What I didn't know before writing this piece: it wasn't the refugees themselves who boosted American sciences and patents after 1933. It was the young who gathered around them that did it, building out new fields of study.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
It's astounding how someone can go from inconsequential in life to being a contributing leader in their field simply by encountering the right people/mentors.
Sometimes it's just dumb luck they met that influence.
I'm convinced we have unknown geniuses all around us who just were never inspired.
If Europe wants to become a #science leader, bringing home European top talent from America is just one small part of the job. Developing a hunger for young talent from around the world is another.
Would require seriously reform of the habilitation law in Germany for one and properly funding universities more generally. My partner’s experience of doing a PhD in one of Germany’s top institutes painted a grim picture
As things stand, at the PhD level, you have Byzantine bureaucracy, highly insecure funding, perverse incentives that reduce research quality. But at the post-doc level it’s the sword of Damocles. Short term contracts, horrendous working conditions, 12 year limit to find a professorship or drop out
Average length of PhDs is well over three years in most fields but funding outside of stem fields is seldom much above 50% TVöD 13. But it’s not like there’s a big reward for perseverance at post-doc level. Professors furthermore rule their domains like feudal lords. Abuse of all sorts rife.
There’s also the fact that top American research universities know full well that graduate programs mirror the German model whereas our undergrad degrees are closer to the British system but students of both are very brand conscious.
Comments
Sometimes it's just dumb luck they met that influence.
I'm convinced we have unknown geniuses all around us who just were never inspired.
https://mittelbau.net