News Story on Italy's MIT Disappoints

摘要

We Were Surprised By The Tone And Con-tent of the News of the Week story by L. Margottini about the new Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) ("Italy's MIT grows, and so does controversy," 19 June, p. 1502).rnThe remark that international competition was ignored in recruiting IIT scientists is patently false. IIT, at its inception in 2005, setrnup international competitions for both senior and junior investigators. These positions were advertised widely in scientific journals, including Science and Nature. As a result of this international search, four of the six appointed IIT research directors come from abroad, and among junior appointments, one-third are Italians returning from abroad, one-third are Italians already residing in Italy, and one-third are foreigners.