Tracking the 'Brain Gain'

When Richard Campanella, a research professor with the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane and Xavier Universities, commented on the New Orleans "brain gain" in an article in the March 3 issue of The Times-Picayune, he apparently got the attention of a lot of people.

"I've received eight or nine calls about it," says Campanella, who went on record in the article estimating that 2,000 to 3,000 professionals have come to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.

While the article, "The Brain Gain," reported on the trend of young professionals coming to New Orleans to help the rebuilding effort, Campanella notes that his estimate includes all professionals, not solely young ones and/or those involved in planning and rebuilding.

Campanella, a geographer who has written three books on the city's cultural geography both before and after the storm, says that he based his estimate of post-Katrina professional newcomers on a finding by the 2006 Louisiana Health and Population Survey. In that survey, 7,042 respondents living in Orleans Parish during June-October 2006 said they had "changed their residence due to job opportunities" within the previous year.

from the Tulane Daily News