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We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

theguardian.com

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Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#11

Post by Retric »

KevinMS wrote: post #7

> In the normal trajectory of a life in science, Morgan would be planning to set up his own laboratory conducting groundbreaking research designed to win the war on superbugs. But with an ongoing hiring freeze at NIH, his options are limited. That seems a bit too optimistic to be a valid argument.

Morgan (or someone else)

The hiring freeze stops everyone not just that one specific person. A 4 year pause on new researchers is meaningful even if this specific person wasn’t going to start a lab.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#15

Post by Avicebron »

KevinMS wrote: post #7

> In the normal trajectory of a life in science, Morgan would be planning to set up his own laboratory conducting groundbreaking research designed to win the war on superbugs. But with an ongoing hiring freeze at NIH, his options are limited. That seems a bit too optimistic to be a valid argument.

True. Morgan could also end up running pipettes and 96-well plates in Foster City for $45000/yr.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#16

Post by reenorap »

I think the US draining other countries of their best and brightest is why many countries have been left behind in terms of economic development.

Other countries need to take up the mantle of research and they can't do that if all of them go to the US. I think this is overall good for the rest of the world, because relying on the US and the sociopathic companies that exploit public research for personal gain is bad for the entire world.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#17

Post by rubyn00bie »

deepsun wrote: post #9
axismundi wrote: post #2

Come to Europe, we have cookies ;)

[flagged]

Oh yeah, and just wait until you see you have to pay the US taxes on your income too. Tax system for US citizens living abroad is insanely bad.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#19

Post by tensor »

readthenotes1 wrote: post #3

Does that mean Europe will get a sustainable lead on irreproachable Science?

I think that depends on a lot of factors. E.g. will there be a turn around in the US, and if so how fast? Will Europe and other nations increase science funding to account for all the new talent that wants to come? Will that funding be permanent, not just a one time effort?

Also, if the US restores their democracy and also decides to value science again, will the salaries for scientists abroad compete enough to prevent scientists moving back.

To maintain a sustainable lead the money and investment has to be substantial and long term.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#20

Post by ProjectArcturis »

This kind of Level 1 analysis misses what is really going on. "Brain drain" is not really a concern.

There is a tremendous glut of talented biomedical researchers. We have been overproducing them for decades. Even before the cuts, it was incredibly hard to go from a PhD to a tenured professorship. 5-15% would achieve that, depending how you measured.

The cuts have made things worse, but European/RoW funding is even stingier. It's not like there's a firehose of funding drawing away researchers. There may be a few high-profile departures, but the US is still the least-bad place to find research money.

We need to produce fewer PhDs and provide better support for those we do produce.

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