‘Deeply concerned’: Are chemistry departments across the US at real risk of closure?

As chemistry departments in the UK have been closing, shrinking and merging in recent years, similar pressures are increasingly affecting American universities too. There is now serious concern that chemistry programmes in the US could face a similar fate. This comes as the chairs of three dozen US chemistry departments are warning in a letter in Science that they are ‘deeply concerned’ about the state of their subject.

The authors note that federally funded academic research in chemistry has led to the groundbreaking cancer drug paclitaxel, lithium-ion batteries and advanced materials, including polymers like polypropylene carbonate. These discoveries, and others like them, have created entirely new sec­tors in the US economy.

‘The chemistry departments that produce these innovations rely on stable research funding to maintain laboratories, support faculty and student researchers, and sustain critical infrastruc­ture,’ the letter reads. ‘As chairs of US-based chemistry departments, we are deeply concerned about federal decisions to decrease overhead rates, reduce scientific funding, lay-off program managers at scien­tific agencies, and restrict diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion initiatives.’