Visa issues have prevented a number of researchers from attending this year's Society for Neuroscience meeting, NPR reports. It adds that the meeting even developed a program to help researchers who couldn't come to the US present their work.
These problems, it adds, stem from the travel ban President Donald Trump instituted in 2017 that barred individuals from certain countries from entering the US, though the ban went through different iterations. While it was challenged in court, the Supreme Court ultimately upheld the travel ban last year. In 2017, numerous researchers argued that the ban would negatively affect science in the US.
NPR reports that Sepiedeh Keshavarzi, a permanent resident of Australia, who is currently working at University College London, was denied a visa to attend SfN because she holds an Iranian passport. Additionally, Leili Mortazavi tells NPR that she was unable to attend the meeting last year while working in Canada because of her Iranian passport, but was able to attend this year because she secured a Canadian passport.
Meeting officials further tell NPR, though, about a dozen researchers have made use of its Science Knows No Borders program. Keshavarzi, for instance, sent a pre-recorded version of her PowerPoint talk, NPR adds.