Andrew Begel

These data show that the NSF terminations targeted STEM Ed and Soc Behav and Econ Sciences almost exclusively with an 11.4% drop in active EDU grants and a 7.4% drop in SPE from FY2024 to FY2025 and most other Directorates essentially unchanged (with an overall drop in the number of active grants)

A word cloud from the titles of ~1100 NSF grants that were terminated. The most frequent words are STEM, ADVANCE, Student, career, and engines.

This a word cloud from the titles of ~1100 terminated NSF grants.

It is hard not to see these grant terminations as an attack on the training of the future United States scientific workforce.

Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026

I talked to Don and some other really smart amazing people about this ongoing five alarm erasure of history back before I left my job to be able to do my job better: www.npr.org/2025/03/29/n...

Opinion | The president of the United States is at war with his own country Paul Waldman: If you support Trump, he likes you. If you don’t, you’re his enemy.

Trump is waging a kind of civil war, against the places where too many Americans who don't like him live.

My latest at MSNOW:

www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

NSF building on Eisenhower Av. HUD now owns.

Destroying the NSF mural in the foyer. Of the Eisenhower building.

The National Science Foundation sign on our Eisenhower Av building is now gone.

The NSF mural in the foyer is removed and torn off in sheets.

We were supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the agency in May 2025. That never happened.

US Senate passes bill to boost federal science spending after White House sought major cuts The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to approve billions of dollars in funding for federal science agencies, rejecting deep cuts proposed by President Donald Trump in space and other areas.

Wow! Yay! The Senate just rejected Trump’s proposed science cuts, voting 82–15 to boost funding for NOAA, NASA, and the NSF. The bill already passed the House 397–28. Strong bipartisan support for science still exists.

While the pasty incels who work the federal agencies continue to churn out feeble, bloodless AI pastiches of Axis propaganda, here’s how a living breathing artist powerfully invokes design history. This is by illustrator Emily K in South Philly, a free poster-sized download on her website: →

Statement from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell Good evening. On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testi

Listen to Powell here.

www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

NSF pares down grant-review process, reducing influence of outside scientists Memo cites overburdened staff, but some say move also aims to elevate White House priorities

NSF now planning to let POs largely decide what gets funded, and to send PIs reviews that are only 3-5 sentences long. They don't have to use outside reviewers (except maybe 1) and don't have to convene panels. (1/5)

I do love that the authors used GenAI to write the first draft of their article.

Is this an attempt to have you stop asking them to clean up their snacks?

Ren, an expert in teamwork skills in CS and AI, is looking for an internship for Summer 2026. He’s at the Doctoral Consortium today.

Kaia, an expert in developer cognition, Is going to give a great talk about disclosing ADHD in the software industry on Wednesday.

#ASSETS25

Heading out to the ASSETS conference in Denver, CO! Looking forward to seeing everyone again.

If you’re there, say hi to my PhD students, Ren and Kaia!

See you soon!

Are you working on human aspects of software engineering?

Submit your work to the 19th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE 2026): abstracts by October 16, papers by October 23 conf.researchr.org/home/chase-2...

Autism experts question HHS statements on Tylenol, leucovorin Concerns include the administration’s reliance on weak, correlational evidence rather than established research…

The Coalition of Autism Scientists have entered the chat:

“The data cited do not support the claim that Tylenol causes autism and leucovorin is a cure, and only stoke fear and falsely suggest hope where there is no simple answer.”

www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/aut...

Do you conduct accessibility research? We want to hear about your work! Sign up here to be a guest speaker at CMU's Accessibility Lunch Seminar in Fall 2025: forms.gle/KvVRvsLRdgyc...

Don’t you mean your students will be up til 2am?

New course coming this fall where we apply the latest and great AI dev tools to all aspects of development.

You know it’s going to be good when there are typos. Taught by the esteemed @abegel.bsky.social and me.

We, the undersigned members of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403 (AFGE 3403), who work at the National Science Foundation (NSF), write to you with deep concern over a series of politically motivated and legally questionable actions by the Administration that threaten the integrity of the NSF and undermine the civil service protections guaranteed under federal law. As civil servants, NSF employees are bound by their oath to uphold the Constitution. That oath now compels us to call attention to actions that jeopardize NSF's mission, its independence, and the foundational laws that protect the federal workforce from politicization and abuse. The sweeping and sudden termination of hundreds of NSF employees this year, including senior staff and those managing Congressionally mandated programs, was not only damaging to the agency's functioning but appears to violate the letter and spirit of title 5, the body of law establishing the professional, apolitical civil service, and is we would argue an unlawful impoundment of funds appropriated by Congress to advance American scientific research.

"NSF employees are committed to serving the American people. But they cannot do so under fear, censorship & institutional sabotage. Without immediate oversight & corrective action from Congress one of our nation’s greatest engines for scientific & technological advancement faces irreversible damage.

There are tons of very famous scientists on this list. Congress, please listen to them!

Enhancing Learning Platforms for Individuals with ADHD Screening Survey We are the NAPE project under CMU’s VariAbility Lab, and we are conducting research to explore how different modifications to educational videos may affect how well lesson material is retained. We a...

Are you 18+, have ADHD, and have no coding experience? Enroll in our 1-hour long online study called “Enhancing Learning Platforms for Individuals with ADHD” and get compensated with a $25 Amazon gift card! Fill out our eligibility survey by August 1, 2025: tinyurl.com/cmuadhd

Woo1

In Pittsburgh, I’m a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the top computer science school in the world. I’ve also worked in various large technology companies, who have offices in Pittsburgh to connect with and employ Carnegie Mellon faculty and students.

I work in the best university in the world, less than 3 hours from my rural hometown, yet superstar students travel here from all over the world… if we keep treating them badly, will centers of excellence move elsewhere?

"If my kids excel, will they move away?"

jeffreybigham.com/blog/2025/wh...

Sounds like ADHD.

We published a piece in March saying the real Trump/Vought/DOGE goal was to bring universities to their knees, and now they’re just … saying it out loud.

From our blog: altnih4science.substack.com/p/trump-is-a...

screenshot from the NSF budget request to congress showing that the number of people involved in NSF activities will drop from 330,100 to 90,000.

The bottom line with the proposed cuts to NSF is to cut the number of working scientists and disappear opportunities to train new scientists.

This is a PROPOSED budget to Congress. Call your reps.

NSF, NASA and NIH budgets per year, inflation adjusted from 2000-2025 along with the proposed cuts. NSF includes research component only. Massive cuts across all sectors, well below support spanning 25 years.

How bad will it be? Catastrophic.

Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come.

But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget.

Speak up now before it is too late.

(inflation adjusted $-s below)

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Overfull \hbox (53.04803pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 136--163
And so are you

Trump officials take steps toward a radically different NSF Efforts to shrink staff, budget, and focus have alarmed members of Congress

Another scoop from Jeff Mervis (@policyhound.bsky.social): NSF's ~1400 grant terminations have disproportionately affected PIs from groups underrepresented in science: women, racial & ethnic minorities, & those with disabilities. 1/3
www.science.org/content/arti...