For several years I’ve been trying to sell people on an idea I have that derives from my deep appreciation of the talents of the Latin American scientists I’ve encountered over the past 30 years. These scientists are to be found in laboratories all over the world, usually as valued and honored émigrés or refugees from some political crisis. This idea is available to any statesman who would like to become at least as immortal as Fulbright or Rhodes. It is this: the United States should offer its Latin American and Caribbean neighbors a massive graduate fellowship program in science and engineering.
I estimate that we could satisfy all the reasonable requirements for graduate study in US. universities for about 2,000 Latin American students for less than $50 million or so a year, paying about $9,000 per year of subsistence plus full tuition. Funds for the fellowship program should come ...
