Letters to the Editor: As research funds are cut, will the U.S. see the next major brain drain?

To the editor: The great thing about government-funded research is that the results are in the public domain. This means that any citizen can make use of that research to develop and sell their own products.

This Los Angeles Times article exposes the folly of President Trump’s cancellation of U.S. government research projects, the result being that other countries are already offering jobs to those researchers who have lost their funding (“Scientists have lost their jobs or grants in U.S. cuts. Foreign universities want to hire them,” May 25). The next brain drain will come from our country.

Since the 1950s, the development of new materials, computers, communications, drugs and much more took place because the government sponsored research by providing public funds to researchers at universities and other organizations. It is a big mistake to take our country out of the running.

Roland F. Bryan, Santa Barbara