How researcher visa curbs threaten science careers
Search author on: PubMed Google Scholar
Fatemeh Ajallooeian, was thrilled when, in June 2024, she received a Swiss National Science Foundation mobility fellowship to go abroad to continue her palaeoclimate research. Ajallooeian, then a biogeochemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, wrote a proposal with a colleague at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, because, she told Nature, Harvard was the only institution with the state-of-the-art mass spectrometry equipment she needed to trace the microbial lipids that can act as indicators of past temperatures.
On 22 August that year, Ajallooeian, a postdoctoral researcher, applied to the US State Department for a category J visa, which is meant for exchange scholars with funds to cover their research and salary. Following Donald Trump’s re-election as US president in November 2024, she has been on an emotional rollercoaster. First there was the arrest of scholars who protested about the war in Gaza. Then, the attacks on Harvard began. But the truly heart-sinking moment occurred when Iran, her country of birth, appeared on the Trump administration’s updated travel ban list in June.
