Nearly two years ago, Kenneth Monty, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and a few of his colleagues sat around a table discussing ways of improving math and science education for grade-school and secondary-school students. "We asked ourselves, `Why is education in math and science, from kindergarten through the 12th grade, not working right?'" Monty recalls. "The problem we hit on is that most teachers never get a chance to see what mathematicians and scien

Starting salaries for new geology graduates, especially those entering environmental fields or the domestic oil and gas industries, are rising, according to a recently compiled survey by the Alexandria, Va.-based American Geological Institute. AGI's latest annual survey of starting salaries for inexperienced graduates, released this month, projected that geologists with master's and doctoral degrees beginning work in 1990 would reap the highest increases over the starting salaries paid to their

Turnover among scientists at biotechnology companies remains high as this budding industry continues to spawn new ventures that allow personnel to shift jobs easily, according to a recent study conducted by the Emlyn Group, a human-resources consulting firm. Last year, the San Diego-based Emlyn Group surveyed 250 biotechnology companies in the United States and Canada and received responses from 23 firms. The results of the study were released earlier this year. Of the companies responding to

[Editor's note: This is the second installment in a two-part series. The first installment, which appeared in the Oct. 15, 1990, issue of The Scientist, focused on the salaries of state university and land grant college faculty in the life sciences. This article discusses the salaries of faculty in the physical sciences at these institutions.] Date: November 12, 1990 A recent survey of institutions belonging to the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges found tha

[Editor's Note: This is the first installment in a two-part series, to be continued in the Nov. 12, 1990, issue of The Scientist. This article deals with the salaries of state university and land grant college faculty in the life sciences; next's month's article will discuss the salaries of faculty in the physical sciences at these institutions.] Most of the institutions belonging to the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges boosted annual pay for their life scienc

A recently published study by the National Science Foundation's Division of Science Resources Studies reports that as the 1980s wore on, unemployment among new science graduates with bachelor's and master's degrees declined. However, according to the report, the starting salaries of these fledgling scientists were lower than those of newly minted engineers. What's more, women were receiving lower starting salaries than their male colleagues. Similarly, newly graduated black scientists were pai

Starting salaries have been on the rise in recent years for newly graduated Ph.D.'s in mathematics, according to a survey conducted by the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Indeed, the society found that the median starting pay for government jobs rose 20 percent in the five years between 1984 and 1989, while starting salaries increased 35 percent for nine-month teaching stints that also included research work. Industry boosted starting pay an additional 23 percent during the same period.

The financial prognosis is healthy for physiology faculty members, according to a salary survey released last month. The study was prepared by the 153-member Association of Chairmen of Departments of Physiology (ACDP) on behalf of an affiliated organization, the 7,000- member American Physiological Society (APS), based in Bethesda, Md. The study revealed that salaries for all academic physiology positions - from department chairperson down to instructor - are rising at medical schools, both pu

The approximately 11,000 chemists gathering in Boston for the American Chemical Society meeting next week will undoubtedly be glad to hear that in today's job market, it appears they have the right chemistry for obtaining employment. In many cases, chemists are commanding increasing salaries and finding new opportunities, thanks to a favorable imbalance in the age-old relationship between demand and supply. For instance, veteran chemists with Ph.D.'s can expect to see annual pay increase highe

The scientists who study surface water, and what's needed to keep it clean, now find themselves in positions of public authority. When Michael Principe landed his first job as a limnologist nine years ago, he considered himself lucky. The economy was mired in a recession, and the outlook for increased government spending on the environment looked dim. Few federal or state agencies were seeking scientists in Principe's research realm, the scientific study of fresh water systems - an area increa

Three years ago, Dennis Darnall was comfortably and, one would have thought, firmly entrenched in the groves of academe. As professor of chemistry at New Mexico State University and director of the school's science research center, he held a position of high rank. And thanks to federal and state grants, he even had the opportunity to indulge in his scientific passion: devising ways that algae could be used to recover metal from industrial wastewaters. A scientist's paradise? Not for Darnall; he

NEW YORK—Biotechnology companies that had been on the verge of going public are adjusting to the post-Black Monday shortage of public capital without the major layoffs and cutbacks that some analysts had predicted. Because such companies tend to be small, with heavy research investments and few proven products, some analysts saw them as particularly vulnerable to takeovers and restructurings in their search for cash. But for at least two firms that scuttled their plans for initial publi