They say that immigration is the surprising hot topic for this batch of presidential candidates, with Democrats fighting about just what level of (illegal) immigration is allowable while the Republicans duke it out for the title of hardest hardliner against immigration. I particularly liked the commentary made by Times Magazine commentator Michael Kinsley:

“If your view is that legal immigration is good and illegal immigration is bad, how about increasing legal immigration? How about doubling it? Any takers?” (read full commentary here)

Interesting take, Mr. Kinsley and all of America.  But all these issues surround the stereotypical immigration: Hispanics crossing the Rio Grande.  What about the other side of immigration?  A large, and still growing, number of scientists are immigrants.  Immigrants led the plans for the atomic bomb, embraced as an American phenomenon.  Immigrants now comprise 20-40% of doctorate candidates and holders in the US, depending on which source you cite.  MIT alone boasts more than 40% international students within the graduate population.  Interestingly, by contrast, there is a hard cap (9%) on the number of international undergraduates admitted to the Institute.

That number is largely unsettling for the “true Americans” in Congress, who argue that foreign-born scientists-in-training take admissions letters, degrees, and ultimately jobs away from hard-working Americans.  I see it as a symptom of the problem at the root: the ineptitude of the American education system.  If the top of the top from foreign countries are edging out American top-of-the-top candidates into science, perhaps it is time we re-evaluate the way we educate our children.  Preventing international students from immigrating here in order to allow more opportunities for American students will only make us more behind.

In fact, I would actually go to the other extreme and posit that we don’t really have a problem.  The fact that we still have Americans in our American universities, and Americans as successful engineers, and Americans in every sector of science thriving is evidence that something in our education system is working.  It’s unreasonable to expect all Americans to get PhDs.  It’s unreasonable to even expect all Americans to pursue science.  Having the international competition will only make us strive for more to better ourselves.

Isn’t that all a part of the American dream?  It’s certainly the immigrant credo: work hard, put your mind to it, and you can achieve anything that you want.

Posted: December 25th, 2007 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1

Sitting in a small conference room last week talking to some on-campus reps from a Big Pharma, I actually said the words, “Science is noble.” I mentally gawked immediately, though continuing to externally plaster a smile on my face. The folks across from me chuckled, betraying their own internal cynicism. As idealistic as we want to be about science, just how noble of a pursuit is it?

Having been at grad school now for almost as long as my entire undergraduate career, I still struggle with the everyday impact of the bioengineering benchtop work that I do. When will the world actually see the fruits of my labor in a useful and meaningful way? Even when I step aside from weighing the tangible medicinal benefits of my work, forget the Nobel Prize even, when, if ever, will my work ever be good enough for Science or Nature?

In a field full of talk about journal impact factors, science is funny in how it seemingly teeters perpetually on that ledge between the noble and the Nobel. Are these even separable?  Where does our science actually fit in?

And so herein lies my own questions in this quest to find personal impact.

Posted: December 15th, 2007 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1