The demonstrators – who also included patients and politicians – emphasized that President Donald Trump's policy with reduced grants and cuts in healthcare, climate, and science areas threatens not only the future of the USA but also the present.
We're not just going to stand here and take it, said Colette Delawalla, Ph.D. student in clinical psychology.
Francis Collins, former head of the research institute National Institutes of Health, says that budget cuts threaten research on Alzheimer's, diabetes, and cancer.
The timing is very bad considering all the promising progress, he said.
The demonstration took place at the Lincoln Monument, in the shadow of the president who founded the National Academy of Sciences in 1863.
Among the registered speakers were Nobel laureate Victor Ambros and former NASA chief Bill Nelson.
Protests under the slogan "Stand up for science" were also held in other American cities.
