For Older Scientists, Retirement Need Not Mean Stagnation

In 1971, 65-year-old computer scientist Grace Hopper was retired by the Univac Division of the Sperry-Rand Corp., now known as Unisys Corp., after 22 years with the company. With her guidance and expertise, the Philadelphia-based com- puter manufacturer had built the first large-scale electronic computer. Fifteen years later, in August 1986, Hopper was retired again, this time by the United States Navy's Naval Data Automation Command, in which she had held the rank of admiral as well as the distinction of being the oldest naval officer on active duty. Less than a month later, Hopper, then 79, initiated her third and current career as a full-time senior consultant with Massachusetts-based Digital Equipment Corp., one of the world's largest computer companies, which also happens to have no mandatory retirement age. Today, at 83, Hopper has a history of retirements, yet she has never gone a day in her working life without a job. The reason, she says, is simple. "Retirements just don't stick on me. There's always new things to be done, which I think is true for most older scientists who have got ideas and a good background." As the hundreds of thousands of researchers and scientists educated in the aftermath of World War II approach the age of 65, more attention is being focused on creating opportunities for senior scientists to remain productive after retiring from career positions. The reason is twofold. First, research shows that all scientific disciplines have suffered a significant decrease in the influx of new talent over the past 10 years or so. At the same time, the nation's demand for both academic and industrial scientific workers is outpacing its supply. The result: a deficit that might be substantially reduced by recruiting the growing ranks of senior scientists to second careers as part-time or full-time volunteers and paid employees. Each of the organizations listed below has one or more programs designed specifically for senior scientists who wish to remain active in their fields. Some of these programs are recruiting both employed and retired scientists. This list is a sampling only, and is not meant to represent all of those programs available. Charles A. Dana Research Institute for Scientists Emeriti Drew University Madison, N.J. 07940 (201) 408-3374 George de Stevens, director Science/Math Enrichment Program Society of Executive Retired Volunteers 400 E. Pratt St., Suite 800 Baltimore, Md. 21202 (301) 625-5811 Theodore Drury, director The Triangle Coalition 5112 Berwyn Rd. College Park, Md. 20740 (301) 220-0870 John Fowler, director National Association of Partners in Education Suite 200 601 Wythe St. Alexandria, Va. 22314 (703) 836-4880 Dan Merenda, director National Executive Service Corps 257 Park Avenue South New York, N.Y. 10010 (212) 529-6660 Donald Black, director, Science, Math and Education Projects According to Hopper and other senior scientists, consulting is just one of several ways older researchers can continue their work once they've retired from positions in industry and academia. Other opportunities include teaching, writing, serving on boards of directors, lecturing, and training younger scientists in the history and philosophy of their craft. Some of these posts may not be as visible or prestigious as Hopper's. Many more may not be as financially rewarding as the positions these individuals held in their younger years. Nonetheless, all of the posts require the expertise of seasoned scientific professionals, a great many of whom have both the desire and the wherewithal to continue their life's work during their sixties, seventies, and even eighties. "I think we're all concerned about the projected shortage of scientists, and we're realizing it would be a benefit if we could add five or 10 years to scientists' productive years," says Michael Michaelis, project director of the Senior Scientists and Engineers Program (SSEP), a pilot project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Initiated five years ago by the American Association of Retired Persons, and later taken over by AAAS, the SSEP program matches the talents and expertise of senior scientists with the needs of "user" organizations, such as the United States Office of Technology Assessment, which evaluates new technologies for Congress, and various government and legislative research committees. Currently, some 400 nonpaid scientists from the Washington, D.C., area are participating in the program, which is financially supported by various scientific and engineering professional societies. Because of its success and the number of scientists who have expressed a desire to volunteer for the program, Michaelis says SSEP is exploring ways to take the project nationwide. A second goal is to set up a science advisory hotline whereby community groups or local and municipal governments could get experts' input on science-related issues. A second program that has been successful in tapping the talents of senior scientists is the Baltimore-based Science/Math Enrichment Program established by the National Executive Service Corps and its Baltimore affiliate. Headed by Theodore Drury, a retiree from the National Science Foundation, the program places retired volunteer scientists and engineers in public high schools, where their activities range from planning science curricula to designing experiments and conducting seminars and workshops for full-time high school science educators. When the program was launched two years ago with a $270,000 grant from NSF, the plan was to recruit three scientists for each of four high schools in the Baltimore City School District. But owing to an unexpected high response rate from retirees, the program now boasts 25 senior scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. All retirees participating in the program are unpaid volunteers. The NSF grant money is used to offset ongoing administrative and overhead costs. A portion of the grant also has been spent on developing, printing, and distributing a "how to" booklet for other school districts interested in setting up a similar program. According to Drury, the volunteer program has twin benefits. "First, it opens up an area where scientists can continue to be active in their own fields. It also gives scientists the chance to help improve a very bad national situation" - the woeful lack of trained science teachers. While few, if any, scientists would disagree that such programs are indeed valuable, there are some senior scientists, especially lifelong researchers, who have little or no interest in teaching. And for these scientists, structured programs like those in Washington and Baltimore