[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 150 (Tuesday, October 20, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12734-S12735]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IMMIGRANT NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I would like to bring to the 
attention of my colleagues a recent article in the Washington Times 
dealing with the large proportion of Nobel Prize winners in the United 
States who are immigrants. As reported in this article, while only 
approximately 8 percent of the American population was foreign-born as 
of 1990, approximately one third of American winners of the Nobel Prize 
have been immigrants.
  The Times also reports that, according to the National Research 
Council, ``immigrants have won 32 percent of the U.S. Nobel Prizes for 
physics, 31 percent of the medicine and economics prizes, and 26 
percent of the chemistry prizes.'' This year, Austrian-born American 
Walter Kohn won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Daniel Tsui, born in 
China, won the Nobel Prize in Physics as a naturalized American.
  Mr. President, I believe every American should take great pride in 
these gentlemen's accomplishments. By keeping American society free and 
open we attracted them to our borders. Through our willingness to seek 
out and hire the most talented people available we gave them the 
opportunity to excel. By rising above considerations of national origin 
and family background all of us have benefitted from the discoveries, 
the intelligence and the hard work of literally millions of 
immigrants--from my own grandparents to the ancestors of our Founding 
Fathers to the latest immigrant, intent on making a better life for 
himself and his family.
  I ask that the full text of the article from the Washington Times be 
printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

               [From the Washington Times, Oct. 17, 1998]

              Immigrants Help U.S. Bring Home Nobel Bacon

                            (By Ruth Larson)

       This week's announcement of the Nobel Prizes for science 
     continued America's long-standing dominance of the 
     prestigious awards, thanks in large part to a wealth of 
     foreign-born talent.
       A National Research Council report last year found that 
     about a third of all U.S. Nobel Prizes were won by scientists 
     born overseas. Immigrants have won 32 percent of the U.S. 
     Nobel Prizes for physics, 31 percent of the medicine and 
     economics prizes, and 26 percent of the chemistry prizes.
       Although the report does not state where the immigrants 
     were born, the last 16 winners since 1987 have come from 
     places like Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Canada, 
     Mexico and Korea.
       ``There's no doubt about it: Immigrants represent a very 
     high proportion of Nobel Prize winners,'' said Cato Institute 
     economist Stephen Moore.
       The number of foreign-born Nobel Prize winners is all the 
     more striking, given that the U.S. foreign-born population 
     reached just 8 percent in 1990, the report said.
       The Nobel Prizes, considered the ultimate symbols of 
     scientific achievement, show how America in the 1990s has 
     become a high-tech melting pot, recruiting science and 
     engineering talent from around the world to fuel the growth 
     of industries from computers and electronics to 
     pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
       In 1993, 23 percent of those holding science and 
     engineering doctorates were born overseas, according to the 
     National Science Foundation's latest figures.
       Shirley Malcom of the American Association for the 
     Advancement of Science, said, ``The best and the brightest 
     come here because there has been a tremendous research 
     establishment built up in this country.''
       Mr. Moore agreed: ``If you're one of the world's top 
     scientists, you want to be at Stanford or Harvard or MIT, 
     where they have some of the bsst academic research 
     facilities.
       History has helped, too. Obviously, World War II played a 
     major role, with many of the

[[Page S12735]]

     more repressive regimes discriminating against scientists of 
     a particular heritage or background,'' Ms. Malcom said.
       ``In many cases, scientists had no choice but to leave. 
     They came to the U.S. because they were offered opportunities 
     to pursue their life's work without regard to those 
     extraneous issues.''
       Roald Hoffman, a 1981 winner of the Nobel Prize for 
     chemistry, fled with his family in 1949 from their native 
     Poland.
       ``I was one of the last generations of Hitler's gifts to 
     America,'' he said.
       A wave of Central European scientists, including physicists 
     Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, fled the rise of Nazism and 
     anti-Semitism and came to America.
       The scientific research structure established after World 
     War II flourished, with the help of a strong economy and 
     generous government funding from agencies like the National 
     Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, he 
     said.
       ``The freedom to do the scientific research you want . . . 
     is tremendous, as is the ease of interaction with other 
     scientists,'' Mr. Hoffman said. Success then breeds success: 
     ``Once you have built up a good reputation in a particular 
     area, it attracts other scientists, as we've seen in the 
     biomedical field.''
       Ms. Malcom predicted that a similar influx of scientists 
     fleeing the former Soviet Union would be reflected in future 
     Nobel winners. ``Not just because of the Cold War, either,'' 
     she said. ``They've lost much of the infrastructure needed 
     for research and development, as well.''
       But wars and repressive regimes cannot account for the 
     success of immigrants once they arrive on American soil.
       ``We're getting people with the motivation and ambition 
     that leads to high achievement,'' Mr. Moore said. ``There's a 
     certain amount of risk-taking associated with 
     success.''

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