When biomedical scientist Phillip Zamore was deciding whether to leave his post as chair of the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts for a job in Canada, he said \u201cpull and push\u201d factors came into play. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne can\u2019t put too fine a point on the push,\u201d Prof. Zamore, an American, said in an interview. \u201cI\u2019ve pretty much lost my country. None of the things I value about democracy \u2013 and most especially the role of science in a democracy \u2013 seem to exist at the federal level anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n ‘It\u2019s just become for me personally scary to be a scientist in America,’ Prof. Philip Zamore says.Supplied<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s undermining of science and its cuts to research funding might have pushed Prof. Zamore into the arms of any country. He considered Europe and Japan. But he chose McGill University and Canada in large part because of a Canadian government initiative that made him an offer that, \u201ctruthfully, took my breath away.\u201d <\/p>\n Prof. Zamore is one of 64 world-leading scientists and scholars whose moves to Canada will be announced by Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly and Health Minister Marjorie Michel on Thursday, less than a week after trade talks with the United States collapsed, forcing Canada into a trade war<\/a> with its erstwhile ally. <\/p>\n Although the announcement was in the works before this week, it gives Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s<\/a> government a well-timed opportunity to crow about poaching some of America\u2019s brightest minds.<\/p>\n The 64 researchers will together receive $504-million in federal funding over eight years as the first group of Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs of Canada, the centrepiece of the Canada Global Impact+ Research Talent Initiative<\/a>, a $1.7-billion recruiting blitz the Liberals launched late last year. <\/p>\n Opinion: Science and innovation could be central to building a strong Canada<\/a><\/p>\n The research chairs were recently renamed<\/a> in honour of the late Mr. Goldenberg, a former chief of staff to Prime Minister Jean Chr\u00e9tien who urged Ottawa and Canadian universities to make an ambitious play for disaffected researchers in Donald Trump\u2019s America.<\/p>\n The chairs hail from 13 different countries, but most are leaving institutions in the U.S., including prestigious universities such as Harvard and Stanford, according to a list of the 64 researchers obtained by The Globe and Mail.<\/p>\n They include leaders in medical isotope production and radiopharmaceuticals, molecular imaging, climate resilience, quantum network infrastructure, RNA therapeutics, artificial intelligence and global security, among other fields. One created the pop-up ad, an invention for which he later apologized<\/a>. <\/p>\n Many are Canadians coming home. But some are Americans with scant connection to Canada who say they were compelled to move north by the promise of stable, long-term research funding through the Goldenberg program. <\/p>\n \u201cThis was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was not actually actively looking to move,\u201d said Kathryn Whitehead, a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh who will be the Goldenberg Research Chair in Translational Drug Discovery at the University of British Columbia, where the announcement is scheduled to take place Thursday.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Eddie Goldenberg, left, shakes hands with former governor-general David Johnston at his Order of Canada ceremony in 2014.FRED CHARTRAND\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n Eight of the chairs went to UBC, more than any other school. Seven went to the University of Ottawa, six to McGill and six to the University of Toronto, including one to support the research of Sara Seager, an acclaimed planetary scientist whose move from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to U of T was announced<\/a> last year. <\/p>\n The rest were spread across the country. Other prominent names on the list include Peter Caravan, a Canadian leaving Harvard to become the Goldenberg Chair in Translational Molecular Imaging and Therapy at UBC; Curtis Huttenhower, a computational biologist also leaving Harvard for UBC; Ethan Zuckerman, the pop-up ad inventor and digital media scholar who will be joining McGill as Goldenberg Chair in the Digital Public Sphere; and Kevin Hall, a prominent nutrition and metabolism scientist who is moving to the University of Ottawa. <\/p>\n He quit a leadership role at the U.S. National Institutes of Health last year, saying federal officials censored his work on ultraprocessed foods. <\/p>\n Prof. Whitehead\u2019s expertise is in developing nanoparticles that act as delivery mechanisms for novel medicines. Her husband is from Thunder Bay. <\/p>\n UBC and Vancouver\u2019s burgeoning life sciences industry were the perfect fit, she said, because they\u2019re home to Pieter Cullis, the Canadian biochemist best known for creating the lipid nanoparticles used in mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. She also specializes in women\u2019s health, testing new drug compounds to ensure they work as well on women as on the men who were the subjects of most drug trials in the past. <\/p>\n \u201cMy work is not well aligned with the current administration\u2019s priorities,\u201d Prof. Whitehead said, referring to the Trump government. \u201cWomen\u2019s health is just not at the top of the list. And RNA therapies \u2013 there are some challenges with obtaining funding for that work.\u201d <\/p>\n