Report on the 'Assault on Science'

The American Association of University Professors on Thursday released a report on National Security, the Assault on Science, and Academic Freedom, detailing what the association describes as “troubling threats to academic freedom in the physical and natural sciences that have been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s hostility to science.” The report says that science has been increasingly politicized in the Trump era and questions, among other things, various Trump administration appointees to federal agencies founded in science, Congressional moves to curb research on climate and other topics, and President Trump’s various travel bans. Such bans “create a chilling environment for the international exchange of scholars, including scientists whose work may have no obvious political implications,” the report says. It also notes six instances in which Chinese or Chinese American scientists based in the U.S. have been accused of espionage in the course of their academic work, since 1999. AAUP encourages scientists and others to resist efforts to unduly restrict or discredit research on the grounds of national security and to speak out against the the politicization of science.