Researchers and scientists from all over the globe expressed their concern over President Donald Trump's travel ban addressed to people coming from some countries dominated by Muslims. They revealed that with this travel ban, it will truly lead to scars in the field of scientific research.
The said travel ban was addressed to seven countries namely Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen which is effective for 90 days. In an interview with the New York Times, Mary Sue Coleman, the president of the Association of American Universities, shared that around 17,000 students taking their undergraduate, masteral, and doctorate studies in the US are from the seven countries.
Some professors from top universities in the US also expressed their alarm over the issue while emphasizing that there are a lot of talent from students and researchers coming from the seven countries. Soumya Raychaudhuri, a Harvard Medical School professor, also imparted with the New York Times that a lot of institutions in the US are competing for these talents and with this travel ban, a lot of ideas and resources would be put into waste even if it's just 90 days.
The United States of America is also a common venue for international conferences such as the prestigious conference held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. However, with the travel ban, it may pose a high decline in attendance from foreign delegations from partner institutions in the seven countries.
Apart from the scientific community, technology big names also voiced out their concern with the travel ban as it also affected their employees who also came from the seven countries. These technology giants include Facebook, Google, and Apple. According to an article by Forbes, the three companies might be rivals in the business world but they united in addressing the issues of their employees with regards to the travel ban.
The science and technology community are still keeping their hopes up for possible changes on the said travel ban. For more updates, stay tuned here in Science Times.
