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And yet every passionate international PhD student I know who really wanted to contribute to JPL's mission can't because of ITAR restrictions. I wish there was
by alsodumb 4y ago
And yet every passionate international PhD student I know who really wanted to contribute to JPL's mission can't because of ITAR restrictions. I wish there was an easy way to find middle ground where international students undergo screening and background check but get to contribute to missions of national importance.
- rsj_hn 4y agoI've thought about that, and the best thing I can think of is to do a background check and give them citizenship (for exceptional applicants). It's a tough problem, given how slowly this moves along.
- waste_monk 4y agoThat's not always a workaround for ITAR. If you're from a 5EYES or otherwise friendly country you can probably sign a TAA and get involved, but dual citizenship or otherwise holding strong ties (e.g. country of birth) to an "ITAR naughty list" (China, NK, Russia, Iran, etc.) country is enough to permanently render you ineligible to work with ITAR. E.g. someone who was born in China, became a citizen of the USA, and renounced their Chinese citizenship would still never be allowed to work on ITAR. This is to prevent cases such as they steal some ITAR controlled info or materiel and flee back to China (and get their Chinese citizenship back as part of whatever espionage deal occurred). Unfortunate for those who are truly passionate and have no malicious intent, but security comes first.