Does Scaling The Academic Ladder Always Mean Abandoning Research?

Some university scientists willingly forsake their lab investigations; others strive to maintain a balance between research and administration Geologist Franli H.T. Rhodes knew the time had come when he had no idea where the time had gone. Now president of Cornell University, Rhodes was vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan when he reluctantly decided to stop conducting laboratory research. Research isn't the only activity that academic scientists abandon when they

Barbara Spector

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Some university scientists willingly forsake their lab investigations; others strive to maintain a balance between research and administration

Geologist Franli H.T. Rhodes knew the time had come when he had no idea where the time had gone. Now president of Cornell University, Rhodes was vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan when he reluctantly decided to stop conducting laboratory research.

Research isn't the only activity that academic scientists abandon when they become administrators. Most also find themselves spending little or no time in the classroom. "There isn't any way I could hope to be in one place on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 9 A.M.--or even at 10 at night," says geologist Gordon P. Eaton, the president of Iowa State University, who is leaving his post in November to become the director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory. For theoretical physicist Agnar Pytte, president of Case Western Reserve ...

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