【英语科技】在美中国科学家隐现归国潮

After eight years working in the U.S. at the National Institutes of Health, a major federal research center, cell biologist Li Yu decided in 2008 it was time to return to his native China and became a professor here at Tsinghua University.

Dr. Yu is one of some 80,000 Western-trained Chinese scientists who have returned to China to work in academia or industry since the mid-1980s. In a report published Wednesday, the Monitor Group, a consultancy, predicts the return will accelerate over the next decade, and says the trend, coupled with an outpouring of investment by the Chinese government and private industry, will help China become a leader in research discovery in the pharmaceutical and health-care industry by 2020.

China is already the third-largest pharmaceutical market and is expected to grow by 25% to more than $50 billion in sales in 2011, according to drug-industry tracker IMS Health. But until recently, the West was the source of innovation in the industry.

'I think the big call to arms … is that the world is going to change, and China is going to be on many levels the leader, including life science innovation,' says George Baeder, head of Monitor Group's life sciences practice in Asia and an author of the report.

China is making a concerted effort to become a research powerhouse by drawing researchers back home. Two years ago, the government launched the 'Thousand Talents' program with the goal of bringing back 2,000 scientists over five to 10 years by promising resources and funding, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Monitor Group says the program has offered qualified returning scientists up to 10 million yuan, or $1.5 million, each in resources and funding. Beijing also offers a variety of other funds to help academics and entrepreneurs kick off their work.

China still has far to go to attain the overall level of research in places like the U.S. and Europe, and a variety of issues could impede its progress. China has yet to spawn a major global pharmaceutical company that develops its own products. China's research sector also struggles with procedural problems and fraud that render its research unusable for other scientists.

Mr. Baeder says fundamental cultural changes, such as moving to a merit-based system of funding from one based mostly on who one knows, will be important to the country's progress in innovation.

Some U.S. scientists and officials have been concerned that difficulty in securing federal grants for research─the primary mechanism by which much science research is funded in America─may be driving young scientists away from academia and basic science research.

U.S. universities remain the most attractive in the world for Chinese and other foreign students in the sciences. China surpassed India last year as the biggest source of foreign students in U.S. institutions of higher education with 127,628, up 30% from the year before.

But keeping Chinese scientists in the U.S. once they are trained is increasingly difficult. Dr. Yu, the former NIH researcher, was drawn back by the scientific possibilities in China that he feels aren't possible in the U.S. His large lab full of students, along with essentially unlimited research funds guaranteed to him by the government and the university, has allowed him to accelerate his work. As a result, he has been able to expand his basic-science research and think about applying it to the treatment of diseases such as neurodegenerative and autoimmune conditions.

'The bottom line, I think, is we just get a better opportunity' in China, said Dr. Yu. 'In China, anything can happen.'

For S. Benjamin Hua, an entrepreneurial spirit called him back to China after 20 years. He left in 1986 when the government paid for him to get his doctorate at the University of Maryland. Back then, people in China had 'just heard about' biomedical research, Dr. Hua says, and going to the U.S. for training was seen as an opportunity and necessary step.

He returned to China in 2007 because of the opportunity to launch a new company in a growing market, armed with the knowledge from his academic training at Maryland and the University of California, San Francisco, and from the biotechnology industry in Silicon Valley.

Although his family remains in the U.S., and he travels frequently between the two countries, he felt he had to live in China to better understand and succeed in the Chinese market. Last year, Dr. Hua launched Hangzhou Avalon Biosciences, a clinical diagnostics company focused on infectious diseases and cancer, which has grown to 12 employees.

Many of his peers are also returning to China, he says. For many, the language and cultural barriers in the U.S. mean expending extra effort to achieve the same level of success as native speakers. The erasing of that barrier with a return to China, coupled with the government's support, is appealing, he said.

China's goal 'is to change from 'made in China' to 'innovated in China,' ' Dr. Hua said.

