U.S. Relies on Foreign-Born Scientists -Report

Reuters via Yahoo! | Wed Nov 19,10:07 PM ET | Reuters

[taiwansemi]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing percentage of scientists and engineers in the United States come from other countries, the National Science Board reported on Wednesday.

While saying it was not necessarily alarming to have foreign-born scientists working in the United States, the Board said the government should look at ways to train more citizens in these fields.

The board, appointed to advise the federal government, used National Science Foundation figures taken from Census estimates of foreign-born workers.

It found that foreign-born workers with bachelor's degrees represented 17 percent of all science and engineering positions held by people with bachelor's degrees, 29 of master's degree positions and 38 percent of PhDs.

The NSF said global competition for scientific and engineering expertise was becoming more intense while the number of U.S.-born graduates choosing science, engineering or technology careers was declining.

"These trends provide policymakers with the unusual challenge in the coming years of producing enough talent from pools of both U.S. and foreign-educated professionals to fill the important and growing numbers of positions we expect in critical fields," National Science Board chairman Warren Washington said in a statement.

It recommended making more scholarships, financial assistance and other incentives available to American students. Teachers of mathematics, science and technology also need to be trained and paid better, the board said.

[taiwansemi]

If America wants to maintain its technological, industrial/manufacturing edge in future decades, more American students will have to major in the hard sciences instead of sociology. It is fair to say that the majority of R&D staff at America's leading technology companies are foreigners, and it is not such a great leap to suspect that more of these workers will choose to do their cutting-edge work in their home countries in the future as globalization and Internet communications develop further. As a matter of fact, that is already happening. In particular, manufacturing increasingly requires technological expertise so while countries like China and India have cost advantages, they are also churning out more engineering graduates than the U.S. at the same time.

[farmfriend]

All the foreign-born scientists I know are also citizens. This includes the wonderful chemist Karl Klager who created most of our rocket fuels. There is even one on this web forum.

[Prime Choice]

U.S. Relies on Foreign-Born Scientists

*GASP* Say it ain't so!!

[CasearianDaoist]

It is not the sociologists that are the problem - it is bright people going into law and business school.

[q_an_a]

the point that we have so many colleges and businesses doing research and that even at the "low wages" for researchers, their life is better than in eastern europe, germany etc is proof of the way our system works.