Comment from Rewa Bush
Rewa BushOpposeAcademic
Summary: Rewa Bush, a PhD student at Yale University, opposes the proposed revisions to federal financial assistance regulations. They argue that the changes could undermine research integrity and waste tax dollars by making long-term science grants subject to political whims rather than scientific merit.
[200.205, 200.340]
To Whom it May Concern:
My name is Rewa Bush, and I am an PhD student in Astronomy at Yale University.
I am writing in my personal capacity to oppose the proposed revisions to sections 200.205 and 200.340 that would undermine the integrity of federal grant review processes and federal science agencies' ability to identify and fund impactful research.
PhD projects in my field typically span 5-6 years. Graduate students like myself rely on having steady funding for the duration of our projects. If I were to lose funding part-way through my PhD project, all those years of work and all my telescope observations would become useless. This would be an immense waste of tax dollars, and half a decade of my life. If science grants become subject to cancellation at the whim of each incoming administration, this puts the research integrity and continuity of all PhD students in jeopardy.
The integrity of the science relies on a robust peer-review process, where science projects are judged on their scientific merit and not based on the changeable political zeitgeist of the moment.