Spotlight on transatlantic academic careers on the RSI
© 2012 EPFL
Are the United States still an Eldorado for research? This is the question asked by the journalist Clara Caverzasio-Tanzi during a debate on the RSI - Italian Swiss Radio – broadcasted on November 4, 2012 to which Prof. Marilyne Andersen, head of the LIPID at EPFL and formerly professor at MIT during 6 years was invited with two other Swiss researchers: Mario Rasetti, scientific advisor to the U.S. government and to DG Connect, and teaching researcher at MIT; as well as Simone Bonazzi, researcher at the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University.
During this radio program, which first gives an overview of the state of research and Nobel laureates then moves on to discuss the potential of young researchers to "change the world", Marilyne Andersen speaks about the unique opportunity that a research experience in the US undeniably represents for an academic career, and particularly at an institution such as MIT which allows to work with particularly motivated and outstanding students, and in an intense, dynamic and respectful research atmosphere between colleagues and between students. The tenure-track system, adopted at EPFL and in more and more European institutions, bets on young people based on their potential, and not only on the experience they may have accumulated over the years. Marilyne Andersen was in fact recruited by MIT before she had even finished her doctoral thesis. But she also insists on the fact that the US may no longer have the monopoly of this very positive dynamic for new careers and emphasizes the thriving and extremely supportive environment now offered at EPFL. Her intervention during the recording of the radio broadcast (with simultaneous translation in Italian) can be found between minutes 9:35 and 12:04.