Several hundred scientists gathered in Raleigh on Friday afternoon to protest federal cuts to research at local universities and agencies. This was part of a series of demonstrations around the country billed as "Stand Up for Science" rallies.
Graduate students, professors, and researchers from federal agencies chanted "out of the lab, into the streets." For some, it was their first time attending a protest.
Tatiana Prioleau, a Ph.D. student in the molecular cancer biology program at Duke University, carried a sign that said "Science cures. Cuts kill."
Prioleau said the rally gave her a sense of unity with other affected scientists in the Triangle.
鈥淚t's the culture of this area, of the Research Triangle,鈥� Prioleau said. 鈥淲e have Duke, NC State, UNC, so really all of us are bearing together.鈥�
The group of graduate students from Prioleau鈥檚 department said current and anticipated federal funding cuts have already affected their labs, their research priorities, their grant opportunities, and their job prospects. To them, the cuts feel personal.
鈥淎 lot of us are in really pivotal times in our research training,鈥� said Duke University Ph.D. student Anna Towne. 鈥淚t feels like it's necessary that we come out and do this, because this is for our own future and anyone else who cares about the biomedical sciences, which is essentially everyone 鈥� you would hope.鈥�
Angela Buckalew, a retired biologist at the Environmental Protection Agency, said she held in mind how cancer research has benefited members of her own family who have had cancer.
鈥淩esearch is important to me,鈥� Buckalew said. 鈥淚've personally survived cancer, and with each person that I know that's been through it, their lifespan has been longer because of research, their suffering has been less because of research.鈥�
Buckalew said she retired from the EPA recently because she 鈥渟aw what was coming.鈥� She worries about the long-term effects recent funding cuts will have on young people beginning their research and careers, since many of the first jobs lost have been for entry level positions.
鈥淭he future of science are the people that are going first, so my concern is, where鈥檚 science going to go?鈥� Buckalew said. 鈥淲hen you cut funding to science, it鈥檚 not like anything else. You could lose years of data, years of work.鈥�
