IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Winter 2014 - 33

Table III
Frequencies and Percentages of HCRs in Engineering
According to the Country where the First Degree was
Completed

Native-Born
Non-Native

70
60

Location of B.Sc.
Degree of the HCRs

Count

50
40

30
20

0
U.S.

Europe

15
1

Asia

Institution

Number of
HCRs

Percentage of
HCRs

U.S.

100

41.8%

23.4%

Asia

18%

Rest of the world

10.9%

Missing

5.9%

TOTAL

239

100%

Rest of the
World

Fig. 1. Counts of HCRs for U.S., European, and nonU.S. and European institutions.

Table IV
Frequencies and Percentages of HCRs
According to their Country of Birth
Birthplace of
HCRs

Number of
HCRs

Percentage of
HCRs

Table I
Frequencies and Percentages of HCRs in
Engineering According to their Current Affiliation

U.S.

32.6%

27.2%

Asia

21.8%

Present
affiliation

10%

68.2%

Rest of the
world
Missing

8.4%

TOTAL

239

100%

Number
of HCRs

U.S.

Percentage
of HCRs

163

16.3%

Asia

7.1%

Rest of
the world
TOTAL

8.4%

239

100%

Table II
Frequencies and Percentages of HCRs in Engineering
According to the Country where their Ph.D. Studies
were Completed
Ph.D. Degree of the
HCRs

Number of
HCRs

Percentage of
HCRs

U.S.
EU
Asia

152
52
17

63.6%
21.8%
7.1%

Rest of the world
Missing

10
8

4.2%
3.3%

TOTAL

239

100%

and Europe. In engineering, the phenomenon of movement of HCRs between B.Sc. and Ph.D. studies is not as
strong as in the field of mathematics, where researchers
having completed their B.Sc. studies in the EU exceeded
those in the U.S. (33.2% and 32.7%, respectively).
From a total of 155 HCRs affiliated with U.S. institutions (where information on both their affiliation
and their B.Sc. studies was available), 27 (17.4%) and
21 (13.5%), respectively, acquired their first degree in
Asia and in the EU. This corresponds to the 62.8% of
the HC engineers who completed their B.Sc. degree
in Asia, and to the 37.5% who completed their B.Sc.
in the EU. Hence, Asia is by far the continent losing
more of its engineering potential through a brain drain
towards the U.S. From the nine HC Chinese engineers
who obtained a B.Sc. degree in China, only one is currently working in China.

Birthplaces of HCRs
Looking at the countries where the highly cited
engineers earned their first degree reveals more interesting facts (Table III).
Out of 239 HCRs, 41.8% (100) had completed
their B.Sc. degree studies in the U.S., 23.4% earned
their B.Sc. degrees in Europe, and 28.9% had B.Sc.
degrees from institutions in countries outside the U.S.
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

WINTER 2014

Table IV looks at the birthplaces of the HCRs. Once
again, by cross-tabulations between affiliation and
country of birth, we found that Asian HC engineers
contribute the most to the transfer towards U.S. institutions (66%), followed by EU HC engineers with
46.2%. The EU tends to retain its HC scientists more
efficiently when compared with Asia.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Winter 2014