Visas: Not Everywhere You Want to Be: or The American Non-Express
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Letter from the President
Visas: Not Everywhere You Want to Be or The American Non-Express This letter is not about credit cards, despite the title. It is about the U.S. visa system, the U.S. government’s view of both non-U.S. citizens and scientists, and what this has meant for our nonU.S. colleagues. Secured by an ocean on each side, the United States has never felt seriously threatened by an outside power. The intentional demolition of the World Trade Center Towers and portions of the Pentagon on 9/11 was unimaginable to most Americans. I myself had been in China on 9/11, giving lectures at the Harbin Institute of Technology. One of my student guides broke the news to me with many apologies, explaining that both the World Trade Center and the “Five Corners Building” (it took me a while to get that one) had been hit. I was surprised and intensely curious, but being cut off from the U.S. media meant I had no sense of the reaction back home. When I returned, I found a nation of stunned people. The public feeling was much like finding out your child—your child, your healthy, happy child—had cancer. People were literally sick with distress for months. I can remember whole business lunches where no one wanted to talk above a whisper. Given the emotional impact of 9/11, the passage of the Patriot Act was a forgone conclusion. This Act gave up many traditional freedoms for the prospect of a safer America. This is when the visa delays started—mandatory FBI background checks for each applicant, mandatory tracking of all students (and, in some cases, their families) by university staff (implemented February 2003), mandatory in-person interviews for each visa applicant (May 2003), mandatory fingerprinting (coming January 2004), and mandatory machine readable passports (by October 2004; October 2003 for some countries). It is not clear what hurdle will come next, but the “visa challenge” has probably been the first nonmonetary political issue to affect the materials science community. This is what we have learned.
Chemical absorption Quantum wells, resonant tunneling ■ Superconductivity ■ Advanced optoelectronics ■ Aerospace thermal (such as superalloys) and high-performance structures ■ Spray or drum-drying technology ■ Milling equipment or technology intended for the production of micron-sized particles. According to this list, I am either a national treasure or a national threat because I know at least a little bit about each of these areas. Probably any member of the Materials Research Society could claim the same. ■ ■
The “visa challenge” has probably been the first nonmonetary political issue to affect the materials science community.
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Materials science is a very, very dangerous profession. It is hard to think of myself as a danger to anyone. But, post-9/11, technical knowledge is considered a dangerous thing by many U.S. citizens. The Technical Alert List, which is used by consular offices to screen visa applicants, includes the following “critical fields of study” that consular officers should watch for: ■ Adva
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