Industry professionals make more than academic researchers, but for professors, it may not be about the money.

Most researchers feel stimulated by their work but are dissatisfied with their compensation, according to this year’s results.

1. Build collegial relationships Scientists prize collegial relationships: More survey participants rated them as important than they rated any other feature in The Scientist's "Best Places" questionnaire. "The environment here is very collegial and supportive," says Ite A. Laird-Offringa, assistant professor at the University of Southern California. "And interdisciplinary research is stimulated in many ways ... [for example] through the mindset of the faculty, who seek each other out to work

Best Places to Work 2008: Academia This year's top institutions give researchers more than a place to do great science. They offer the opportunity to nurture, and be nurtured in return. By Megan Scudellari Related Articles Best Places to Work in Academia 2008 The art of WE at UAB Dead Sea Science Survey Methodology Slideshow: BPTW 2008 Academia Type of Institutions How respondents spend their timeRanking Tables: Top 40 US Academic Insti

Whether it’s attending a Scottish dance party or asking physics buffs to custom build your tools, researchers at this year’s top institutions are getting creative at work.

A recent work force survey by the Washington, D.C.-based American Chemical Society (ACS), building on data from a 1990 ACS salary survey, concludes that women in chemistry still face obstacles to advancement, despite an improved professional climate in recent years. Even so, conversations with women chemists working in the public and private sectors Lind many optimistic about their work and futures. But most also point to changes they would like to see in the profession of chemistry to lower the

The US institutions that made the top 10 list in The Scientist's 2004 Best Places to Work in Academia survey represent an interesting mix of small and large academic and private research centers from across the country. The characteristics that make them great places to work, however, are surprisingly similar.Many respondents from these campuses noted support for interdisciplinary research as one of their institution's strengths. Top-ranked California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, with on

In America, the ratio of children under 18 to adults over 65 is currently about 2:1. By 2030, it will be almost equal.1 Those statistics are among many offered by sociologists who study demography and employment to help them make the case that the aging of the so-called baby boom generation might exert a significant impact on the workforce in coming years. Already in the world of science, particularly in academia, changes have begun that could foreshadow an emerging new workplace structure featu

The median starting salaries for most new chemistry graduates rose slightly last year, according to a survey recently conducted by the American Chemical Society. Although the pay increases were modest, they were prompted by continued hiring by pharmaceutical companies, as well as efforts by industry and academia to keep pace with inflation, according to several recruiting experts. Bachelor's graduates received a median salary of $24,000, a 4.3 percent increase over the 1991 level. Joan Burrel

Author: BARBARA SPECTOR, p.20 The good news for women astronomers is that their numbers are increasing, according to a recent survey of members of the Washington, D.C.-based American Astronomical Society. But along with this good news comes some additional, disquieting information: Many of these women astronomers reported having been the victims of, or having observed, gender-based discrimination or sexual harassment at some point in their careers. Pamela H. Blondin, who prepared the report,