Class of 2025: five graduate students reveal redistributed priorities after COVID and cuts

Scientists who started their doctoral studies in 2020 have found their feet during the global pandemic and are graduating in an uncertain and chaotic future.

The global PhD class of 2025 comes into force at a turbulent moment. In many ways, the world continues to adjust the course due to failures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and students in the United States and beyond are experiencing deep reductions in science and international cooperation in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Others wonder if it is worth continuing a research career, especially in places facing economic crises or torn by war, such as Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza.

U.S. government funding for scientific research is currently approaching a 25-year minimum, despite the fact that global investment in research and development has tripled over the past three decades. But investment in science and technology has not necessarily led to more jobs, which means that scientists trying to start their careers today continue to face a shortage of teaching positions in academia along with a shrinking industrial labor market.

The Nature career team spoke to five early career researchers who started their doctoral thesis in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and are currently planning their next steps. One asked for anonymity, fearing the consequences of the statement. While some hope for their future, others share how the problems of the last few years have disrupted their plans or changed their priorities.

Caris HERBERT: Disappointed in academic circles, facing a gloomy labor market

In December 2024, she received her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Kent in Canterbury, Great Britain.

I started my doctoral thesis in September 2020, and despite the difficult conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was actually very lucky. I applied for PhD programs outside Kent after getting a master's degree there, but ended up staying with my supervisor. I made this choice before the lockdown took place, but it was an absolute disguised blessing to stay in a place I knew. For my doctoral thesis, I characterized the surface spots on young stars using the data of civil science as part of the program called "Hunting explosive young stars". To truly explore how stars are formed, you need to look at the everyday changes in these surface spots that you will never be able to get in a professional observation center due to time and cost. Instead, I used the data of citizens who send observations to the database using personal telescopes and cameras. Looking back on my doctoral thesis, I think that civil science has the opportunity to be important and effective in these uncertain and underfunded times.

I've been outside the academic world for about eight months, and I'm a little disappointed because it seems that you can do everything right and still find yourself without a permanent position. Because of this, the postdoctoral student was not my first option, but the labor market seems so gloomy that I changed my mind.

There are many things I like in the United States, but I wouldn't touch the postdoctoral student there with a barge. I'm a strange woman of childbearing age who wants to have children someday, and in my opinion, it's not very good to be any of these things in the United States right now. I also have some chronic diseases, and I don't want to be guided by them in the U.S. health care system. Unfortunately, everything is only slightly better in the United Kingdom, because it seems that the funding of research projects in the UK is also limited.

When I think of those parts of my career that still bring me joy, I think of my professional community. I really enjoyed doing outreach work and being in a university environment. I appreciate such dedication to teaching and research. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I have remembered about intentional communication with colleagues. Maybe I don't see these people every day because we are an international community, but I try to appreciate these connections and keep in touch. I think it has become important for all of us.

RACHEL GATLIN: A clear way to the future, now frozen

In February, she received a Ph.D. in neurology from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

I started my doctoral thesis in 2019 in a completely new laboratory, and it was similar to the Wild West. We didn't even have pipettes when I started, and soon after that my chief investigator went on maternity leave. But the last six years of my life revolved around using mice to study what happens in our brains when we are physically and socially isolated from each other, which eventually became relevant during the pandemic. Nevertheless, sometimes it seems to me that I'm playing catch-up. The pandemic forced me to work creatively and made me independent at an early stage, but it also created problems. When I started looking for a job at the end of last year, it was difficult to navigate the double failures of the pandemic and be one of the first students to graduate from my laboratory, both reduced the number of projects I was able to jump into during my doctoral thesis.

I accepted the position of postdoctor at the University of Washington in Seattle and placed there at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in November. Then, in February, I had a video meeting with two PIs with whom I would share my time, and they told me that there was a federal hiring freeze (now extended until October). Right now, my postdoctoral position is in limbo, and it's hard not to feel that if I had defended my doctoral thesis even two weeks earlier, I could have avoided it. When the freeze occurred, the policy was that if you had already started paperwork for hiring, you were allowed to continue.