Early-Career Scientists Face an Uncertain Future

Adam Sychla never doubted he would become a scientist.

As a child, Sychla explored, asked questions, and performed experiments. He studied genetics and physics in college and planned a career in which he could prevent insect-borne diseases and create new medicines. In 2023, he completed his PhD in biochemistry, molecular biology, and biophysics at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and then took a position as a postdoctoral researcher (or postdoc) in the Department of Microbiology in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.

But now, after years of education and training, Sychla finds himself questioning whether it makes sense — or is even possible — to continue pursuing a career in science. “I was planning on becoming a university professor leading my own lab and research program,” he says. “Now I’m exploring careers completely outside of science.”

At HMS and across the country, ongoing cuts to federal funding for scientific and medical research have put thousands of postdocs and graduate students in a similar situation. In April, for example, the National Science Foundation announced that it was cutting in half the number of awards to graduate students it would make this year through its prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program. And in a survey conducted in May by the National Postdoctoral Association on the impact of executive branch actions during the first 100 days of the new administration, more than half of the 378 respondents said their research funding was cut, 44 percent said their position was threatened, 11 percent said they had lost their jobs, and 11 percent said their salary or stipend was frozen.

Amid the upheaval caused by these cuts, senior scientists and administrators at HMS say that there is one certainty: Draining the pipeline of talented postdocs and graduate students will diminish the country’s scientific workforce, jeopardizing the status of the United States as the world’s leader in biomedical innovation.

Careers on the line

Sychla is one of about 72,000 postdocs in the United States. In positions that typically span two to five years and come with salaries below industry market compensation, these scientists perform the vital day-to-day operations that underpin and advance research. In return, they receive mentorship from their lab directors and through collaborations with more experienced scientists, access to resources and technology, and opportunities to publish studies and present at conferences — training that enables them to advance their careers and become principal investigators.

But recently, Sychla says, his research has slowed because of terminated grants, he has had to take on additional tasks since a lab manager was laid off, and he has missed multiple conferences because of a lack of funding. Adding to these stressors are daily conversations with his lab mates about news of the latest challenges to scientific research.

Morgan Gilman, who earlier this year completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at HMS, says she was fortunate to secure a position as an assistant professor at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, where she plans to study bacteria and work to curtail antibiotic resistance. But she feels trepidation about starting a new lab. She says she has seen the pain caused by her peers being forced out of their jobs. It troubles her that if she cannot acquire funding for her lab, she might have to lay off her own trainees or employees.

Sychla’s mentor, Silvi Rouskin, an HMS assistant professor of microbiology, has experienced this sting and keenly felt her lab members’ fear and anxiety. Grants for her lab that support training for three graduate students and a postdoc have been terminated. As a result, she has had to lay off a postdoc and a technician, in addition to the lab manager whose work Sychla and his colleagues are now covering.

Several members of Rouskin’s lab have even asked if she could move the entire lab abroad, something she says she is considering to ensure her team feels valued and protected. “Their well-being is not just a personal concern,” says Rouskin. “It is essential for the future of scientific discovery.”

Indeed, as the United States reduces its spending on science, China, Canada, Australia, and countries in Europe are increasing subsidies to expand their scientific enterprises, says Jim Gould, director for postdoctoral affairs at HMS. Already, he has seen a fourfold to fivefold increase in overseas job postings.

In the United States, job losses and fewer available positions in academic medicine and in the federal government, combined with uncertainty in industry, have contributed to a tight employment market for early-career scientists.

The applicant pool is also larger, Gould says. PhD candidates have pushed to finish their doctorates ahead of schedule, and many postdocs have either lost their positions due to current funding cuts or decided not to pursue their next postdoc position, potentially ending their career in science.

“Leaving a postdoc early isn’t just leaving a job,” says Gilman. “It often forces you to change career paths altogether.”

Stopgap measures

In 2023, more than 9,500 doctoral degrees were awarded in the United States in the biological and biomedical sciences, according to the National Science Foundation. Each year the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences confers around 125 doctoral degrees earned through nine programs administered by the HMS Office of Graduate Education.

Despite having lost $18 million in funding for its PhD programs, HMS is carrying through on its commitment to approximately 1,000 doctoral students thanks to funding provided by HMS and the University. But the funding is only a temporary fix. Because there are fewer research projects, labs, and funds, the School may have to consider reducing the entering PhD class next year, says Rosalind Segal, dean for graduate education and an HMS professor of neurobiology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Gabriel Alberts will earn a doctorate from the Harvard Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology next spring. He says he will be able to finish his degree as planned because he works in a lab at an affiliated hospital, and the grant that supports his work was not canceled. But he will no longer have the benefits provided by the canceled National Research Service Award F31 fellowship, which would have helped support the costs of childcare for his newborn.

“More than just scientific progress is lost with these cuts,” Alberts says. “Researchers are people with their own lives and families.”

Too few physician-scientists

Among those aspiring to get PhDs is a small number who will also earn MD degrees. In 2020, 620 MD-PhD degrees were awarded in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health.

What these physician-scientists observe in their patients can be taken back to the lab, where they pursue questions about the mechanisms of disease or seek treatments and cures. Their goal is to return to the clinic with answers from their research that will improve their patients’ lives.

The United States already faces a shortage of physician-scientists, according to Loren Walensky, director of the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD program and an HMS professor of pediatrics at Dana-Farber. “If we want tomorrow’s breakthroughs, we need to increase the workforce, not shrink it,” he says.

HMS graduates 25 to 30 MD-PhDs each year across numerous specialties. But the government has terminated grant funding that supports training for these students. Funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and National Institute on Aging covers 25 percent of the School’s scholarship costs. Facing the abrupt termination of $9.7 million in federal funding, the program was able to start the school year as planned only because of Harvard’s stopgap funding and emergency fundraising from generous donors, says Walensky.

MD-PhD student Tarun Kamath matriculated at HMS in 2020. He spent two years completing the first half of medical school and then earned a PhD from the Harvard Program in Neuroscience this year. Now he is finishing the final two years of medical school.

Worried he was going to have to come up with the remaining tuition, Kamath is thankful for Harvard’s support for degree seekers and researchers like him who would have been affected by grant suspensions and cancellations.

“Emergency fixes buy time, but only lasting support will secure the future of physician-scientists like Tarun,” Walensky says.

Counting the losses

The reward for pursuing medicine and science has always been the chance to help people live better, longer lives, says Walensky. But, he adds, when career paths are undermined, even the most mission-driven young physician-scientist starts to wonder whether the professional future they envisioned will be possible.

Sychla’s parents immigrated to the United States, and his family never had much money when he was growing up. He worked hard to find funds for his education, and he was proud to have been hired by HMS after competing with the best from around the world.

“I am living the very definition of the American dream — working in Boston on the latest science,” he says. “Now that is being taken away.”

Bobbie Collins is a writer in the HMS Office of Communications and External Relations.