New Your Times By Eric Niiler 3/25/2026
Kate Marvel, a well-known author, joins an estimated 95,000 people who have left federal science agencies since President Trump returned to the White House.Kate Marvel, a widely known climate scientist and author, has resigned from her position at NASA, citing the Trump administration’s attacks on climate science in the United States.
Dr. Marvel, who trained as an astrophysicist before turning to the Earth’s atmosphere, said in an interview that the administration’s actions made it impossible to remain at an agency that she loved.
“It wears you down after a while,” said Dr. Marvel, who announced her resignation on Tuesday. “None of my internally funded science projects were funded. I wrote a couple other proposals, which, as far as I know, have fallen into a black hole.”
Bethany Stevens, a NASA spokeswoman, declined to answer questions about Dr. Marvel’s resignation, saying “it would be inappropriate for the agency to comment on personnel matters.”
Dr. Marvel joins an estimated 95,000 employees who have left federal science agencies through layoffs, retirements or resignations since Mr. Trump returned to the White House last year. Of those, an estimated 10,000 held doctorate degrees in the sciences.
Dr. Marvel was an associate research physicist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, a research center that the Trump administration effectively shuttered in May 2025, canceling the lease on its Manhattan office and forcing its staff of more than 100 to work from home. The center was located upstairs from Tom’s Restaurant at Broadway and West 112th Street, near Columbia University, and the diner’s facade appears in “Seinfeld” episodes.
She noted that NASA had recently rejected her proposals to study the effects of climate warming on the nation’s solar energy supply, that she and her colleagues were evicted from their NASA offices last year and that the uncertainty of federal funding for research made it difficult to work.
With a doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Marvel, 44, is well known for her ability to clearly communicate climate science to audiences around the country. She has given public lectures at comedy clubs, a prison and on the TEDx stage, according to her website. She is the author of the 2025 book “Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel about our Changing Planet.”
More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/climate/kate-marvel-nasa-resign.html
