The United States is facing a major shortage of scientists because very few Americans enter technical fields and because international competition is heating up for bright foreigners who in the past helped fill the gap, a Federal panel warned on Tuesday.
"I fear irreversible damage can be done,'' Robert C. Richardson, a Nobel laureate on the panel, told a news conference in Washington, adding that he found the personnel trends "quite disturbing.''
Warren M. Washington, chairman of the National Science Board, which released the report, said the United States was in "a long-distance race'' to maintain its edge in human scientific resources.
"For many years, we have benefited from minimal competition in the global science and engineering labour market,'' he said.
"But attractive and competitive alternatives are now expanding around the world.''
The solution, Washington added, is for the United States to work harder at developing its own scientific talent.
If left unchecked, the trends in technical employment will leave a dearth of scientists to meet the rising demand, the board said.
At best, it added, the number of U.S. citizens qualified for science and engineering jobs could remain level.
But interest in such careers is falling compared with elsewhere.
The 2004 Indicators say the United States now ranks 17th among nations surveyed in the share of its 18-to 24-year-olds who earn Natural Science and Engineering degrees, behind Taiwan and South Korea, Ireland and Italy. In 1975, it ranked third.
The new report shows that 38 percent of all the nation's scientists and engineers with doctorates are now foreign born.
But that inward flow is threatened, the board said, because of new limits on the entry of highly-educated foreigners into the country and increasingly intense global competition for their skills.
Visas granted to students, exchange visitors and other highly-skilled foreigners dropped from 7,87,000 in 2001 to 6,25,000 last year.
Visa applications have dropped as well.
At the same time, many other countries, especially in Europe and Asia, have realised that Science and Technology are key to economic growth and prosperity and are rapidly catching up to the United States in the pursuit of science excellence.
As a result, the numbers of foreigners who once came to the United States to do Science are expected to drop.
By The Hindu - India's National Newspaper |
