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Overview
Trends in the American science and engineering (S&E) workforce
and national research and development (R&D) funding patterns
and priorities have troubling implications for the economic
and national security of our nation. Especially worrisome are:
- A general lack of interest among American-born youth,
especially women and minorities, in pursuing education in the
physical sciences, mathematics, environmental sciences, and
engineering at the undergraduate and graduate levels;
- A rapidly accelerating accumulation of intellectual capital,
including an educated S&E workforce, in China, India, Japan,
South Korea, and Taiwan;
- A long-term decline in the overall Federal investment in
R&D as a percentage of gross domestic product, especially among
the physical sciences and engineering; and
- Reduced Department of Defense funding for research
throughout the 1990s, a trend that has exacerbated the general
decline in the physical sciences and engineering, despite the
importance of these fields to the development of new military
capabilities.
There is no crisis today. Indeed, in several areas, such as
computer science, the number of computer programmers exceeds demand, a situation largely caused by the collapse of the dot.com
bubble, softness in the overall economy in recent years, and a
trend toward off-shore outsourcing of such work. The basic problem
that we face lies in understanding the trends and their implications
for the future. It is important to gain this understanding
soon because of the long delays involved in building a workforce
with the required skills to replace the scientists and engineers of
the baby-boom generation, who are retiring just as the needs of
national defense and homeland security are increasing.
In some important fields, the United States faces a potential
S&E shortfall, while our foreign competitors are significantly
increasing production of S&Es, and foreign graduate students are
earning a significant percentage of the technical degrees granted
by American universities.1 (table 1.) Especially noteworthy is
increasing home-grown technical capability in Asia, which is exemplified
by the rapid growth in the number of students receiving
S&E doctorates from Asian institutions. Moreover, the fact that
other nations are acquiring high-end innovation capabilities by
building up their sophisticated science and technology (S&T)
infrastructures and capabilities signifies growing global competition
for scientific and engineering talent. This trend raises a question
whether the United States can over the long term rely on an
international S&E labor force to satisfy its needs.2
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