Pittsburgh—For years, Evan Spotte-Smith had their career mapped out. They wanted to be a professor and planned on a faculty career in the US.
Their PhD research at University of California, Berkeley, centered around improving the sustainability longevity of lithium-ion and magnesium-ion batteries at the chemical reaction level, and they have continued to develop computational simulations that can be applied to developing sustainable batteries and plastics recycling protocols.
After earning their PhD and conducting postdoctoral research at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Spotte-Smith snagged a job offer to join CMU’s faculty as an assistant professor of chemical engineering. Now they’ve left the US entirely, to take up a position at University College Dublin (UCD). They may be one of many who are building careers abroad; in March, the journal Nature found that that 75% of 1,600 scientists polled were considering leaving the country.
C&EN spoke with Spotte-Smith in August in Pittsburgh, as they were packing up to leave, and then again this fall as they settled into their new life in Ireland.
Worries and concerns in 2024
Despite already having a CMU position in hand, Spotte-Smith says they began applying to universities outside of the US in December 2024.
During the presidential campaign, Spotte-Smith read Project 2025, a policy agenda authored by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. They began to feel, as a scientist and a trans person, that the future looked dark.