Physics makes do in Cuba and elsewhere

The story by Toni Feder (Physics Today, March 2018, page 48 ) about the status of physics in Cuba was insightful and full of information. Large portions of it resonate with my own life and academic experience. I graduated with a physics diploma back in the 1990s, but it was tough to actively pursue research in my native Albania. At the time, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) was a lifeline of support to students and visitors from developing and Eastern European countries (see my Letter to the Editor, Physics Today, April 2015, page 11 ) the same way it is doing now for some Cuban physicists featured in Feder’s story. I completed the ICTP’s condensed-matter-physics graduate program in 1994.

The answer to the important question raised about the next generation of physicists in Cuba depends heavily on what model Cuba will use in an evolving world to keep homegrown physics programs attractive for young researchers to want to return. Without carefully thought-out programs, the majority of those earning PhDs in developed countries will not return to Cuba, and as a result, excellence will be hard to sustain.

Apart from the economic hardships, the most serious challenge for the Cuban physics community is to simultaneously pursue international exchange collaborations while somehow reversing the brain drain of researchers. Highly skilled young researchers educated abroad need attractive reasons to return.

For me, the lack of such opportunities in my native Albania meant that I had little incentive to return after I obtained my PhD in theoretical condensed-matter physics in 1997. Obviously, the trend repeats in many developing countries. Passion and creativity are indeed driving forces, but they have their limits.

Both academics and government officials must offer young PhD researchers reasons to return and opportunities to grow. Otherwise, as has happened in other developing countries, physics education in Cuba will further decline.