y to do research but also to strengthen ties between Chinese American scientist and their Pacific Rim
counterparts. They are using as their base the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America (SCBA), an organization headed by Yang that is committed to advancing the careers of Chinese American scientists. This society is one of a growing number of organizations for Chinese American scientists and engineers that serve informal links to researchers in Asia, and the resulting networks, which include organizations of Chinese American chemists and physicists, help on two levels: they provide opportunities for scientists from Asian countries to work and train in the United States, and they assist Asian governments and companies in recruiting top flight U.S.
researchers for jobs in Asia. The organization was conceived in a San Francisco restaurant in 1983 by three senior Chinese American scientists- Yale pharmacologist Yung Chi Cheng, University of Minnesota pharmacologist Horace Loh, and University of California at San Francisco molecular parasitologist C.C. Wang. The organization takes an apolitical stand, and as an example, it took no position on the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. It has grown from 200 members in 1985 to more than 1500 in 1993, and Yang believes that the organization can play a major role in improving biological science in the Pacific Rim.
The society acts primarily as an employment service, and senior members seek collaborators and post-doctoral candidates to match with job openings. Much of this networking until recently took place between Asian researchers already in the United States, but the society is increasingly reaching across the Pacific for the same purpose. The group met in Hong Kong in 1990 and in Singapore in 1992, and its meeting in Baltimore recently was attended by talent scouts from several Asian organizations, including three from Taiwan- the National Institute of Preventive Medicin...