I recently met a woman from Greece who is in the Ph.D. program in Biomedical Engineering at Case. When I asked her why she came all the way over here from Greece, she explained Case has the best program in her field in the world (did you know that?). She is working on a new technology for allowing people with paralysis to regain some muscle control - they can make a hand close - move an arm - etc. This type of world-class program thus attracts to Cleveland some of the world's experts in a valuable breakthrough field. It also attracts funding. It also may lead to spin off companies. And it brings cool, interesting, smart young people here!!! All these outcomes are important. But, when I asked the woman if she planned to stay here when she gets her Ph.D. she said probably not. She likes it here, but isn't motivated to stay. That we must change.

How much effort do we really put into knowing, loving and retaining the world experts who come here to learn and work in our leading institutions? They come here for years, and they are the key to developing bleeding edge industry here, so we should MARKET and cater to them rather than just preparing world-leaders to excel elsewhere (in her case, probably San Diego or San Francisco). So how many Greek Ph.D. candidates have you made feel welcome in Cleveland this year?

See related video post from Storm the Palace here.