Prominent Climate Scientist Resigns From NASA, Citing Trump's Attack on Science
Source: New York Times
Prominent Climate Scientist Resigns From NASA, Citing Trump’s Attack on Science
Kate Marvel, a well-known author, joins an estimated 95,000 people who have left federal science agencies since President Trump returned to the White House.
Kate Marvel, a scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, is one of the almost 100,000 scientists to leave the federal government since President Trump took office. Jackie Molloy for The New York Times
By Eric Niiler
March 25, 2026
Updated 9:10 p.m. ET
Kate Marvel, a widely known climate scientist and author, has resigned from her position at NASA, citing the Trump administration’s attacks on climate science in the United States. ... Dr. Marvel, who trained as an astrophysicist before turning to the Earth’s atmosphere, said in an interview that the administration’s actions made it impossible to remain at an agency that she loved.
“It wears you down after a while,” said Dr. Marvel, who announced her resignation on Tuesday. “None of my internally funded science projects were funded. I wrote a couple other proposals, which, as far as I know, have fallen into a black hole.” ... Bethany Stevens, a NASA spokeswoman, declined to answer questions about Dr. Marvel’s resignation, saying “it would be inappropriate for the agency to comment on personnel matters.”
Dr. Marvel joins an estimated 95,000 employees who have left federal science agencies through layoffs, retirements or resignations since Mr. Trump returned to the White House last year. Of those, an estimated 10,000 held doctorate degrees in the sciences. ... Dr. Marvel was an associate research physicist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, a research center that the Trump administration effectively shuttered in May 2025, canceling the lease on its Manhattan office and forcing its staff of more than 100 to work from home. The center was located upstairs from Tom’s Restaurant at Broadway and West 112th Street, near Columbia University, and the diner’s facade appears in “Seinfeld” episodes.
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The NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, said recently that he wants to focus on exploring space rather than studying climate change. ... “For NASA to assemble scientists and put out papers on politically charged issues, whether or not this is an impending climate catastrophe, is not helpful to the broader NASA mission,” Mr. Isaacman said in a March 9 interview with Science magazine. ... “You have a previous administration that puts out on NASA letterhead the world is going to end, and then you have the next administration put out on NASA letterhead that this is all a hoax,” said Mr. Isaacman, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. “How is that useful to anyone right now?”
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/climate/kate-marvel-nasa-resign.html
https://www.nytimes.com/by/eric-niiler