Speaking Up for Science: Comments From APS Lifetime Achievement Awardees
Image above: Margaret Beale Spencer gives her remarks at the 2025 APS Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.
During the APS Awards Ceremony at the 37th Annual APS Convention in Washington, D.C., recipients voice their concerns about federal actions that cut back research funding, restrict international students from U.S. universities, and suppress diversity in higher education. Below are some of their comments.
“Sciences should not be assumed or given in this era. We have to really think very, very seriously about how to protect open inquiry from ideological mistreatment.”
J. Lawrence Aber
New York University
Recipient of the APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award
“It is ironic that this award ceremony is taking place in a city that is currently the epicenter of the greatest attack on American science in history. And so it seems an inopportune time to be questioning the assumptions and practices of psychological science. But the philosopher Socrates thought that we have to ask such inconvenient questions, particularly when they are at their most inconvenient. It’s actually an act of defiance to do such things, and I think small acts of defiance are the name of the game when it comes to supporting science at this particular moment in history.”
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Northeastern University
Recipient of the APS Williams James Fellow Award
“I am particularly grateful for the seven international students who got or are getting their PhDs in my lab. And I’d also like to express my gratitude to five first-generation students of Mexican/American background, who got their PhDs while working and sending money back to their families and wondering what ICE is going to do to their siblings and their family. In these times of assault on knowledge, on universities and human progress, they give me hope.”
Dacher Keltner
University of California, Berkeley
Recipient of the APS Mentor Award
“I strongly urge us all as psychological scientists to continue to fight for diversity in our research base and to promote inclusion and equity in our professional ranks. Such matters aren’t just about social justice. They are necessary to advance a science of humankind.”
Steven Lopez
University of Southern California
Recipient of the APS James S. Jackson Award for Transformative Scholarship
“I’m very proud of my university and how they’re handling the current crisis. Having said that, it’s one of my most challenging times as a mentor. I’m dealing with students who don’t know whether they’ll be sent off tomorrow because their visa has expired or whether they’ll be able to fund their imaging research because the grants were cancelled…I think we all have to remember that we are all mentors for the upcoming psychological scientists who are going to be the most impacted by the current events.”
Elizabeth A. Phelps
Harvard University
Recipient of the APS Mentor Award
“Difference does not mean deficit. DEI just stands for humanity, and accommodations for variations in our expressed humanity.”
Margaret Beale Spencer
University of Chicago
Recipient of the APS James S. Jackson Award for Transformative Scholarship
Watch the full 2025 APS Awards Ceremony: A Celebration of Excellence
Feedback on this article? Email [email protected] or login to comment.
APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.
Please login with your APS account to comment.