The Summer Institute in Japan, which sent 25 U.S. graduate students in science and engineering to Japanese research facilities last summer, will support 50 such students this coming summer. And last month, NSF and Japanese officials agreed to expand opportunities for young researchers by allowing U.S. graduate students to apply to similar programs in Japan that were previously open only to postdoctoral fellows and principal investigators.
"It's all just mushrooming," says Larry Weber, program manager for the Japan Program at NSF. "It's increasing everyone's awareness that there is something interesting going on in Japan."
The attempt to encourage U.S. students to enter Japanese laboratories stems from past imbalances in the flow of knowledge and people between the two countries, say NSF officials. For many years, Japanese students, postdoctoral fellows, and even senior scientists have come to the U.S. to work in labs or attend conferences. But U.S. scientists have not ...
