On Monday, I'll kick it off with my thoughts on Beryl Lieff Benderly's "The Real Science Gap" (a fairly comprehensive article on the academic science labor market) and my own thoughts on the present and future of the industrial chemistry job market.
I'm (unfortunately) otherwise busy for the next couple of days, but I really invite comments on Benderly's article and thoughts that people might have that I should talk about.
The following days, the discussion will be hosted by Leigh at Just Another Electron Pusher (general topic: too many chemists?), Paul at ChemBark (tenure =
Who's the most important participant in all of this? You are, of course. We want you to comment, contribute, critique and harangue us about our positions on these subjects -- hope to see you there!
.....The established researchers and their scholarly associations claim to speak for “science,”.........
ReplyDelete........Young scientists, meanwhile, are not only impecunious and unorganized for political action, but generally don’t even view themselves as an interest group apart from the larger scientific community — despite having interests that are at odds in major ways with those of their professors and universities.......
While the text is not entirely original, it does summarize what many of us have either been saying or intuitively feeling for quite a while.
Wow, that article is depressing...
ReplyDeleteThis is my favorite part:
ReplyDelete"Before the mid-1970s...postdocs, as such researchers are still called, would work on projects of their own devising under the guidance of some of their field’s leading figures; it was considered not quite proper for professors to involve such fellows in their own research...And today’s postdocs rarely pursue their own ideas or work with the greats of their field. Nearly every faculty member with a research grant ... now uses postdocs to do the bench work for the project."
It's like it was another planet.
Anon5:38 - maybe that's why all the "original" research is disappearing from American schools. You're taught that if you memorize, keep your nose clean, and play nice, maybe, just maybe, you'll get that sweet pharma bench job...
ReplyDelete