Hundreds of scientists and academics from around the world are offering laboratory and office space to researchers stranded by the U.S. travel ban.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week that temporarily bars citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen, even if they have already received visas.
More than 700 academics from diverse fields of study from around the world, including Canada, have responded with offers to share laboratory or office space, including lodgings in some cases.
Many scientists currently in the US feel trapped, unable to visit their home countries.
Maria Leptin, director of EMBO, the European Molecular Biology Organization, said the ban has waved through the global scientific community. People who are going to do their doctorate in a US laboratory can go home to their family for a wedding in Iran or they can go to a conference and then they can not go back in. They can not complete their project.
As a result, EMBO launched its "Science Solidarity" a register of “scientists offering temporary bench or desk space, library access and possibly even accommodation for U.S.-based scientists who are stranded abroad,” due to Trump’s executive order. It’s like a Craigslist for the marooned.
Sabine Elowe, a cancer researcher and associate professor at Laval University, pledged office and lab space. She added U.S. travel ban is career limiting for some of her colleagues and students.
