Dozens of scientists and experts have left the U.S. and Britain for China this 12 months for causes starting from household concerns and analysis alternatives to funding issues and restricted management prospects.
In this story VnExpress International profiles seven prominent figures who have made the transfer.
1. Biologist Zhang Kai
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World-leading cryo-electron microscopy scientist Zhang Kai. Photo courtesy of Yale University |
Zhang, an influential researcher in cryo-electron microscopy, left his tenure-track place at Yale University on Jan. 12 to affix the University of Science and Technology of China’s School of Life Sciences and Medicine.
The departure attracted consideration as a result of Zhang left the Ivy League college throughout a promising stage of his profession quite than remaining to hunt promotion.
He instructed the South China Morning Post in April that his determination was partly influenced by U.S. visa restrictions on Chinese college students. A doctoral pupil in his laboratory had been unable to return to the U.S. and was pressured to withdraw, he stated, prompting him to rethink the place he might “fulfil my dreams and give more young people the chance to grow in a long-term, stable environment.”
Zhang earned his bachelor’s diploma from the Harbin Institute of Technology earlier than becoming a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Biophysics.
After receiving his doctorate in biophysics in 2013, he performed postdoctoral analysis on the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, a number one structural biology heart.
He beforehand instructed China Science Daily that it was “impossible for a Chinese scholar to take the lead” in tasks requiring long-term funding and collaboration amongst a number of establishments, the place Chinese researchers might face boundaries to management roles.
He stated he didn’t select China as a result of he wished to “leave the U.S.”, however as a result of he “wanted to go to a place where my scientific ambitions were more likely to be realised.” He described USTC because the “best fit” for pursuing his tutorial objectives.
2. Nobel chemistry laureate Omar Yaghi
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2025 Nobel chemistry laureate Omar Yaghi. Photo courtesy of Atoco |
Yaghi, who received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has taken cost of Tsinghua University’s AI for Chemistry and Materials Science Research Center after working on the University of California, Berkeley, Tsinghua introduced on July 3.
The 61-year-old scientist will lead analysis into utilizing synthetic intelligence to speed up the design and manufacturing of recent supplies, doubtlessly lowering growth time “by orders of magnitude.”
Yaghi, who has maintained close ties with Tsinghua for years, stated at his appointment ceremony that he hoped to develop supplies addressing water shortage, carbon neutrality and sustainable growth. He additionally plans to coach younger scientists in AI-driven chemistry.
Born right into a Palestinian household in Amman, Jordan, Yaghi moved to the U.S. at 15 and earned his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Before becoming a member of UC Berkeley, he taught at Arizona State University, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Los Angeles.
He can also be the founder and chief science officer of Atoco, a U.S. local weather expertise firm. He lately established the Yaghi Science Initiative, a nonprofit analysis and training community connecting scientists in the U.S., South Korea, the U.Ok., Italy, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China, in response to The European Magazine.
3. Cambridge structure pioneer Francois Penz
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French professor Francois Pen. Photo courtesy of University of Cambridge |
Penz, a pioneer in integrating laptop science, movie and structure, joined Nanjing University after a profession spanning about 45 years on the University of Cambridge, U.Ok., the Chinese college introduced in March.
The 76-year-old scholar had labored intently with Nanjing University in current years, delivering lectures and organizing architectural movie exhibitions in China.
Born in France, he studied structure on the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland, in the early Nineteen Seventies, the place he started combining architectural analysis with laptop science.
He earned his doctorate in 1983 and joined Cambridge’s structure division in 1988 after finishing postdoctoral analysis there. He helped set up movie and structure as a proper tutorial subject and promoted pictures and shifting photos as architectural design instruments.
The French authorities awarded him the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, one of many nation’s highest tutorial honors, in 2009 for his contributions to training and scholarship.
4. Semiconductor supplies skilled Shi Guojun
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Semiconductor packaging skilled Shi Guojun. Photo courtesy of University of California, Irvine, U.S. |
Shi left the University of California, Irvine, U.S., after greater than 20 years to grow to be chief strategic scientist and director of the Future Industry Research Institute at DK Electronic Materials.
DK Electronic Materials, a serious provider of photovoltaic metallization paste used in photo voltaic cells, introduced his appointment in March. Shi will oversee planning and growth in rising industries, focusing notably on the corporate’s growth into semiconductor reminiscence.
He earned a bachelor’s diploma in agricultural meteorology from the Nanjing Institute of Meteorology in 1983 and a grasp’s diploma in micrometeorology from the University of Guelph in Canada.
