Anyway, I just don't get it. Without research funding, we won't have new PhDs to hire. And if you are already paying for us, you clearly see our value.

Please. Please. Please think more than 6 months ahead and realize the damage being done.

If not for our society, at least for your bottom line.

(Also, I'm not even going to touch the fact that some people with PhDs themselves are implicitly or explicitly okay with the funding cuts. Either you made a really bad choice earlier in your career and feel like the training wasn't worth it, or you feel entitled to being the last generation of us.)

Do these folks want so badly to cut essential research that they are willing to pay the costs to train people to PhD-type thinking themselves?

Obviously not.

Do people really feel like a PhD confers a high enough social status to provide an automatic boost just because of the Dr. title?

Well, if we don't value the research, why would that be a status symbol anyway? Hello, Emperor's new clothes.

Can people be great scientists, business leaders, communicators, etc without a PhD? Absolutely.

So why pay more for a PhD-trained employee unless you see the value? I'd like to believe most leaders are budgeting decisions based on logic, so that can't be it.

It bums me out to see so many leaders of private companies--from startups to global corporations, from VCs to public investors--not standing up and fighting for the system that created their teams.

(PS- I'm also grateful to be at a firm that 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 do this)

My PhD was sponsored by the federal government, from project-specific grants to the NSF GRFP. The companies that have hired me did so because I have a PhD. Because I know how to think like a scientist. Because I speak the language of scientists. And because I believe science can change the world.

Dig deeper in today’s @techcrunch.com exclusive on Phantom Neuro with Founding CEO Connor Glass,= by Ingrid Lunden. techcrunch.com/2025/04/15/p...

BTW - one of the most fun parts of my job is getting to learn about this stuff a few months before the world. Science comms really has no limits.

You can check out last year's list of awardees (ooooh and spot familiar faces!!) here: www.nationalacademies.org/news/2024/10...

You're too kind!

Thanks for doing all of this, @atinygreencell.bsky.social! I had a great time talking with you

hey hey! Great to see you here as well