Russian basic sciences research on the decline

Many students here at Hopkins were not even born when the U.S.S.R. fell. But there are plenty of professors who can remember the tension and constant state of alarm in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Of those from the U.S.S.R., a few managed to emigrate out of Russia once the Soviet Union collapsed. They can still recall how the rapid change from communism to capitalism made the 1990s such a disheartening time for Russians. The economy was in ruins and there was a sudden decrease in science.

Today, the economy has risen but scientific output has been essentially stagnant since the Soviet Union dissolved. As other countries continue to promote research and publish thousands of scholarly papers a year, Russia still lags behind.

For what was once a powerhouse of research, this kind of standstill deters potential scientists from pursuing careers in Russia. In the early 1990s, tens of thousands of Russian researchers emigrated to Western Europe, the U.K. and the U.S. in search for better scientific opportunities. Those same expatriates recently convened and wrote a letter to the Russian government, urging them to increase funding so that Russia could regain its position as a world leader in scientific research.

Andrei Gritsan, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the physics and astronomy department, provided input for the letter, but he never signed it. Gritsan is a particle physicist, participating in an international collaborative experiment using the Large Hadron Collider as the main instrument. Gritsan was born in Russia and completed his undergraduate education at Novosibirsk State University.

He described the scientific atmosphere at his alma mater as stimulating, but with a caveat. "The '90s were a difficult time for many reasons," he said. "Science was neglected and people didn't respect basic science."

He left for the U.S. for reasons both related and unrelated to the conditions of science at the time. "Scientifically, to be able to go somewhere was part of it, but while I was studying in Russia, I had to rely on my parents and no one wants to have to do that his whole life," he said.

Other professors at Hopkins tell a similar story. Oleg Tchernyshyov, Ph.D., also an assistant professor in the physics and astronomy department, actually began graduate school in Russia after receiving his undergraduate degree at Moscow Institute for physics and technology.

Like Gritsan, he described the scholarly atmosphere there as stimulating, and a mix of research and typical college. The school combined a large professorial base of a liberal arts program with many research opportunities. However, in 1992, with many people leaving for the West or going into business, he enrolled at Columbia University and restarted graduate school in the U.S.

Others did their graduate studies in Western Europe before coming to Hopkins. Dmitri Artemov, Ph.D, assistant professor in the radiology department, also studied at Moscow State University for his undergraduate degree and worked briefly for Russia's Academy of Sciences. When he felt that the scientific atmosphere was beginning to deteriorate, he applied for the highly competitive Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which brought scientists to Germany.

"The Academy of Sciences was like the Max Planck Institute in Germany," Artemov said. "It was a scientific academy of students with no teaching obligations, so we could spend most of our time doing pure research. Then everything happened very rapidly. The funding stayed constant, but inflation went up and so we had to engage in scientific business. So I began to sell MRI machines to industries and taught people how to use them — it was like customer support. In three years, I only published one paper."

Artemov left Russia, as did most of his classmates who wished to pursue basic science. In fact, although their class reunion was supposed to be in Moscow, he attended an alternative reunion in San Diego, which was more accessible to the many people who had gone abroad. Kirill Melnikov, who, like Gritsan, is a particle physicist, is another assistant professor at Hopkins who came through Germany before arriving in the United States. Melnikov earned his Ph.D. at Mainz University and proceeded to do research at the University of Karlsruhe after completing his undergraduate education at Novosibirsk State University.

Today, the four expatriate Russians are successful in their various fields of research. However, they still feel strongly about the current conditions of scientific decline in their home country. Gritsan, whose collaborative project includes scientists from the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Russia, has found that there has been a decrease in research in both the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War ended. However, he said that the decline in the U.S. has been for different reasons. "Tt hasn't been as drastic in the U.S," Gritsan added.

All four mentioned the difference between doing basic science research here as compared with in Russia. Although there are still papers published in local journals around the country, most recent graduates prefer to go into business endeavors rather than laboratories.

"People go into business — there are plenty of programming jobs available now," Melnikov said. Tchernyshyov added that he could have stayed back to finish his degree, but he would have had to go into business because there were so few people left to do research with.

Currently, they say, no one really completes school in Russia. "I knew one friend who did, and he went back and forth between Russia and Germany before finally just studying in Spain," Tchernyshyov said. Those who want to continue basic science research tend to go abroad.

"When you look at Ph.D. students from before about ten years ago, I would get at least 50% of the applicants from China, 30% from India, and at least 20% from the former Soviet Union, but in the last ten years, I've had almost no one apply," Artemov said. "I guess that this is because university education isn't just a step towards independent basic research anymore, but it's some certificate that would help them progress to another track. I advertised a position 3 months ago and got hundreds of applications from China, 70 from India, but none from Russia, so something changed, and I don't know what."

The decrease in Russian graduate students is the same at both the medical campus and here in the physics department. "Maybe students aren't that eager to come," Gritsan suggested.

For the students that are there, and the researchers involved in the few prominent institutions such as the Nanotechnology Center and the Academy of Sciences, the conditions may not be as catastrophic as some people say, but they are not perfect either. Melnikov keeps in touch with a certain lab director at Novosibirsk who runs an accelerator.

"The government only gives the lab a quarter of what they need, so it is up to the lab to make the rest of it themselves and so they make magnets for CERN," he said. "The lab director there has been continuously saving the institute, and so it detracts from participating in science. It's not that he's not publishing, he's just distracted."

To remedy the situation, expatriate Russian particle physicists gathered to write a letter to the government regarding the lack of funding. Gritsan, one of the first to read it, showed the letter to both Melnikov and Tchernyshyov. All three had the same reaction and refused to sign the letter.

"I agree with the idea, but I found it counterproductive for two reasons," explained Gritsan. "There is a division between different fields of science, and there is a division between expatriate scientists and scientists in Russia. The letter was just too specific." The letter was only penned by Russian scientists who had left the country to study elsewhere, possibly giving the wrong impression to scientists still in Russia. "It seemed like the foreigners only wanted a piece of the pie," Tchernyshyov said.

"You have to remember that there are other scientific disciplines, not just particle physics," Gritsan added.

Whether or not it is advisable for current Russian students to study abroad in order to best pursue their research is debatable.

"It's hard to give them advice without knowing who they are, but the best opportunities are in the west," said Tchernyshyov. "The decision to leave one's home country is individual and personal," Melnikov agreed.

Artemov encourages students to come to the United States because of the unique scientific environment that exists in America. At the same time, it's not unheard of to go back to one's roots: Melnikov knows of a colleague who left his position at Rutgers for Moscow.

"Science has changed," Tchernyshyov said. "It used to be well-paid there. It was a good life. People wanted to do it. These days, scientists are poorly paid. It's not impossible to get funding, but you can't get a lot of it. But there are people who don't need a lab - my lab is this desk — so people can theorize abroad and keep their affiliation with Moscow. It's still not a good situation — not catastrophic, but it's still pretty bad."