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BOSTON — More than 500 researchers, physicians, and students rallied at Boston Common on Friday to protest President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut federal funding for scientific research, lay off federal employees, and eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programming at universities.
Protestors packed a corner of the park, just yards away from the Massachusetts State House, to join in chants decrying Trump’s initiatives and listen to speakers who warned that attacks on federal research funding could imperil America’s status as a leader in science and technology.
Rep. Jake D. Auchincloss ’10 (D-Mass.) blasted the funding cuts in a speech and called on the protesters to continue pushing for change, saying that “the voice of the people” is what “will put some spine in the backs of our Republican colleagues.”
“Science is under attack right now,” Auchincloss said in an interview after his speech. “Science is a threat to people who want to have government policy made out of fear and favor, as opposed to based on evidence.”
Harvard Medical School professor Gary B. Ruvkun, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine, called members of Trump’s administration “psychotic” in his speech and said that funding from the National Institutes of Health was indispensable for scientific progress.
“Attacking the NIH is lunacy,” Ruvkun said in an interview with The Crimson. “90 percent of what I’ve done over the last 40 years has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.”
The rally also featured speeches from undergraduates at Boston-area universities who are hoping to pursue a career in the life sciences, but whose plans have been thrown into doubt as some universities shrink their graduate programs amid the squeeze in research funding.
Shoshana Daly, a junior at Tufts University majoring in biochemistry, said she was planning to apply to the NIH Medical Scientist Partnership Program, which provides financial support and mentorship for students in M.D./Ph.D. programs. With the NIH funding in doubt, however, Daly said she was feeling “anxiety, sadness, fear.”
“This funding is key to my future career, and is the key to continued progress in the sphere of biomedical research and patient care in the United States,” Daly said. “This funding must be protected — lives can literally hang in the balance.”
In another speech, MIT cognitive neuroscience professor Nancy Kanwisher took particular aim at the orders attacking DEI programs at universities and in labs, saying that researchers from diverse perspectives have helped achieve some of the biggest breakthroughs in science.
“Science is not an elite activity for privileged people,” Kanwisher said. “Some of the very best work in my lab has been done by veterans, immigrants, and people who grew up below the poverty line.”
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Other speakers raised concerns about the economic impact of Trump’s orders to cut federal research funding.
Boston City Councilor Sharon Durkan — whose district is home to Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and several Harvard-affiliated hospitals — said the funding cuts would have “devastating” consequences for Boston’s economy and thrust the district into a “mini-recession.”
“Most of my constituents, their jobs have some connection to research, science, and academia,” Durkan said in an interview after her speech. “Eds and meds are our bread and butter here in Massachusetts and in Boston.”
University Professor and Nobel laureate Eric S. Maskin ’72 also argued that the federal government should continue funding research for economic reasons, saying that a 10 percent increase in federal research spending would yield an estimated 0.6 percent increase in GDP.
Maskin, an economist and mathematician, said this meant investing in research provides a 100 percent return.
“How many investments do you make with a 100 percent return?” Maskin said. “If the people in Washington can’t understand that, then we’re really in trouble.”
Correction: March 8, 2025
A previous version of this article misspelled the first name of University Professor Eric S. Maskin ’72.
—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.
—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.
