298 American Scientists Apply To Aix-Marseille University Through Its "Safe Place For Science" Program
MARSEILLE, France — The first American academics fleeing Donald Trump's America for France have arrived. Aix-Marseille University last week introduced eight U.S.-based researchers who were in the final stage of joining the institution's “Safe Place for Science" program, which aims to woo researchers who have experienced or fear funding cuts under the Trump administration. AMU offers the promise of a brighter future in the sun-drenched Mediterranean port city.
While both France and the European Union have launched multimillion-euro plans to woo researchers across the pond since Trump assumed the U.S. presidency in January, AMU's initiative was the first of its kind in the country — meaning the eight researchers who were welcomed are the first academic refugees planning to trade the United States for France. Speaking from the university’s hilltop astrophysics lab, AMU President Eric Berton likened the situation to that of European academics who fled persecution by Nazi Germany both before and during World War II. “What is at play here today is not unrelated to another dark period of our history,” he said.
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Brian Sandberg, a professor of history at Northern Illinois University who researches climate change during the Little Ice Age period from roughly the 16th to 19th centuries, had already been set to spend a year in Marseille as a visiting professor. While taking part in a workshop in the city in March, he learned of AMU’s program and decided to apply. "The entire system of research and the entire education in the United States is really under attack," Sandberg said.
AMU said 298 researchers from prestigious universities including Stanford and Yale had applied, despite the university's lack of name recognition outside France compared to some of its Parisian counterparts. Berton said the high volume of applicants spoke to the "urgency" of the situation across the Atlantic.
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https://www.politico.eu/article/meet-first-academic-refugees-fleeing-us-france-science-program/