Career Outcomes

Regarding your "Career Outcomes" Opinion article,1 it may be worth noting that the period of time covered in this study coincided with the emergence of interdisciplinary fields merging biology with more traditionally quantitative disciplines: bioengineering, biophysics, and computational biology. This has had a couple of consequences. One is that some faculty positions in traditional life science departments have been taken by individuals whose advanced degrees are in engineering and physical sciences rather than in biology. The other is that many of the resources going into the development of programs are in the interdisciplinary areas rather than traditionally defined life sciences. In the newest area, computational biology, the shortage is of trained people rather than of positions. At least in the near future, it appears that young biologists who combine biology with strong quantitative skills and formal training in computational and physical approaches will be in a better job position than ...