IEEE Career Alert

2. Are Asian Scientists Bumping Up Against a Glass Ceiling in the US?

Asians "are known for being great scientists," but probably shouldn't look forward to heading science labs, says Kuan-Teh Jeang, a virologist at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Earlier this year, Taiwan-born Jeang compiled statistics in a bid to confirm or refute anecdotal evidence that there were few opportunities for career advancement for Asian researchers at NIH. What he found was disheartening. Though 21.5 percent of the agency's tenure-track investigators are Asian, only 9.2 percent of senior investigators are of Asian descent. And only 4.7 percent of the people heading NIH labs or branches are Asian.

A similar examination of the American Society for Biology and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) by Yi Rao, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, uncovered equally bad news for Asian scientists. In letters to the governing boards of ASBMB and the Society for Neuroscience penned in July, Rao wrote, "However the phenomenon can be described, the underlying problem is discrimination. [Asian] Americans tend to be quiet, partly because their voices and concerns are not listened to. But should that mean obedience and subordination forever?"

For more on whether there is a level playing field in scientific research, and to see what officials at these organizations have done in response, read on at:the link


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4. Taiwan to Take Center Stage in IC development?

According to Nicky Lu, a former IBM researcher who was a co-inventor of the advanced DRAM technology Big Blue was using when he left the company to return to his native Taiwan in 1991, the global technology market is undergoing a shift that will move semiconductor R&D and other so-called knowledge work from a "pan-Atlantic IC circle" centered in the United States to a "pan-Pacific circle" with Taiwan at its center.

Lu has founded three technology companies in his homeland since a former government minister convinced him to help build the country's nascent IC industry. In an EETimesAsia.com article, he discusses Taiwan's changing role in the global IC market, the importance of intellectual property to generating profit, the entrepreneurial spirit of Taiwanese engineers, and his "pool theory"--of which he says, "the United States has proved that the more open and enjoyable a society is, the more likely it is that all the talent will go there. If you make your pool the cleanest and most beautiful, then people will come over." Read on at (free registration required): the link