"Do you mind if we stop at my university?" Dr. Wen-Bin Yan, our vice-president of research, asked me, a hint of apology in his voice. We were in Beijing for business, but I was almost as eager as he to see his alma mater, considered the top university in China. Plus, I had an inkling of what it meant to him to return there. Dr. Yan was in the first class of Chinese allowed to return in 1978 to college after Mao's mad and murderous Cultural Revolution closed the universities for a decade. Only one out of every 50 applicants was selected, and he was among those who were extremely grateful for the opportunity.

They were also an extremely close-knit bunch, almost uncannily so. Within seconds of Dr. Yan's unannounced arrival outside the chemistry building, six of his classmates gathered around him amazed. Some hadn't seen each other for months, but there they were, a few gray-haired, all grinning wildly.

AFRAID TO LEAVE.  Today, they are university presidents, deans, department heads, and professors. Very cosmopolitan, most have studied or taken sabbaticals at such august universities as Harvard, MIT, and Cambridge. Like Dr. Yan, now a U.S. citizen, they shift easily from Chinese to English, taking care to include me in their impromptu reunion.

"Speak in Chinese," I urged them, not wishing to intrude. They laughed and reminisced, sipping hot tea in the department head's comfortable office. I don't remember ever seeing Dr. Yan so happy and relaxed. He must miss being among his friends and colleagues, I thought. Later, over dinner, I asked him if he would ever consider returning to China.

"Every year, more and more return," he noted, adding "Here you make less, but you can still live well. Everything costs less." Thank goodness for MEECO, I think, that his children are in school here, and he and his wife both have rewarding jobs and live in a largely Chinese community outside Princeton.

SLACKERS.  It would be a terrible loss were he and his fellow countrymen to up and leave in a Chinese-style diaspora in reverse. With an all-Chinese research department, I don't know what we would do. These days, when we advertise for scientists, practically all the qualified applicants hail from China or Russia. To those who assume that China is behind us technically, I can only say it's just a matter of time. In my experience, our scientists at MEECO and Tiger are just as -- if not more -- focused, disciplined, bright, creative, and cooperative as their American-born counterparts.

One of my pet theories is that Americans don't want to do heavy labor or heavy study. I first developed this notion in the summer of '68, when I was taking a light load of classes at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It was a beautiful campus on a lake, and beer was cheap and plentiful. One day, I happened to wander into the library, I don't remember why. There, I noticed table after table of folks I'd never seen at our almost daily parties, Asian students, grinding away.

For Dr. Yan and his crowd, the chance to study in a well-endowed library was a rare privilege. "Our library was so crowded, I had to walk round and round with my books, looking for a place to sit," Dr. Yan recalls. "I couldn't believe it when I came here. There was so much room, and almost no one there." To this day, he and his Chinese colleagues are among the last to leave work every day.

AFRAID TO LEAVE.  What amazes me is that our country does not do more to encourage highly educated and talented people from abroad to work here. A highly esteemed Brazilian economist I know points out the value he lends as an American university professor: "Look, Brazil paid for my education, and the U.S. gets the benefit of it." Yet, instead of cultivating these folks, we are driving them away. Lacking U.S. citizenship, one of my Chinese scientists can no longer risk leaving the country lest he be barred from coming back. Meanwhile, thousands of worthy scientists and scholars can't even get in.

Between 2000 and 2002, nonimmigrant visa applications flagged for review went from 1,000 to 14,000, according to the IEEE-USA, part of the world's largest technical professional society. "Scientific advances…require the insights and contributions of scholars from many regions," reads a joint statement the IEEE recently presented with the American Association of American Universities and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They urge our government to adopt six recommendations to "streamline the admittance of international students, scholars, and scientists." Should they choose to stay home or go elsewhere, I guarantee the U.S. will be that much the poorer.

Lisa Bergson is President and CEO of both MEECO and Tiger Optics. Before joining MEECO in 1983, Lisa Bergson worked as a business journalist at BusinessWeek and freelanced for many business publications. You can visit her companies' Web sites at www.meeco.com and www.tigeroptics.com, or contact her at lbergson@meeco.com


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