Prominent Researcher Exits NASA, Citing US Attacks on Science
Climate expert Kate Marvel pointed to “upheavals” under the Trump administration as a reason for her departure.
The Mary W. Jackson NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, on Oct. 2, 2025.
Photographer: Kent Nishimura/BloombergKate Marvel, a high-profile NASA climate scientist, resigned from the space agency’s Earth research division Tuesday, citing in a resignation letter the Trump administration’s attacks on science and “upheavals of the past year.”
“I never expected that science itself would come under attack, simply because it — like journalism, history, and even the best kind of art — is a way of seeking truth,” she wrote in the letter, seen by Bloomberg and addressed to Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, and Ron Miller, the institute’s deputy director.