Hundreds of Johns Hopkins affiliates attended the Stand Up for Science rally in Washington, D.C., on Friday, demonstrating their support for American scientists and science amid federal layoffs and cuts to research funding. The event, which was held in front of the Lincoln Memorial, coincided with official sister rallies in 31 other U.S. cities and several other countries.
Attendees held up signs and shouted support at an event that lasted more than four hours. Speakers included three with Hopkins ties— Bonnielin Swenor, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center; Allison Agwu, associate professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases; and graduate student researcher Andrew Eneim. Total attendance at the D.C. event peaked at an estimated 5,000 people, event organizers said.
Image caption: Allison Agwu, Johns Hopkins associate professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases, speaks at Stand Up for Science 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University
"In these times especially, community is the most important thing," said rally attendee Maya Lakshman, a doctoral student at the university's Bloomberg School of Public Health. "I see so many of my fellow researchers banding together, and it brings so much joy and hope."
Cuts to federal research funding, including significant proposed reductions in research support provided by the National Institutes of Heath (NIH), threaten the work being done at universities across the country. Johns Hopkins alone has more than 600 ongoing clinical trials researching cancer, children's health, the aging brain, and more that are currently being threatened by NIH cuts.
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Jack Iwashyna, who receives NIH funding to research pneumonia recovery, was one of the many Hopkins faculty members who attended the Stand Up for Science rally. He spoke to the Hub about how crucial federal funding is for his work and how cuts would imperil future medical discoveries.
"The NIH is the only place that can fund science in the public interest because they don't have shareholders. They support the kind of work that I do that can immediately benefit people," Iwashyna said. "I grew up in a country that understood that part of what made America great was our capacity to lead the world in discovery, to lead the world in making people healthier, and to lead the world in science driving the economy. And the fact that some small group of people are trying to blow up that 70-year-long partnership between the universities, the public, and the government just baffles me."
Posted in Health, Science+Technology, Politics+Society
