International scientists rethink U.S. conference attendance

From ScienceMag:

Marco Prado has rarely missed a meeting of the International Society for Neurochemistry in 30 years. “I have deep ties to the society,” the Canada research chair and University of Western Ontario professor says. But after U.S. President Donald Trump began announcing tariffs on Canadian goods and repeatedly referring to the sovereign nation as the “51st state,” Prado says he scrapped his lab’s plans to attend the society’s next conference this August in New York City. (The team opted instead for an Alzheimer’s disease meeting in Toronto.) “It’s like our neighbor is trying to attack us. … I cannot [bring] myself morally to spend Canadian taxpayers’ money in attending U.S. conferences,” he says.

Thousands of researchers from outside the United States attend scientific meetings there each year to present work, network, and build collaborations. But some are reassessing their travel plans because of objections to U.S. policy and fears of being interrogated or detained by customs officials. None of the scientific societies Science reached out to reported an uptick in cancellations from foreign scientists for recent or upcoming meetings. But some noted they are keeping an eye on the situation. “We have heard from some members with concerns, and we’re continuing to listen and learn how we can best support them,” says a spokesperson for the American Physical Society (APS), which held a Global Physics Summit in Los Angeles last month that drew 15,000 attendees, including 4000 from outside the country.

Border crossings into the U.S. have created particular anxiety. “I think that not many students would like to come to U.S. nowadays,” Shuo Yang, a professor at China’s Tsinghua University, told Science last month at the APS meeting. Yang, who did a postdoc in the U.S. and currently holds a 10-year multiple entry visa, had no problems on this trip. But she knows a Ph.D. student from China who was questioned by U.S. customs for more than 1 hour about his work and ties to the Chinese government before being let through. Fearing she’ll have a similar problem—or worse—as the Trump administration moves to tighten border security, Yang now wonders whether she should take a break from meetings on U.S. soil.

Last month, a space researcher from CNRS, France’s national research agency, made headlines after being detained while en route to attend a conference in Texas. The scientist, who has not been publicly identified, was held for a day, his devices were confiscated and searched, and he was put on a plane home. Philippe Baptiste, France’s higher education and research minister, claimed the researcher was denied entry because his phone contained exchanges in which he shared personal views of the Trump administration’s research policy. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security denied politics was a factor, instead saying the researcher’s device contained confidential information from the U.S.’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.

French researchers at multiple institutions have since received emails from their employers advising them to consider traveling with a laptop empty of emails and sensitive documents. Science has seen two of the notices, which state that the advisory came at the request of French security officials.

The incident has had a chilling effect. One physical scientist who was scheduled to fly from France to the U.S. last week for a meeting chose to cancel his trip at the last moment. “I didn’t want to take the risk to be detained,” says the scientist, who wished to remain anonymous because he has ongoing collaborations with U.S. researchers and may still need to travel to the U.S. He was able to give a virtual talk instead. “But unfortunately, it cannot replace contacts with other scientists.”

The cost of opting out can be especially high for early-career researchers. “I am at a point in my career where building new collaborative relationships is critical,” says one Canadian biologist, an assistant professor who is scheduled to be an invited speaker and sessions organizer at two upcoming U.S. meetings, and who also asked to remain anonymous. She may decide not to go, and has asked the organizers to arrange remote attendance, but she says they haven’t been receptive. “This makes for a very difficult decision,” she says.

International students and scholars working in the U.S. face a different risk: If they travel to attend meetings in other countries, they could have problems returning. “Current U.S. immigration policy is unpredictable and subject to rapid change,” reads a 6 March advisory from the University of California, Berkeley’s international office, one of several that has recommended foreign students avoid leaving the U.S.

“I feel scared to leave the city I’m in, let alone the country,” a student from India pursuing a Ph.D. at a U.S. university told Science on the condition of anonymity. “It’s definitely impairing what career opportunities I can access.”

Even some U.S. citizens working abroad are avoiding meeting travel. Jennifer Love, a University of Calgary chemistry professor whose Bluesky profile reads “American by chance, Canadian by choice,” recently turned down an invitation to the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies in December in Honolulu. She fears that because of her vocal support of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives—a target of the Trump administration—she will be hassled by border guards. “I’m very vocal on social media about DEI issues,” she says.

Love also does not want to support a country whose policies she objects to. But, “I feel badly that I’m turning down colleagues and friends,” she says. “I don’t want to penalize them or the scientific community. Science is supposed to be international.”

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