Opportunity knocks

摘要

In july this year, Josef Zwanziger, a tenured professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, moved with his family across the border to Canada, The American was lured northwards by an offer from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to be its new Canada Research Chair in NMR studies of materials, complete with guaranteed funding to the tune of Can$1.4 million (US$1 million) over the next 7 years. "It was a no-brainer professionally speaking," says Zwanziger. "The students here are outstanding... and the faculty colleagues in my area of interest are really strong and collaborative." Zwanziger is one of 926 Canada Research Chairs created by the Canadian government since 2000. This programme is just a small part of the push to make Canada one of the top five nations in the world for R&D by 2010. This is an ambitious goal, especially considering that in 1997―when the government first announced its aims―Canada was ranked 15th in terms of investment in R&D in the OECD, the club of the world's leading nations.