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At Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Roanoke, postdoc Carmen Muñoz Ballester has been working around the clock as part of the team developing a testing protocol for COVID-19. She typically studies traumatic brain injury and temporarily switched gears to join the COVID-19 group. Last week, they got approval from state and federal regulators to put the protocol to work analyzing patient samples collected by regional health departments and health centers.
Like about half of the life science postdocs in the US, Muñoz Ballester is not a US citizen. She grew up in Spain and earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees there. About one-third of the science and engineering doctoral degrees awarded each year in the US also go to international graduate students.
Pandemic-related concerns that have arisen for science trainees—shuttered labs, research and education delays, anxiety—are applicable across the board. But international graduate students ...
