At an emotional meeting, foundation officials announced layoffs for about 10 percent of their workforce and warned of more firings to come.

It wasn’t until the 1950 establishment of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the largest funding source for basic research in the country, that America became a powerhouse of modernization. F or most of the past century,

Firings at the NSF included permanent employees who had already completed their one-year probationary period, as well as at-will workers.