Some Earth science researchers at the University of Maryland are living in uncertainty after proposed federal funding cuts.
About 25 scientists have been told their funding would run out by the end of the fiscal year, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center research scientist Nina Randazzo said. The researchers’ work includes tracking air quality to predict and monitor pollution, studying weather patterns and monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, Randazzo added.
“If we lose these Earth science funds … a lot of us are just not going to have jobs anymore,” Randazzo said. “All of us have been just extremely stressed out.”
The scientists who were told their funding would run out make up around 10 percent of the center’s research faculty. Randazzo said faculty and researchers on yearly contracts who conduct their work through agreements with federal agencies are most at risk of losing their funding and jobs.
The cuts come amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to shift away from clean energy sources and cut Environmental Protection Agency funding.
[About $30 million worth of UMD grants have been canceled]
Since Trump began his second term in January, more than 60 federal grants at this university have been canceled. That accounts for about $30 million worth of grants, The Diamondback reported in September.
This university’s chapter of United Academics of Maryland sent a letter to university president Darryll Pines and senior vice president and provost Jennifer King Rice on Sept. 10 demanding transparency with faculty on funding cuts, a town hall and other actions to protect faculty positions.
“We think the university administration can do better and it should be more compassionate towards its faculty,” UAM-UMD president and history professor Karin Rosemblatt said. “We would like to see the university step up and take some measures to afford a degree of protection to those faculty members.”
In a statement to The Diamondback, this university wrote that it values every member of the professional and tenure track faculty.
This university also wrote in its statement that it was not aware of any large scale funding cuts to the center.
“We are working to provide as much clarity, stability and support as possible as we continue to monitor and navigate the evolving federal landscape,” the university’s statement read.
[New Microsoft center at UMD continues effort to increase statewide quantum research]
Randazzo has been a leading voice in the response to federal research funding issues for the Earth system center and said researchers want to see more information from the university so they can plan realistically.
Louis Uccellini, a senior atmospheric and oceanic sciences research professor with joint appointment with the center, said he believes the university has been as transparent as it can be with the information available.
But researchers are still nervous about possible cuts.
“There’s a lot of anxiety there, which does not lend well to, you know, a vibrant research environment,” Uccellini said. “I mean, people are worried.”
Uccellini said he has had to hold off on submitting research proposals to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration because of the Trump administration’s step back from climate change research.
Researchers are now looking to the U.S. Congress, which is now in budget deliberations. NASA and NOAA were targeted for major funding cuts in Trump’s proposed budget, but Randazzo said the congressional bills are “looking a lot better” for Earth science funding.
But Congress has yet to pass a single appropriations bill for fiscal year 2026. Lawmakers have until the end of the month to pass a funding bill and avert an Oct. 1 government shutdown.
“The battle is still yet to come, with respect to the appropriation budget,” Uccellini said. “We literally don’t know at this point what’s going to happen.”
