New Okinawa institute launches global recruiting effort

Nature : In 2001 the Japanese government launched an ambitious plan to build a world-class international research institute and graduate university in science and technology on Okinawa, one of the most southerly and remote islands in Japan. The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), which has no departments and no professorial hierarchy, promises scientists the freedom to pursue their own research. Since OIST is required to find 50% of its faculty and students from outside Japan, the institute’s new president Jonathan Dorfan, former director of Stanford University’s SLAC, has launched the biggest recruiting drive to date: Over three weeks in December 2010, 27 potential recruits visited the institute, 26 were offered positions, and 20 have accepted—11 of them physicists. Dorfan hopes that OIST will earn university accreditation this fall and can start accepting graduate students for 2012. In addition to attracting scientists, the institute has proven to appeal to other scientific professionals, such as Neil Calder, senior adviser in communication at OIST, who has written for Physics Today about the nature of science communication.