When I was working my way through Community College of Philadelphia, waiting tables at a tiny restaurant at 12th and Race streets, I had no idea how much science protected the food I was serving. At the time, I was a biology student who loved science, but I had never worked on a farm before or had a deep connection to where our food comes from.
That all changed in 2019, when, as a CCP student, I got a National Science Foundation (NSF) internship to move to Illinois to study the interactions between a fungus that helps crops grow and a fertilizer that is made from wastewater. Getting to work in the fields opened my eyes to the fact that food doesn’t really come from ShopRite, and it also opened my eyes to new career paths.
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Back home in Philly, in addition to working as a server, I was volunteering at Sunday Breakfast Mission (now Philly House). It was the way I could give back by serving the most vulnerable in my community and helping fight food insecurity. But the internship made me realize that my calling was to use science to promote food security, perfectly combining my newfound love of plants and fungi with my passion for serving the public.
Now, as a PhD student at Cornell University studying plant disease, it’s my job to use science to protect our food. I am an agricultural researcher, studying late blight, the plant disease that devastated crops during the Irish Potato Famine. This disease is caused by a tiny fungus-like organism called Phytophthora infestans, which translates to “plant destroyer”. I test the effectiveness of products that farmers can use to combat this devastating disease, so that their crop and livelihood (and our food supply) is not destroyed.
But now, this work is at risk because of cuts to our scientific institutions. Until February 14, my PhD advisor and mentor worked at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to research plant diseases and support farmers. In the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”, consisting of massive federal terminations by DOGE, he was fired, along with thousands of other American scientists. We were in the middle of investigating the breakout of disease at a major commercial farm in the Midwest.
Although he came back to work, he has “taken the fork,” opting to resign and be paid through the end of September rather than face further cuts. More than 11,000 other USDA employees made the same choice, meaning that there are fewer scientists working to protect our crops, ensure our food is safe to eat, and track bird flu, among the many other vital services the USDA provides.
It’s not just federal research jobs that are being lost. Congress is considering a budget proposal that would dramatically reduce funding for scientific research across the board, with a 43 percent cut to the National Institutes of Health, which fund biomedical research, and a 57 percent funding cut to the NSF, which funded the internship that inspired me to pursue research.
We all should want to protect Philadelphia’s legacy as a city of powerful research institutions, and its future as a center for developing biotechnologies.
Philadelphia’s economy will feel these cuts. In 2024, Philadelphia institutions received approximately $1.35 billion in grants from the NSF, National Institutes of Health (NIH), USDA, and Department of Energy (DOE) to fund research projects whose topics range from substance use treatment to brain cancer. Institutions that receive this funding, such as Penn, Temple, Thomas Jefferson, and Drexel, are some of Philadelphia’s largest employers, and contribute substantially to the city’s economy. Penn alone directly or indirectly generated over 100,000 jobs in Philadelphia in 2024, and has an economic impact of around $25 billion in the city.
Philadelphians outside universities will be affected, too. Philadelphia is emerging as a hub of biotechnology industries, and these partnerships between industry and federally-funded university research are also at risk. Will these companies remain in Philadelphia as funding for partners is cut? Will these jobs still be here for me when I have finished my training?
Other local businesses could suffer, too: In my waitressing days, my customers at 12th and Race were often in town for conferences, such as scientific meetings, held at the Convention Center next door, but universities are now restricting travel as they scramble to save money. More than one-third of events on the Center’s “Upcoming Events” page right now are conferences attended by university scientists, who would be staying in Philly hotels and eating in Philly restaurants for several days.
These cuts are impacting the future of America’s next generation of scientific workers. I have always hoped to move back to Philadelphia with my future husband, a software engineer, after finishing my scientific training. But now, as the government cuts investment in science, other nations are soliciting American scientists to relocate. Many developing scientists are considering leaving American cities behind to pursue our careers. We may have to contribute to other countries as they replace the U.S. as a global leader of scientific and technological progress.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Contact your representatives to let them know that federal funding for science agencies like the NSF, USDA, and NIH is important for Philadelphia’s health and wealth. Complete our science pledge. I want to continue serving the public by working to protect our food supply. We all should want to protect Philadelphia’s legacy as a city of powerful research institutions, and its future as a center for developing biotechnologies.
Isako Di Tomassi is a Philadelphia-born scientist getting her PhD in Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology at Cornell University and an organizer of the McClintock Letters, penned by graduate students and early career scientists around the country. So far over 100 letters have been published in 32 states.
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