Yah, you're not going to need Rust, but some kinds of research could benefit and does use Rust. Eg, anything financial, where floating point is a no go, Python falls on its face. Anything physics like NASA type research can benefit from strict types. Robotics, and so on.. ymmv.

Rust shouldn't take away from Python or Java, but it may take away from research that uses Fortran, C, or C++.