News Story on Italy's MIT Disappoints

Abstract

We were surprised by the tone and content 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][1]). The remark that international competition was ignored in recruiting IIT scientists is patently false. IIT, at its inception in 2005, set up 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. Also untrue is Margottini's reported concern that IIT's scientific roster includes big names who do not do the bulk of their work at IIT. Recently appointed senior scientists might continue working at a previous institution for some time while their laboratory space at IIT is refurbished and equipment is ordered. However, after this setup period they do their work onsite. Margottini's story is largely based on a report written by Mario Rasetti and Elio Raviola, who visited the institute on 6 June 2007, barely 11 months after the first directors were selected, and before any labs were operational. The IIT laboratories started in a 25,000-m2 facility that was first made available in January 2006. As such, Rasetti and Raviola's report was documenting a work in progress and was designed to monitor the early stages of the Institute's development. Their report reflects problems typical of the birth of new institutions. Nonetheless, the report was regarded, on balance, as positive, and IIT was indeed given continued support. The News story does not mention the substantial progress achieved by IIT in the past 2 years. After the review by Rasetti and Raviola, an independent international advisory board made an onsite evaluation of IIT in December 2008 and a general assessment in May 2009; both gave IIT a ringing endorsement. The May 2009 report concludes that “[i]n general, both the accomplishments of the past three years and the future plans seem excellent” (R. Horvitz, Nobel Laureate), and that “[t]he IIT initiative has been remarkably successful…the quality of the new members is very high and would be competitive in all highly developed countries” (P. Greengard, Nobel Laureate) ([ 1 ][2]). Like all major scientific endeavors, IIT has had some growing pains, but we believe it has a very bright future. The best evidence is something that Margottini overlooks in her article: Scores of excellent young Italian and foreign researchers have returned to Italy or come to Italy for the first time to work at IIT. 1. [↵][3] 1. E. Bizzi 2. et al ., “Evaluation report of Technical and Scientific Committee of the IIT-Foundation” (09 May 2009). [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.324_1502 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text