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Canada hires 48 scholars from top U.S. universities

educationAug 27, 2026281,029

The New York Times reports that 21 Canadian universities announced the hiring of 48 researchers who are leaving U.S. campuses, with most recruits coming from elite institutions including Harvard, Yale and MIT. The newspaper frames the wave of departures as occurring amid a broader crackdown on American academia by the Trump administration, which Canadian schools have used as an opportunity to lure senior scholars north. Phillip Zamore, chair of the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts, is quoted saying he once believed the U.S. was the most enthusiastic about science and woke up one day to find that was no longer true. Canadian universities said the hires will join their top academic ranks; the reporting presents the move as a concrete example of scholars relocating because of political and institutional pressures in the United States. The episode has been discussed as evidence of an academic exodus and has prompted debate over its implications for U.S. scientific leadership and for Canadian research capacity.

Zen Faulkes
@doctorzen.net

Past American dominance in science is not due to a few dozen “top scholars.” It’s due to America 🇺🇸 spending ENORMOUSLY more on science than other countries and distributing it widely. Canada 🇨🇦 boasting about attracting “top talent” of a few dozen people is not serious. And not US “brain drain.”

12345d ago
Quoting this
Jason Rasgon56

I was recently approached for a recruitment opp in Canada. The research $ was less than the grants I currently have (that I could not transfer) & top of the salary scale significantly less than I make, in a city 2.5X my current cost of living. Non-starter unless the gestapo were kicking my door down

Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD43

👇🏽 this we are an enterprise like none the world has seen before that's why hundreds of thousands come here every year that enterprise is what's at stake right now

Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦19

This is all correct and it underscores a critical point: no one is coming to save the US, or science in the US. It is up to us.

Drug Monkey9

He has a very good point.

Alan Richardson8

True. Canada recruiting those people is better than nothing. But recruiting 300 junior people would be better.

Ravi Menon8

The belief that a few dozen smart academics can change the fate of a nation that relies on resource extraction and a weak dollar for sales may be the most uninformed economic policy since the Avro Arrow was cancelled and we decided to buy everything high tech from the US.

Dr Mel T4

I fear the stats are correct here. Loads of Western Democracies (Looking at you, Australia!) spend FUCK ALL of their GDP on Research. Do have to adopt (formerly) US tech to keep up! Finland might be actually punching above its weight but has lost ground since the Nokia Brick dumb phone?

Demon King of the New Platform3

I mean, there was famously another reason that STEM advocates don’t want to discuss…

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