Halley Froehlich expected to spend her career in the United States.

Her family has lived there since the 1700s.

But delayed federal grants and fears about the future made her move to Finland.

She went with her husband and daughter.

She now does her research on how seafood responds to climate change.

She works at the University of Helsinki.

The Trump administration began to break up the federal grant process.

It also sought more political influence over funded projects.

Foreign universities saw a chance to recruit U.S. researchers.

They offered stabler funding and academic freedom, and many scientists accepted.

Scientists and professional groups say the shift is clear, unprecedented and concerning.

But it cannot be measured nationally.

White House spokesperson Liz Huston said Trump is "ending waste."

She said he is committed to keeping America the world leader in scientific innovation.

More than half of U.S. states have lost scientists to other countries' recruitment programs.

This comes from an April report by the Business for Federal Research Funding Coalition.

Physics Ph.D. graduates in 2025 left the U.S. at the highest rate in 30 years.

The American Institute of Physics found this.

Canada, France, Belgium and Finland are among the countries praising their new recruits.

Christine Stawitz now works at the University of Birmingham in England.

She said the U.S. used to be "the shining city on the hill."

She said its reputational loss is hard to measure but really damaging.

Some researchers who came to the U.S. from abroad are also leaving.

Biologists James Letts and Maria Maldonado are from Canada and Argentina.

They left the University of California, Davis for Monash University in Australia.

Omar Yaghi won the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry.

He left UC Berkeley for Tsinghua University in China.

The U.S. remains a science powerhouse, and many scientists are staying.

But the administration has cut or frozen up to $174 billion in federal grants.

Major research institutions accepted 15% fewer doctoral applicants for fall 2026 than the year before.