Behind the walls of a vast laboratory installed at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, an American scientist who we will call Paul waits, anxiously, to find out if his world-renowned institute will be dismantled by the government of Donald Trump.
One of his research projects on adaptation to climate change has already been canceled and this experienced researcher is no longer hiring doctoral students, due to lack of certainty about his funding. “I have never seen that in my entire career,” he says, speaking on condition of anonymity, for fear of losing his job.
AFP collected testimonies from around fifteen researchers who recount the government’s undermining work against one of the world’s most important research centers in weather and climate sciences — an illustration, on the scale of Colorado, of the ravages of Donald Trump’s anti-science policy.
Because of departures and slowed or stopped projects, the upheaval will be lasting, they warn, undermining American capacities to make scientific advances in this field, even after the departure of the Republican president.
Political reprisals
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), housed in a brutalist building overlooking the university town of Boulder, is a benchmark for its weather and climate modeling tools.
Its work, financed above all by the federal government, has made it possible to improve the forecasting of extreme weather events and to drastically reduce the number of air accidents linked to the most violent turbulence.
But in December, the White House announced the upcoming dismantling of the center, accusing it of being a source of “climate alarmism”.
When Dan (first name changed) – a young researcher – learns about it, he doesn’t believe it, “the NCAR is so essential to American science.” Faced with existential uncertainty, he preferred to join another laboratory.
The alliance of 129 universities which jointly supervises the NCAR has taken legal action to block at least part of the dismantling. They believe that he is a collateral victim of political reprisals targeting the state of Colorado, led by a Democrat.
Pending a legal decision, the Trump administration has not followed through on its threat to break up NCAR’s various laboratories – and its 800 employees – but its attacks have already succeeded in undermining Boulder’s research ecosystem.
It breaks morale
In the spring of 2025, John (not his real name) had a number of projects underway in his laboratory at the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), where he has worked for more than 20 years.
But, between severance checks and threats of dismissal, the Trump government was pushing civil servants out, and it sacrificed itself.
“I thought that if I didn’t take” this early retirement, says John, at his home in Boulder, “they were going to fire the young people who need this job much more than me.”
In his division responsible for improving weather forecasts, around ten people including the director left with him, taking with them knowledge and networks.
“It breaks morale,” he says. “People are not very effective when they are constantly asking themselves: Will I still have my job next week?”
The scientific community in Boulder, a small sports town with trendy restaurants, depends largely on federal subsidies. But the Trump administration has frozen or canceled them in number: the University of Colorado, the centerpiece of the research center, has lost 59 since the start of 2025.
At NCAR, a scientist interviewed by AFP saw three of his projects disrupted: two funding arrived more than a year late, and a third was “roughly divided by two.”
Death spiral
“Repairing the damage caused by the Trump administration will take decades,” warns Tom Hamill, an atmospheric specialist in the private sector after a prestigious career at NOAA.
Jim Hurrell, a professor at Colorado State University and former director of NCAR, says he has observed a decline in the number of students interested in climate issues over the past “year or two”.
There’s Kyle Mcmillan, who is soon finishing his thesis on cloud chemistry in Boulder. He is looking for a job but “funding cuts make every position much more difficult to obtain.” Or this young French researcher who will not do a post-doctoral fellowship at NCAR due to lack of certainty about funding.
“The best want to work with the best,” emphasizes Josh Hacker, formerly of NCAR now in a start-up, worried about the attractiveness of the Boulder cluster. “When talent leaves, it’s harder to keep those who stay,” “it’s a death spiral.”
