Confidence and ambition, however, are ceding to worry and resignation. We see increasing numbers of our comrades getting stuck in perpetual postdoctoral appointments while they apply over and over for rare faculty jobs. Even if one attains a cherished tenure-track position, the chances of earning a competitive research grant have seldom been worse. The situation is clearly discouraging, since fewer and fewer biomedical faculty under age 37 are applying for life-blood National Institutes of Health research grants. And on the industrial side, layoffs and forced retirements by the likes of IBM and Dow Chemical parallel those in the defense industry and lead young scientists to wonder if there are any stable career choices left.
Whether doctoral candidates or postdoctoral fellows, with designs on industry or academe, we--the fledgling researchers of the wealthiest country on Earth--are now struggling with grim prospects for gainful employment in the near future. We must look ...
