Regarding your cover story, "Migrating Minds,"1 I would like to add some comments about my country, France. After getting a master of science in chemical engineering in France, I went to the USA to get a PhD in organic chemistry, followed by two years' postdoctoral studies. I have been lucky to be employed by a French company in my country.
I had, some time ago, the desire to apply to a research position in the CNRS or INSERM, [both] French research associations. I have discovered that it would be almost impossible to get such a position in France when it looked promising in the USA. Why is it so?
My impression is that most of these research positions are jealously kept by the French faculties for their own students or their friends' students. That's the main problem you have if you leave the country and stay for...
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