"A number of forces are converging to create a problem … and together they may deal us a blow that could be lethal" to the future of microbiology, suggested M. Michael Sigel, chairman of the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of South Carolina. Sigel lamented the lack of "momentum, interest, commitment, people and funding" in microbiology departments at medical schools and universities nationwide, and said departments were "losing their identities" to other fields in biology.
But Richard A. Finkeistein, chairman of the microbiology department at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, claimed that the evidence for such a problem is suspect. "Two or three people have noticed that a half dozen departments of microbiology have changed their names or been merged with other departments in the last couple of years," he noted. "I'd hardly call that a trend [showing] that microbiology departments are dying."
But Sigel ...