remain few and far between. Still, some senior researchers have managed to land enviable slots in those programs that do exist. Among these few is 73-year-old biologist Marvin Weinstein, the former vice president for microbiology and DNA research at Schering-Plough Corp., a pharmaceutical company based in Madison, N.J. Currently, Weinstein is one of nine fellows at the Charles A. Dana Research Institute for Scientists Emeriti, also known as RISE, based at Drew University in Madison, N.J. The institute, the only one of its kind in the U.S., was created nine years ago with the express purpose of providing laboratories and other facilities to eminent older scientists who wish to continue their research work. The institute's two requirements for appointment to its nine available posts are that fellows be 55 or older and be retired industrial scientists. In exchange for laboratory space, fellows train undergraduate science students in their labs. RISE was founded by George de Stevens, a 65-year-old bio-organic chemist who discovered the widely used blood pressure drug hydro-chlorothiavide while working as a research chemist at Ciba-Geigy Laboratories, based in Summit, N.J., where he later assumed the post of executive vice president and director of research. To date, de Stevens says RISE has trained more than 50 students in fellows' laboratories. Of these students, about 90% have gone on to graduate school, and about half have written honors theses. In addition to creating opportunities for senior researchers, de Stevens says, his purpose in creating the institute was to train undergraduates in the fundamentals of research. "When I was at Ciba-Geigy, I used to interview a lot of people [for jobs], and I noted fewer and fewer outstanding students were getting into science," he recalls. "When I took an early retirement and came to Drew as a research professor of chemistry, I realized there must be other scientists who also were retired and who also had an interest in education. I said, `I'm doing training; why can't my colleagues in industry do the same thing?' Basically, I was an experiment of one [senior scientist] who happened to work out very well." >From all indications, enterprising types like de Stevens are not uncommon among those senior scientists who do choose to remain active in their fields. Primarily, says Hopper, this is because one must create his or her own opportunities. In addition to being a RISE fellow, for example, Weinstein works as an independent consultant and also serves on the boards of directors of two biotechnology companies, New Brunswick Scientific Co. Inc. of Edison, N.J., and the Portland, Oreg.-based Epitope Inc. He says he secured these positions largely through connections made during his active career at Schering-Plough and by planning ahead. A self-described "workaholic," Weinstein says he never wanted to retire; retirement at 65 was mandatory for him back in 1981, when he left Schering. "But I knew I had to leave, so I planned to continue in the area of consulting," he says. Perhaps one of the most accessible self-made opportunities for retired scientists is writing, according to 64-year-old Nobelist Joshua Lederberg, who will leave his post as president of Rockefeller University this spring to resume a research career as a professor at the school. Writing provides a way for experienced and knowledgeable scientists to pass on their knowledge, says Lederberg. He adds that the science community could benefit tremendously if more senior scientists were given the support they need to chronicle their life's work. "Some of these books would have limited sales, but they would be very important books for science," he says. Sixty-six-year-old chemist Carl Djerassi is among those senior scientists who has achieved a certain notoriety as a second-career writer, although not as a writer of scientific papers. Rather, after 29 years as a professor at Stanford University and a long career as an industrial chemist, Djerassi has turned to writing poetry and novels. His first collection of short fiction, The Futurist and Other Stories, was published in 1988. Last October, his first novel, Cantor's Dilemma (The Scientist, Oct. 30, 1989, page 19), was brought out by Doubleday and received positive reviews. Currently, Djerassi is at work on a third book, a novel that he says focuses on senior scientists. "My own novel is about how we are not using the [older] resources that we have very intelligently," he says, adding that the plot of his book revolves around how a group of senior scientists takes revenge against a scientific establishment that spurns them. As for himself, Djerassi says, "I'm solving the senior scientist syndrome by becoming a junior writer." Nobelist Linus Pauling agrees that writing is indeed a productive way for scientists to spend their later years. Over the past 15 years, the 88-year-old chemist says he has published more papers per year than he did when he was younger. Nonetheless, he maintains that the mandatory retirement age for scientists in academia and at those companies in which age ceilings are in effect should be raised. "People are getting healthier," Pauling notes. And, given their ability to remain active for longer, he says, "I think the retirement age should be raised to 75, and then later raised again." All in all, senior scientists seem to agree that most postretirement opportunities are self-created. But, they say, this should not discourage the development of organized employment and research programs for older scientists. Specifically, their recommendations include the creation of research support programs designed to encourage senior scientists to continue their work, and new policies that would allow retired scientists to participate in the training of their replacements. "I'd like to see it possible for senior scientists to pass on their experience," says Calvin Lang, a 64-year-old nutritional biochemist who has worked in the field of aging for the past 30 years. "Today," Lang says, "if you ask graduate students to name five Nobel laureates in their field and to tell you what they did, most couldn't name even one. They have no historical or philosophical basis for science. Senior scientists could play a role in imparting this crucial knowledge." Julia King is a freelance science writer based in Ridley Park, Pa. This is the second of a two-part series on senior scientists. The first part appeared in The Scientist, Jan. 22, 1990. Continuing coverage of senior scientists in the March 5, 1990, issue will focus on retirement plans and pension options for researchers.

For Older Scientists, Retirement Need Not Mean Stagnation

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of