“Keeping U.S. High-Tech Sector Diverse: Avoiding Reverse Brain Drain from the United States to India” is a collaborative project that will comparatively evaluate the experiences of expatriated Indian industrial information-technology and bio-technology engineers, those who stay in the US and those that migrate back to India; and will develop theoretical understanding of changes in the social construction of nationality with transnational migration. “It will show that international connections are being institutionalized in a way that allows engineers and scientists in India and the U.S. to participate in a global economy,” Professor Varma said.

With national borders becoming invisible in the world of science and technology, the researchers expect to show that the process of return migration among engineers and scientists is anything but zero-sum game. The results of this research will be disseminated through publications in journals, and by presenting at conferences. 

“I am very happy and feel extremely fortunate to get another grant on a topic that is of interest to any developed nation,” she said.  

NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense..." NSF is tasked with keeping the United States at the leading edge of discovery in traditional academic areas.

For more details, check out UNM Newsroom's article on this great achievement!