Russia Puts Money into Research

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Nobel Prize-winning Russian physicist Zhores Alferov has been appointed by Russian president Dmitri Medvedev as scientific director of a project to turn farmland outside Moscow into a compound dedicated to scientific research. The Russian government is pouring about $200 million of start-up funds into the project, the Chronicle's Anna Nemtsova reports. Alferov plans to invite grad students from across Russia to work alongside technology companies and "create scientific accomplishments that can benefit the people of Russia," Nemtsova says, and has a five-year goal of generating thousands of PhD graduates in physics, electronics, and biotechnology. Alferov says he also wants to attract foreign scientists and that he hopes to develop a new scientific research ideology for Russia.