A host of reasons prompts scientists to ponder switching from academia to industry--whether as start-up employee, biotech entrepreneur, or Big Pharma scientific director. These reasons tend to be unique to each person's situation. But two underlying forces may be at the roots of these personal choices, which both surveys and stories indicate more scientists are making.
Rolf F. Lehming, director of the integrated studies program at the National Science Foundation's division of science resources studies, thinks a "push and pull" phenomenon has driven the trend. The "push," posits Lehming, comes from academic hiring-- or lack thereof. Academic hiring has slowed considerably since a boom beginning in the 1960s. "In the early '70s, academia employed 55 percent of all doctoral scientists and engineers in the [United States]," Lehming says. "That's now down to about 46 percent." The rate of hiring new, full-time professors in universities flattened in the '90s--with only enough ...