After shifting his analysis towards supplies science, Shi earned a doctorate in chemical engineering and supplies science from the California Institute of Technology in 1992.
He later joined UC Irvine, the place he grew to become a tenured professor, taught for greater than 20 years and printed over 200 tutorial papers.
The IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society gave Shi its Outstanding Sustained Technical Contribution Award in 2010 for his work on optoelectronic packaging, superior gadget supplies and manufacturing.
5. Neurobiologist Chih-Ying Su
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Taiwan-born neurobiologist Chih-Ying Su. Photo courtesy of SMART |
Taiwan-born neurobiologist Su left the University of California San Diego to affix the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation as a senior investigator after almost 30 years in the U.S.
The academy, referred to as SMART, introduced her appointment on July 2.
“I decided to join SMART at the end of last year, deeply impressed by the advanced hardware conditions and the strong academic atmosphere of the research institute,” Su stated in an electronic mail interview with SCMP. “The excellent management and tutorial imaginative and prescient of [SMART] president Yan Ning deeply attracted me.”
Born and raised in Taiwan, Su obtained her bachelor’s and grasp’s levels from National Taiwan University, the place she captained its taekwondo group.
She moved to the U.S. in 2000 and earned a doctorate in neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University in 2006 earlier than starting her profession in olfactory neuroscience, the research of how nervous methods course of odor.
Su joined UC San Diego’s Department of Biological Sciences in 2013. She grew to become an assistant professor of neurobiology in 2020 and was promoted to full professor and division vice chair in 2024.
Her analysis examines how odor influences animal conduct. Using fruit flies, she research how comparatively easy brains determine meals, mates and hazard by odors, providing broader insights into how brains course of data.
Her work additionally covers mosquitoes. In 2025, her group printed a research in PNAS explaining how Aedes aegypti mosquitoes detect carbon dioxide exhaled by people to find hosts. Her analysis has appeared in journals together with Nature, Neuron and Nature Communications.
6. Chipmaking engineer Xu Zhenpeng
Advanced manufacturing researcher Xu left the U.S. and joined Shanghai Jiao Tong University as a tenure-track assistant professor in January, he stated in an social media publish in January.
Before returning to China, he led a group at California startup Atomic Semi, growing 3D printing strategies designed to make chip manufacturing sooner and cheaper than typical methods that use giant, multimillion-dollar machines.
Xu stated Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s manufacturing analysis and trade ties would assist his work.
“In my earlier function in the semiconductor sector in the U.S., more and more strict insurance policies and company compliance necessities restricted my worldwide mobility, which became a constraint on sustained research development,” Xu instructed SCMP. “Meanwhile, China’s advanced manufacturing research ecosystem is evolving rapidly.”
Xu earned his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2023 and specializes in large-area, micron-precision 3D printing for electronics manufacturing.
During his doctoral and postdoctoral analysis at UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley, he contributed to U.S.-funded tasks and developed high-speed methods for printing tiny elements able to glowing, bending or responding to the touch.
7. Biomedical scientist Chen Weiqiang
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Chinese biomedical scientist Chen Weiqiang. Photo courtesy of New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering |
Chen, previously a professor and director of graduate training at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, joined Nanjing University’s School of Biomedical Engineering on June 1.
At Chen’s welcome ceremony, Nanjing University assistant president Jiang Tian praised his analysis in mobile biomechanics and organ-on-a-chip expertise, which makes use of small units containing residing cells to simulate how human organs operate.
“He selected to join Nanjing University during his peak academic years and this heartfelt dedication and excessive degree of belief are actually shifting.”
Chen stated his return was primarily motivated by profession growth and household concerns. He plans to proceed superior analysis whereas coaching expertise and strengthening collaboration amongst universities, analysis establishments and corporations.
He graduated from Nanjing University’s School of Physics in 2005 and earned a grasp’s diploma in electrical engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2008. He later moved to the U.S., receiving a grasp’s diploma from Purdue University in 2009 and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 2014.
He grew to become an affiliate professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering in 2020 and was elected a fellow of the American Heart Association three years later for his contributions to biomedical science. He grew to become a tenured full professor in March 2024.
According to Nanjing University, Chen has printed almost 70 peer-reviewed papers and led greater than 20 main worldwide analysis tasks with mixed funding exceeding 63 million yuan (US$13.2 million). He additionally helped set up the world’s first knowledge analysis heart devoted to alternate options to animal testing at NYU.
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