More than 80 Nobel Prize winners banded together to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in an open letter.
The letter calls the upcoming presidential election "the most consequential...in a long time, perhaps ever, for the future of science and the United States," according to a copy obtained by the New York Times.
the letter goes on to recognize Harris for grasping that "the enormous increases in living standards and life expectancies over the past two centuries are largely the result of advances in science and technology" while stating that Donald Trump would effectively "jeopardize any advancements in our standards of living, slow the progress of science and technology and impede our responses to climate change," according to the letter obtained by NYT.
The open letter was written by Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001, and signed by 82 Nobel laureates, including Drew Weissman, whose discovery facilitated the creation of one of the COVID-19 vaccines, and Robert Woodrow Wilson, a physicist who helped find leftover light from the Big Bang.
Stiglitz said he was especially motivated to write the letter because of the "enormous cuts in science budgets," which Trump presented during his presidency, and his "anti-science" and "anti-university" perspectives. He also touched upon the role immigrants have played in advancing science and technology in the US and around the world.
The professor added that scientists have "recognized this is a moment where you can't be silent," according to the copy obtained by NYT.
Originally published by Latin Times
