Fang Fang

in Chinese. Foreign collaborations have also been funded by western agencies, including the Royal Society, but in these cases the funding is paid out to her foreign collaborators. A decade after what must have appeared as a very brave move at the time, Perrett is still enthusiastic about the opportunities she enjoys in Beijing. “It’s an exciting time for science in China!” she says. “The fact that there has been a huge reverse-brain-drain in the last few years, and the comparative funding situation in China compared to the West, means that there is some really ambitious and exciting science going on here that most Western institutions would struggle to support,” Perrett concludes.