Shirley S. Wang

在美国国立卫生研究院(National Institutes of Health)这家主要的联邦研究中心工作了八年后，细胞生物学家俞立2008年决定是时候回到自己的祖国中国了，回国后他成为了清华大学的一名教授。

自上世纪八十年代中期以来，大约有八万名在西方学习的中国科学家回国在学术或是行业机构中任职，俞立就是其中之一。咨询机构摩立特集团(Monitor Group)在周三公布的一份报告中预测，今后十年中这种归国趋势将会加剧，并说这一趋势，加上中国政府和私营企业的大力投资将帮助中国在2020年前成为医药和医疗研究发现领域的领导者。

AFP/Getty Images清华大学一位教授在做实验。据追踪医药行业的IMS Health，中国目前已经是第三大医药市场，预计到2011年时销售额将增长25%，超过500亿美元。但直到最近，西方仍是该行业中的创新来源地。

摩立特集团亚洲生命科学业务负责人、上述报告的作者贝德(George Baeder)说，他认为要引起人们注意的…是世界就要发生改变，中国将在很多方面成为领先者，包括在生命科学的创新上。

中国正齐心协力希望通过吸引研究人员回国使自己成为一个研究大国。据中国科学院，中国政府两年前启动了一项“千人计划”，目标是通过提供资源和资金在未来五至十年内引进2,000名科学家。摩立特集团说，这项计划已向符合条件的归国科学家提供了价值人民币1000万元（约合150万美元）的资源和1000万元的资金。北京还提供了各种其他资金来帮助研究人员和企业家开展工作。

要达到像美国和欧洲那样的整体研究水平，中国仍然还有很长的路要走，而各种各样的问题将阻碍它的进步。中国依然没有一家研制自身产品的大型全球医药企业。中国的研究领域还存在一些程序上的问题和造假行为，这使得它的研究无法为其他科学家所用。

贝德说，根本的文化上的转变，比如改变那种主要根据技能水平来提供资金的体系，转而采用道德标准，这对于中国在创新上取得进步将具有重要作用。

一些美国科学家和官员担心，不易获得联邦研究经费，可能令年轻的科学家对学术和基础科学研究退避三舍。联邦研究经费是美国科学家科研经费的主要来源。

在中国和其他非美国家理科学生中，美国的大学仍然是世界上最有吸引力的。中国去年超过印度，成为美国高等教育机构最大的外籍生源国，输送学生127,628人，较前一年增加30%。

但在中国理科生完成学业后，要把他们留在美国却是越来越难了。前面所提国立卫生研究院前研究员俞立，就因为觉得中国的科研机会是美国无法比的，所以回到了中国。他的大型实验室拥有众多学生，政府和学校下拨的研究经费事实上没有限制，这使他能够加快研究进度。因此他得以拓宽基础科学研究，并思考怎样把这些研究成果用于神经退化和自体免疫等疾病的治疗。

俞立说，总之我认为，我们在中国的机会就是更好；在中国，任何事情都有可能。

华绍炳(S. Benjamin Hua)则是在一种创业精神的召唤下，时隔20年后回到中国。他于1986年出国，政府出钱让他在马里兰大学(University of Maryland)攻读博士学位。他说，当时中国国内对于生物医学研究“仅仅是听说过”，去美国念书被认为是一种机会，也是一个必须步骤。

2007年，因为中国这个不断成长的市场存在的创业机会，华绍炳带着他从马里兰大学、加州大学旧金山分校和硅谷生物技术行业学成的知识，回到了中国。

虽然家人仍在美国居住，自己也是频繁往返于中美之间，但华绍炳觉得自己应该在中国居住，从而更好地理解中国市场，并在这里取得成功。华绍炳去年创办了杭州德同生物技术有限公司(Hangzhou Avalon Biosciences)。这是一家专攻传染性疾病和癌症的临床诊断公司，员工规模已扩大到12人。

华绍炳说，很多同行也在回国。对于很多人来说，在美国的语言与文化障碍意味着他们要付出更多的努力，才能获得美国人那样的成功。他说，回国就消除了这种障碍，另外还有政府的支持，这是很吸引人的。

华绍炳说，中国的目标是从“中国制造”走向“中国创造”。

Shirley S. Wang

（更新完成）

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