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How long till a Nobel comes our way?

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-09 08:09

China has a long way to go before Chinese mainland scientists' names begin appearing on the list of Nobel Prize winners, says an article on Red Net. Excerpt:

Three of this year's Nobel Prizes for research have already been announced, and not surprisingly not a single Chinese mainland scientist figures on the list. (Physics Nobel winner Charles Kuen Kao was born in Shanghai but has lived and done his research in the UK and the US.)

But as an emerging power, China can no longer ignore the vital question: "How far is a Nobel Prize?" A lot of things have to be changed to make our Nobel Prize dream come true.

Related readings:  Herta Mueller wins Nobel literature prize  Get original for Nobel  Nobel winner Kao coping with fame and Alzheimer's

From 1990 to 2008, 274 US scientists won the Nobel, comprising about 70 percent of all the winners, even though the population of the US is only 5 percent of world's total.

American scientists owe much of their achievements to their government's emphasis on scientific research. In the last few years, the US' research funds have risen to $110 billion, or 2.8 percent of its GDP.

In contrast, China's research funding is poor. In 2007, its research spending was just 20 billion yuan ($2.92 billion), or 0.83 percent of its yearly GDP. It was even less than the 1.1 percent in 2001. No wonder some say China's rapid economic growth is the result of cheap labor rather than its scientific and technological development.

China's rate of return from its investment in research is only 20 percent, while the US' is 200 percent and Japan's, 500 percent. The lack of a sound management mechanism can make even huge spending on research a waste because it would remain mere administrative expenditure.

Our education system lags behind the developed countries because we focus on instilling knowledge rather than encouraging independent thinking, and thus seriously impair our students' creative faculties. Making matters worse are our seniority-based promotion system and corruption in the field of scientific research.

A scientist wins a Nobel because of sufficient funding from the government, an independent research atmosphere and well-established management system.

(China Daily 10/09/2009 page9)