Funny (NOT): quotes of the year

From today's issue of Chemical and Engineering News (and the last issue of the year) comes ten quotes of the year, 3 of which are about the chemistry job market:

“In the end, I think that there is really only one employment data point that matters—yours.” 

David Harwell, assistant director, ACS Department Of Career Management & Development, January 31. 

“We consider synthetic chemistry to be very outsourceable. Frankly, we don’t do any of it in-house anymore.” 

Kerry L. Spear, vice president of medicinal chemistry, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, May 9. 

“We used to tell students that, if you take an advanced degree in chemistry, your career will be secure. That’s not true anymore.” 

Ronald Breslow, University Professor, Columbia University, September 26.

Interesting to see. We've covered 2 of those quotes directly here. Hopefully 2012 will have better quotes.

Ronald Breslow: stating the #chemjobs facts

From this morning's Chemical and Engineering News, Rudy Baum's comment on a panel discussion he hosted between John LaMattina (former Pfizer R&D head) and Professor Ronald Breslow (emphasis CJ's):

Breslow said that the chemistry enterprise faces a “morale” problem. “We used to tell students that, if you take an advanced degree in chemistry, your career will be secure. That’s not true anymore.” Like LaMattina, Breslow took aim at the consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry. “Mergers may make great financial sense, but they are very destructive,” he said. “And not just to the pharmaceutical industry, but to the chemistry community in general.” 

Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry aren’t going away, of course, and LaMattina observed that the biotech industry isn’t immune to the trend. Breslow insisted that the economic strength of the U.S. “is largely based on the strength of our science and technology. Government must continue to recognize that support for science is important.” 

Although the discussions and the question-and-answer follow-up were lively and informative, they did not offer much in the way of reassurance for U.S. chemists in the pharmaceutical industry who fear for their futures.

I don't know where Ron Breslow has stood in the past, but I think it's very important that senior members of the academic chemical community recognize the economic picture facing current generations of American chemists. I don't know if it's too much to ask senior members of the pharmaceutical industry to be able to make similar statements about our employment futures; Dr. LaMattina doesn't seem to have directly addressed the issue at the forum.

I hope things change, and soon. Best wishes for all of us.