The National Institute of Standards and Technology, including its Boulder campus, is enacting new rules that would cap international graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at three years and require top-level review of the agreements granting them lab access. Institute sources say the changes could force hundreds of scientists out of the federal lab.
Until now, graduate students could remain for the full length of their Ph.D. programs, and postdocs often stayed as long as their projects required. Under the new policy, researchers already several years into their work may have to leave before finishing, cutting short experiments and disrupting years of federally funded research, scientists said.
“This basically bans all foreign national grad students, regardless of country of origin, because doing a science Ph.D. takes five to seven years,” said one source within NIST in Boulder who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “In my group, more than half of the grad students and postdocs are foreign nationals who are all making plans to leave.”
“It will be a loss of, cumulatively, years and years of expertise,” another NIST source said. “It will be very hard to recover our scientific progress after the loss of that knowledge.”
Boulder hosts one of NIST’s two main campuses. The 125-year-old federal lab advances what it calls “measurement science,” work that underpins nearly every sector of modern life. Many scientists at NIST focus on quantum science, describing and measuring the world at its smallest scales — atoms, molecules, light and energy. The campus also maintains the world’s most accurate clock, which supports GPS systems, satellite navigation, power grids and telecommunications. Fields ranging from forensics to AI to construction rely on research conducted at NIST.
A government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity estimated that of nearly 6,000 scientists, staff and research associates across NIST, about 500 are international guest researchers — at least half of whom are likely graduate students or postdocs who could be affected.
The new rules come from NIST’s acting director, Craig Burkhardt, a Trump appointee. According to the government official, the changes began taking effect about two weeks ago. For several days, scientists said, no written policy was broadly shared with staff, creating confusion. Some international researchers learned of the changes only after seeing language in their agreements with NIST revised. Others heard details during a Feb. 4 townhall led by James Kushmerick, director of NIST’s Physical Measurement Laboratory, according to sources within NIST.
Scientists said the announcement was met with backlash.
They asked Kushmerick who was responsible for the decision and whether leadership was “aware of the impacts it will have on our research output, the American workforce and critical sectors, and on NIST’s trust as an institution,” one source within NIST said. “Everyone’s outraged.”
Burkhardt did not respond to requests for comment.
Additional restrictions on international scientists
Under the new policy, international graduate students and postdoctoral researchers would be limited to two-year lab access agreements, with the option to apply for a one-year extension. All agreements would require personal approval by the acting director, according to multiple sources.
Approvals would be scheduled throughout the year under a country-based risk framework, sources said. Scientists from countries deemed “high risk,” including China, Russia, Venezuela and Iran, would face review by March 31. Researchers from “medium risk” countries would be reviewed by Sept. 30, and those from “low risk” countries, including members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance and G7 nations, by Dec. 31, 2026.
When hiring, lab leaders would also be required to demonstrate that no qualified U.S. applicants were available before hiring an international researcher, according to sources familiar with the policy.
It is unclear how the new procedures align with federal anti-discrimination laws governing hiring and employment practices.
‘We’re basically educating our competitors’
The Trump administration has identified quantum science and AI as national research priorities.
Just weeks before the policy changes, Kushmerick told the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee that the United States faces a quantum workforce shortage.
“We do not have enough domestic or even international talent to fill all the jobs,” he said.
“NIST is at the heart of the quantum science community,” said Maya Miklos, a scientist at JILA, the joint institute of CU Boulder and NIST. “Policies like this are very likely to hurt the competitiveness of the research done at the U.S. national labs.”
At the same congressional hearing, Rep. Rich McCormick, a Republican from Georgia, argued that the United States risks “educating our competitors” by training foreign scientists who later return home.
“We’re … sending them back to China,” he said. “And yes, they’re behind us, but they’re trying to close the gap very much.”
Researchers in Boulder say many international scientists remain in the United States long term, contributing to research, industry and academia. Under the new limits, they said, that pathway could narrow significantly.
“If you want to keep somebody here, you treat them well,” one researcher affiliated with JILA said.
A tense mood at NIST Boulder
Since the Trump administration began efforts to reduce the federal workforce, scientists at NIST’s Boulder campus described morale as fragile. The new policy has heightened anxiety.
“There have been tears in the office,” one NIST source said.
Some international researchers are exploring positions at CU Boulder, which technically employs many graduate students and postdocs who conduct research at NIST using grant funding provided by NIST. But scientists said there may not be enough openings to absorb a large influx, and it is unclear whether NIST will continue to provide grant funding to universities for graduate students and postdocs whose lab access has been revoked.
Many grad students from partner universities also rely on specialized lab equipment at NIST for their research. Losing access could mean abandoning years of work.
“These are students who are, in most cases, working on their dream experiment,” one scientist said. “Now they’re being forced, some of them in the middle of their Ph.D.s, to start from scratch.”
“The University of Colorado Boulder has not received notice of any changes that may affect the ability of international undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to access NIST facilities,” CU Boulder spokesperson Nicole Cousins said.
Postdoctoral researchers on H-1B visas may face additional hurdles. Several scientists said they had heard of job offers elsewhere being reconsidered because of the new $100,000 visa-related fee imposed on employers.
The impact, researchers said, would not be limited to those who leave.
“If we really do lose so many of these really talented professionals over the course of the next year, many labs will have their scientific output dramatically reduced,” Miklos, the scientist at JILA, said.
Another NIST researcher said that an international graduate student currently leads a research project in her lab. “This high-impact research that they’re doing does not have a person who is prepared to carry it forward after they leave.”