Brawner: Made In Arkansas, But Not In America

Stephens Media columnist and Talk Business contributor Steve Brawner has a gem of a column this week for Arkansas News.

In a recent article Brawner wrote for our magazine, Talk Business & Politics, he observed the pioneering efforts of a Springdale-based tech company called NanoMech.

NanoMech is revolutionizing the world economy through its work in the field of nanotechnology. You can read about them here.

Brawner also made another interesting observation during his NanoMech tour:

There was something else about NanoMech that I couldn’t help noticing: Most of the really smart people working there are not from the United States. The four principal scientists are from China, the Ukraine, Scotland and India, and many of its other employees also are from overseas.

This is hardly the first time I have been struck by this reality. I write for a lot of publications covering a lot of different areas. If the story is about business or politics or sports, I’m probably interviewing an American. But if the story is about some major scientific advancement, then often the only American-born person I’m talking to is the nice public relations professional who greets me at the door and then escorts me back to the lab, where someone from another country tries to explain to me what he or she is doing in my own language (and his or her second) using words only he or she understands.

Brawner suggests that with historic changes occurring around the world, our country is going to have step up its efforts to develop more scientists, engineers and inventors.

The United States must also grow its own scientific and technical geniuses, and new generations of innovators must arise lest it become a nation where native public relations professionals and reporters trumpet only the achievements of those born and raised elsewhere. As other societies become more prosperous (and hopefully more free), the United States can’t count on being able to import its best scientists, professors, doctors and engineers forever.

In the meantime, I’ll be keeping an eye on NanoMech and seeing how big a difference it makes in the world by thinking about small things. And I’ll be proud that some of its greatest minds consider themselves Arkansans, even if they haven’t always been Americans.

You can read his full column at this link.