Despite Changes In Benefit Plans, Retiring Scientists Still Have Options

Sidebar: For Further Information - Retiring Scientists Retirement, like many other facets of employment, has changed greatly over the last generation. Rare are the employees-researchers included-who spend 40 years at the same job and retire at age 65, living the remainder of their years off Social Security benefits and traditional company pensions. Instead, today's workers often switch jobs several times during the course of their careers, and when they retire, they are more likely to pay the

Thomas Durso

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Sidebar: For Further Information - Retiring Scientists

Instead, today's workers often switch jobs several times during the course of their careers, and when they retire, they are more likely to pay the bills with earnings from investments both they and their employers made. With the end of federally mandated retirement ages, first in government and private industry and most recently in academia, scientists are finding many ways to be productive well into their golden years.

It has now been two years since the mandatory retirement age of 70 for tenured faculty members was abolished (B. Goodman, The Scientist, April 18, 1994, page 1), which has allowed many researchers to continue teaching. Other schools, fearful of paying the higher salaries and benefits commanded by senior faculty members, now offer early-retirement packages that allow those scientists to keep working after stepping down as full-time employees.

ATTRACTIVE COMBINATION: Ken Marsi is retired, but ...

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