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White House Tweaks Immigration Rules to Attract STEM Talent

The White House announced a series of immigration policy changes on Jan. 21 that aim to improve the ability of the U.S. to attract and retain international STEM talent. Among the actions, the administration has added 22 new STEM fields to the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which allows international students to work in the U.S. after graduation for a period of time. The announcement states that the added fields of study are primarily new multidisciplinary or emerging fields, and are critical in attracting talent to support U.S. economic growth and technological competitiveness. Among them are bioenergy, climate and Earth system sciences, cloud computing, data science and visualization, and human-centered technology design, which encompasses fields such as human-computer interaction and neuroscience. Students in the listed fields will now be eligible for a 24-month extension of their time in the OPT program, beyond the regular 12-month duration for non-STEM students.

Other announced steps include changes to eligibility guidance for O-1A visas, which are conferred to persons of extraordinary ability in certain fields. Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security updated its policy manual on O-1A visas to provide examples of evidence applicants can submit to demonstrate STEM expertise. Separately, the administration is seeking to promote educational exchanges through a new State Department-led Early Career STEM Research Initiative that will facilitate non-immigrant visitors engagement in STEM through research or training with host organizations, including businesses. The department has also announced that STEM undergraduate and graduate students on J-1 visas can receive up to 36 months of academic training, up from the current cap of 18 months.

A federal judge dismissed charges against MIT nanoengineering professor Gang Chen on Jan. 20 after Department of Justice prosecutors concluded they could not prove he committed grant fraud and other crimes related to the concealment of connections with Chinese institutions. According to reports, DOJ reached its decision after learning from the Department of Energy that the connections prosecutors accused Chen of hiding did not need to be disclosed in 2017, when he applied for the DOE grant in question, and that they would not have affected his eligibility for funding. On Jan. 21, Chen published an op-ed in the Boston Globe calling for DOJ and Congress to review his case, arguing that investigators and prosecutors twisted evidence against him and committed glaring misconduct by failing to obtain, consider, and turn over exculpatory information. He also added his voice to a growing chorus condemning DOJs pursuit of cases against academics based on alleged nondisclosures of foreign ties, writing that the departments misguided theory of prosecution could likely apply to thousands of professors who failed to list every routine professional activity with any entity in a foreign nation (which was not a requirement at the time).

The Department of Justice announced on Jan. 21 that former University of Arkansas electrical engineering professor Simon Ang has pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about being named as an inventor on Chinese patents. In exchange, the department will drop dozens of other counts, most of which involve allegations of fraud committed against NASA and the U.S. Air Force stemming from his nondisclosure of ties to Chinese businesses and receipt of funding from Chinese talent programs. Angs lawyer told the journal Science that the patents in question had no monetary value and he was serving as an adviser to a Singapore-based company owned by his brother. The lawyer also said Ang agreed to serve a prison sentence of one year and one day because that is the minimum length conferring eligibility for early release, and that at age 64 he has no plans to seek reinstatement by the university, which fired him two months after his arrest in July 2020.

The White House announced last week that President Biden will nominate Katy Huff to lead the Department of Energys Office of Nuclear Energy, a role she had filled on an acting basis since last May. Given hernomination, DOE career official Andrew Griffith has taken over as acting head of the office and Huff is now serving as a senior advisor to the energy secretary. Huff is on leave from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering. She received her doctorate in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013. In her time at DOE, she has advocated for aggressive development of advanced nuclear reactors, including through construction of the Versatile Test Reactor, a proposed user facility for exposing reactor components and materials to conditions comparable to those that would exist in new reactor designs.

The House Science Committee advanced an amended version of the National Nuclear University Research Infrastructure Reinvestment Act by voice vote last week. The bill wouldrecommend Congress provide $600 million to the Department of Energy over eight years to establish new nuclear facilities at universities. Specifically, it would direct DOE to carry out a subprogram that funds advanced nuclear reactor concept demonstrations, construction of medical isotope production reactors, and construction of up to four research reactors, among other activities. The bill furtherinstructs that the subprogram support regional consortia that encourage the participation of minority-serving institutions, community colleges, and universities in EPSCoR states. Among amendments the committee adopted, one by Energy Subcommittee Chair Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) authorizes DOE to support non-technical nuclear research, defined to include areas such as social sciences or law that can support an increase in community engagement, participation, and confidence in nuclear energy systems, including the navigation of the licensing required for advanced reactor deployment.

President Biden met with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology last week following a meeting of the council, which focused on efforts to improve monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate innovation in energy technology. According to a readout of the event, PCAST briefed Biden on four areas it is currently examining: protecting against physical and financial risks from climate change; using science and technology to detect, track, and fight wildfires; reimagining the U.S. public health system to address decades-old challenges laid bare by the pandemic; and ensuring U.S. leadership in science and technology innovation. Prior to the meeting, Biden remarked on the importance of science in decision-making. Its essential that science and scientific integrity are again taken seriously and are at the center of what were about as a nation; that scientists have a seat at the table, every table in the government, he said.

Within a wide-ranging executive order last week on cybersecurity of national security networks, President Biden directed relevant agencies to identify within 180 days any instances where they are using encryption methods that are not resistant to hacking by quantum computers and to provide a timeline for transitioning such systems to compliant encryption methods. The National Security Agency has promoted the adoption of such algorithms for years to hedge against the potential development of a quantum computer capable of breaking current encryption schemes. Although NSA has stated it does not know when or even if such a computer will be developed, security researchers have raised concerns that hackers could steal presently encrypted data and store it away for decades until a quantum computer capable of breaking the encryption is developed. NSA plans to eventually adopt post-quantum encryption methods selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is currently evaluating candidate algorithms.

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The Week of January 24, 2022 - FYI: Science Policy News