Liu, who says she feels a cultural and social need to go back to China to reorient herself to all the changes occurring there, will return to China as soon as she obtains her Ph.D. However, she will not be doing science.
"I'll be working in a very different capacity in China from what I'm trained for," Liu says. "I'll be doing management consulting, and feel I have more opportunities for making an impact."
Liu says that she would have some opportunity to use her immunology Ph.D., but that her research would not be cutting-edge.
"You need a strong economy for that," Liu says. "But I think that will come [in China]."
Zhang says that he is convinced that more Chinese students will be returning to China in the future, and that scientific research in China does not have a gloomy outlook.
"It's true that China is still struggling to upgrade basic research," he says. "But there are growing numbers of labs in China supported by Western foundations and collaborating with Western institutions. And lots of pharmaceutical companies have operations in China."
In the end, Zhang says that he is a "patriot."
"I'd like to see a prosperous and once-more splendid China again," he says.