The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS)
claims good scientists are fleeing Australia in large numbers for better
opportunities overseas. And lack of support for science in Australia makes it
unlikely they will return.
Not only are we losing experienced researchers, but we鈥檙e not training new
ones to replace them. This week鈥檚 release of offers for university places in
Victoria shows institutions struggling to fill their science courses. Young
people are voting with their feet. And the Victorian Government directly blames
the Commonwealth for failing to provide enough funding to create decent jobs in
research.
The worry over Australia losing scientists overseas was part of FASTS annual
鈥渢op ten鈥� wish-list for government action. The list also included an appeal for
the Federal government to act on the growing problem of attracting young people
to careers as teachers of maths and science.
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FASTS president Sue Serjeantson says Australian scientists are escaping to a
better world. 鈥淎necdotal evidence about the draining away of talented Australian
scientists is mounting,鈥� she says. 鈥淓very Australian scientist has farewelled
friends and colleagues [who are off] to better jobs overseas. Conditions are
better, research funds are more available, job security is better.鈥�
When I have raised this issue with government representatives, I have
regularly been told that the loss of scientific expertise is matched by a flow of
talent into Australia. Many researchers go overseas for short periods and bring
new skills back when they return, the government says. And those who don鈥檛
return are compensated by scientists migrating to Australia from other parts of
the world.
Serjeantson rejects this claim. The figures in the public domain are not
reliable, she says. Like job applicants, people wishing to migrate to Australia
will always tend to overstate the contribution they can make. She wants the
government to analyse confidential records of recent migrants, and assess their
qualifications carefully. 鈥淥nly the Government has access to these confidential
records and the resources to analyse them,鈥� Serjeantson says.
Perhaps a more urgent task is to resolve the problems preventing expatriates
from coming back. Serjeantson says that many Australian scientists working
overseas say they鈥檇 love to return, but simply can鈥檛 afford the career
insecurity, the difficulty in gaining research funds, and the crumbling
infrastructure. That is the real bottom line. Rather than arguing about whether
there is a net gain or a net loss of brainpower, the government should be taking
its own advice, and creating the right economic conditions to encourage
researchers to bring their talent to Australia.
It鈥檚 certainly a cold, hard world for Australian graduate scientists. But two
young Sydney women are taking that idea to extremes. They have become the first
female researchers to work at the South Pole. Jill Rathbone and Jessica Dempsey
are living only a few hundred metres from the exact geographic pole and working
on the Automated Astrophysical Site-Testing Observatory鈥攁 self-powered
observatory which can operate at uninhabited sites. The remote observatory is
linked to the nearby Antarctic Fibre Optic Spectrometer of the University of New
South Wales (UNSW).
The project is to test locations for new telescopes which can work through
the polar winter. The extreme cold and the dry air make Antarctica the best
place on Earth for observing infra-red emissions from distant stars. In other
areas, the water vapour in the normal atmosphere absorbs powerfully in the
infra-red. The research team, led by UNSW physicist John Storey, includes
experts from Germany, Sweden, USA and the UK as well as the Australians.
Rathbone and Dempsey are sleeping in tents, and routinely work in
temperatures close to 鈭�30掳C. You can get a glimpse of their experience by
logging on to the website www.phys.unsw.edu.au and following the links. There鈥檚
even a webcam, updated every ten minutes, giving a glimpse of the Spartan
conditions. A daily diary recounts their progress. Dempsey describes the trip as
a 鈥渙nce in a life-time experience鈥�. I鈥檓 sure she鈥檚 right鈥攂ut I think I鈥檒l
stick to the beach this summer.