The National Science Foundation fired 168 employees this week, a spokesperson disclosed, to comply with executive orders from the White House to reduce the federal workforce. It amounts to about 10% of the foundation's payroll.
Prior to the firings, about 1,700 staff worked at NSF, managing their $9 billion federal budget that funds research on everything from astrophysics to civil engineering. Staff were called to an emergency meeting at 10 a.m. ET, held on Zoom and in person, where they were told by Micah Cheatham, NSF's chief management officer, that they'd be terminated by the end of the day, without severance. According to sources who were present, NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, who ordered the firings, did not attend the meeting.
It's a lot of work already granted out—already paid for—that now isn't going to get done.
"Firing talented people, including scientists, who have already invested a year or two with the agency is a waste of resources," says Neal Lane, who served as director of the NSF from 1993 to 1998. "The U.S. needs more scientists, engineers and other technical talent. These firings will cause many of them to leave the field."
Previously:
• Lamar 'SOPA' Smith dispatches GOP commissars to National Science Foundation
• The Arecibo radio telescope will be demolished
• President Obama pledges $4 billion for computer science education in schools
• OpenVertebrate is a massive database of 3-D scanned images of 13,000 (and counting!) vertebrate specimens
