Halley Froehlich expected to spend her career in the United States, where her family has lived since the 1700s.

However, delayed federal grants and fears about the future led her to move to Finland with her husband and daughter.

She now continues her research on how seafood responds to climate change at the University of Helsinki.

The Trump administration began dismantling the federal grant process and seeking more political influence over funded projects.

In response, 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, though it cannot be quantified nationally.

White House spokesperson Liz Huston said Trump is "ending waste" and 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, according to an April report from 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.

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

Christine Stawitz, now at the University of Birmingham in England, said the U.S. used to be "the shining city on the hill."

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

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

Biologists James Letts and Maria Maldonado, from Canada and Argentina, left the University of California, Davis for Monash University in Australia.

Omar Yaghi, a 2025 Nobel chemistry winner, 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 also accepted 15% fewer doctoral applicants for fall 2026 than the year before.