Regarding Walter A. Brown's Commentary,1 there is already a system in place to find the Mozarts of science; we just aren't doing a good job of cultivating them. Across the country there are numerous federally funded summer research programs for undergraduate science students. I was associated with one of these programs for six summers and in my experience this one competitive program attracted many bright, enthusiastic, and imaginative science students--and yes, I think some of them were Mozart caliber. Like Dr. Brown, I think that I can identify these students, and probably many scientists associated with these summer programs can recognize them too.
One question a lot of the students had was "what's next?" There is no pipeline to channel these wonderful students. After a great one-time summer experience that fires their enthusiasm and creativity, they are left to find their own way, and this is an area where...
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