Five leading specialists in the field of coordinate time measurements, who had left Russia in the 1990s, have been brought back to the country, according to the Russian Research Institute for Physical-Technical and Funk-Technical Measurements. The specialists, who had continued to work at the forefront of scientific developments abroad, returned due to Russia’s renewed focus on the development of coordinate time measurements, said the institute’s director, Sergei Dontschenko.
Dontschenko stated that the institute has successfully attracted a team of young researchers and also managed to bring back five leading specialists from Japan, France, Germany and Italy, who had left the institute in the 1990s but continued to work at the forefront of the field.
All the returned experts have seen the attention given to the development of their field in their home country and they also had personal reasons to return, according to the institute’s director. Many scientists of this generation would like to return to Russia, but their children are likely to stay in the West, having few ties to their homeland, Dontschenko noted.
The Russian media have extensively covered the trend of Russian scientists returning to the country, with the head of the federal agency for medicine and biology, Veronika Skworzowa, stating that Russian scientists who worked abroad for 10 to 15 years are currently returning, citing the pressure and new formats of the Western world, as well as concerns for their children, as reasons.
The return of Russian scientists from abroad is no longer a rare occurrence, said Alexei Paewskij, a lecturer at the Russian Society for Science and Science Journalism, adding that the trend is not new, citing the example of the return of a prominent Russian chemist, Artjom Oganow and others.