dues in part, support free access to Plantae, a community and knowledge foundation for the plant sciences. In addition, ASPB membership helps support Regional and Topical Sections that offer conference gatherings that help foster younger researchers and scientists with more presentation opportunities, workshops, and in-person networking connections. This year, with funding from the National Science Foundation, ASPB supported travel awards for early career scientists to attend regional section meetings. Membership dues also support Advocacy and Policy initiatives with federal agencies and the U.S. government toward funding objectives for plant science – and you can be involved! Indeed, ECR members of ASPB are currently invited to apply to serve on an ASPB governance committee during the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 governance years (October, 2025 – September, 2027). ASPB membership also helps to support the development of and access to Education and Outreach Resources: find plant science-related activities and materials that you can use in your classrooms and at outreach events, and if you are interested in developing or propagating outreach and engagement tools for the community, please consider applying for a Plant BLOOME grant. ASPB members and staff also work hard each year to put on the annual ASPB conference — Plant Biology 2025, where excellent science and special programming to support plant scientists’ educational, career development, and networking needs. Travel awards, especially for early-career, undergraduates and women scientists, help to make this global event accessible for all in our plant biology community. So, join us today — introduce a colleague to the importance of ASPB membership and the professional development opportunities at ASPB. We are stronger together!
I am so glad a supportive community is being built! When I commented previously, my thoughts were about the graduate students that I know today, the problems Presidential firings of probationary employees caused for them, how worried they are about graduating this year, and how the loss of young scientists will affect our international scientific standing. Since then, the heavy-handed actions to remove any hint of DEI seem aimed to take us back to the environment of 1960, when I graduated from high school. Many people don’t know, how difficult it was for women to become scientists then. The word “scientist” meant “man”. Women couldn’t take out a loan or get a credit card without a husband to apply. Education degrees and marriage were the options when I had no more money. But husbands could say it was time to stay home, be a mother, forget about college. When my husband died young, I became a very unusual student on campus. My eventual K-12 Education degrees, heavy on science electives, passion for science, and drafting skills were the qualifications I had to offer for employment as a lab tech when I was 43. It was an unusual scientist who gave me the opportunity. I eventually advanced to lab manager and became a well-published research specialist. The progress made in opportunities for women in science since 1960 is immense. It will take community to protect that progress.