Says professor Capasso, one of the most famous Physicists at Harvard University, remembering a young Italian student who was undecided whether to remain in Italy to be close to his girlfriend or go to US for an excellent position.

Apart from gossip, today I have had a great lesson on what could be a significant aspect of the couple Slowness/dynamism, nowadays. Me and my colleagues of sissa’s master have had the possibility to pass one hour together with professor Capasso, talking with him about Physics and the possibilities for students to become researchers today.
He stressed that in this historical moment young people must be open, we must throw out the tiny idea that they have the right of studying in our native country: we must go, we must be dynamic. We must not be afraid of competitiveness, but pursue it, even if it leads us away from our safe harbor.
So, he suggests that maybe the whole category of brains drain must be reconsidered. Actually, I had never thought about this point before; we usually talk about many researchers that are obliged to leave, considering it as a failure of our society. Now – Capasso suggests – we must start considering it as a desirable character of the Research with Capital R, that consider leaving and movement in general as fundamental facets of our society, as Slowness is fundamental – as I have underlined in the last post – for being sustainable citizens.

To conclude, I don’t know which is the right choice, if the Bell Laboratories or the girlfriend; I only know that we must feel ourselves as complete as possible, and I thank to professor Capasso for this starting point for meditation.