For some, a "career in ecology" can evoke the image of fieldwork in the great outdoors. But the field is becoming more diversified and moving beyond its traditional academic boundaries, say many ecologists. Consulting firms, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and advocacy groups are creating new demand. In fact, graduate students are clamoring for more information on careers inside and outside of academia, so much so that the Ecological Society of America (ESA) held its first workshop devoted

Brian Zambrowicz Now that the human genome has been sequenced to a rough draft, the scientific community is looking down the road to what's next. Last month's announcement (see page 1) spotlights a nascent area of science called functional genomics. Making sense of the sequence in terms of gene function will provide research fodder--and jobs--for the years to come. "Functional genomics is everything after the sequencing studies are finished," remarks Ruben Abagyan, director of computation

Jobs in the northwest: Just a Sampling Graphic: Cathleen Heard Editor's Note: This is the last installment of our five-part series on geographic issues that affect job hunting for life scientists. We will cover the Northwest and Alaska. Our boundaries may not be a true geographer's boundaries, but for our purposes, this area includes Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. The Northwest is characterized by a few big cities in a sea of sparsely populated countryside, contrasting

Jobs in the Southwest: Just a Sampling Editor's Note: Continuing our five-part series on geographic issues that affect job hunting for life scientists, we now turn to the penultimate installment, the Southwest and west to Hawaii. Our boundaries may not be a true geographer's boundaries, but for our purposes, this area includes Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California, and Hawaii. In the next issue we'll discuss the Northwest, which will include Utah and Alaska. California, in particular the S

Organismal-level biologists from the more than 70 professional societies involved in the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) have recently come together to set common goals in such areas as policy and education. The process started last November when 57 leaders from the member societies gathered for the inaugural Presidents' Summit, the first event of its kind in AIBS's 53-year history. After an extended weekend of prioritizing and synthesizing ideas, the leaders identified 11 initi

Jobs in Mid-America: Just a Sampling Graphic: Cathleen Heard Editor's Note: Continuing our five-part series on geographic issues that affect job hunting for life scientists, we now turn to Mid-America. Our boundaries may not be a true geographer's boundaries, but for our purposes, this area includes Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan; goes south to Arkansas and Oklahoma; moves as far west as Colorado, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Montana; and covers the states in between. In the next issue we'

Jobs in the Southeast: Just a Sampling Graphic: Cathleen Heard Editor's Note: Continuing our five-part series on geographic issues that affect job hunting for life scientists, we now turn to the Southeast. Our boundaries may not be a true geographer's boundaries, but for our purposes, this area includes the eastern seaboard from Virginia to Florida, the Gulf states and Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. In the next issue we will cover Mid-America. In many ways the qualities of life touted in the S

Editor's Note: "Location, Location, Location" is usually the mantra of the real estate industry. We decided to take the cue and look at the "where" of the job search for life scientists. For the next five issues Profession will explore how geography might affect your job hunt. We'll look at such factors as cost of living and also point out the main attractions in the private and public sectors of each region. In this article, we'll cover the Northeast. Our boundaries might not be a true geograph

Resources   Biotechnology Industry Organization www.bio.com   Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. www.bms.com   Celera Genomics Group www.celera.com   Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology www.cpst.org   Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology career center ns2.faseb.org/careerweb   International Society of Computational Biology www.iscb.org   National Human Genome Research Institute www.nhgri.nih.gov   University of Michig

Seth Nehrbass When someone mentions scientists and lawyers in the same breath, one of the first images that comes to mind could be expert witnesses poring over complex graphs of DNA evidence, as in the O.J. Simpson trial. But the legal matters that concern most researchers are much more mundane--intellectual property law, employment agreements, and the like, not the stuff of sensationalistic headlines. In general, scientists have no clue about the law and how it affects their work, say attorneys

For this article, Karen Young Kreeger interviewed Rafi Ahmed, professor of microbiology and immunology and director of the Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University, Atlanta. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that this paper has been cited significantly more often than the average paper of the same type and age. K. Murali-Krishna, J.D. Altman, M. Suresh, D.J.D. Sourdive, A.J. Zajac, J.D. Miller, J. Slansky, and R. Ahmed, "Counting antigen-specific CD8 T cells: a reevaluation of

For this article, Karen Young Kreeger interviewed Joseph H. Phillips, senior staff scientist at DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Palo Alto, Calif. DNAX is a private research center funded by Schering-Plough. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that this paper has been cited significantly more often than the average paper of the same type and age. V.M. Braud, D.S.J. Allan, C.A. O'Callaghan, K. Soderstrom, A.D. Andrea, G.S. Ogg, S. Lazetic, N.T. Young