Recent insights into the impact of geopolitical tensions: Quantifying the structure of computer science professors of Chinese descent in the United States

TL;DR

This study analyzes the structure and diversity of Chinese-descent computer science professors in the US, revealing impacts of geopolitical tensions on retention, experience, and representation across fields and demographics.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive empirical profile of Chinese-descent computer science faculty in the US, highlighting effects of geopolitical tensions on their retention and diversity.

Findings

Nearly 50% of professors have less than seven years of experience.

Retention issues are more severe for mid-to-late career professors.

Underrepresentation of women and non-AI/System researchers.

Abstract

The geopolitical tensions between China and the US have dramatically reshaped the American scientific workforce's landscape. To gain a deeper understanding of this circumstance, this study selects the discipline of computer science as a representative case for empirical investigations, aiming to explore the current situation of US-based Chinese-descent computer science professors. One thousand and seventy-eight tenured or tenure-track professors of Chinese descent from the computer science departments of 108 prestigious US universities are profiled, in order to quantify their structure primarily along gender, schooling, and expertise lines. The findings presented in this paper suggest that China-US tensions have made it more difficult for the US higher education system to retain valuable computer science professors of Chinese descent, particularly those in their mid-to late career stages, and that nearly 50% of the existing professors have less than seven years of faculty experience. In addition, the deterioration in faculty retention varies across fields of research, education backgrounds, and gender groups. Specifically, among the professors we are concerned about, those who do not work on AI or Systems, those who lack study experience at US universities, and those who are women, are underrepresented, albeit in different forms and to varying degrees. In a nutshell, the focal professoriate has not only shrunk in size, as has been widely reported, but also lost some of its diversity in structure. This paper has policy implications for the mobility of scientific talent, especially in an era of geopolitical challenges.