Scientist: “to be[come] or not to be[come]“
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 20:50Posted in category Entertainment, Science
A few days ago a friend of mine send me an article by an American University professor Jonathan I. Katz with the title “Don’t become a Scientist!”. It is very interesting point of view.
In the last few days I have been thinking a lot about this article. Of course for me is rather late now as I have done my PhD and am doing a Post Doc but maybe it is not too late. Well I’m still leaving all options open and see what is coming next…
Talking about scientists and grad students many of you might have been wondering if the economy crisis will have an effect on grad students or not. Here is the ultimate answer by PhD comics:
The Economy Meltdown: Should you be concerned?
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درسهای دنیا says:
October 29th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
The article was completely true and disappointing! At the moment i know that such a “postdoc loop” really exists in physical sciences but not sure about biological sciences. Anyway, when you like to pursue your studying in science and have no idea what would happen in future, what will you do? I am not sure now what i’m gonna do in future, i mean if i stay in science, but this is not the step that i can be sure of leaving it. If i leave it now, I might become regretful afterward.
asemoon says:
January 8th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
thanks for sharing this. What he says about the sciences is really true. When I was an undergrad at Cornell, I used to do research for a brilliant full professor who got his degree from MIT. This was 03-05 (molec. biology +genetics). As soon as I started grad school, I heard from his students that he is struggling with getting grants from the NIH. I have heard the same thing from Math and physics departments.
But frankly I don’t think it’s only the sciences. Even in biomed. engineering which is I think the best area to be right now (maybe after chemical eng.), professors are panicking. The majority of funding in the US comes from the government, and with this mess I don’t even know how they want to fund science. My own advisor told me that probably best opportunities lies in places such as Ireland, Singapore, and surprise surprise China!!! He said these countries are pouring lots n lots of money into R&D.
So it seems to me US and most Eu. countries won’t be leading in science soon. So my advisor’s idea was to get a US or EU training (b/c it’s still most credible) and then land a position in one of the above countries (or others that have money) “IF” you want to be a professor.
I for one thing would never want to move to Asia, so I feel like unfortunately it’s a dead end.
You should really look into industry too. Jobs here maybe more mechanical but depending on the company, I think it will have better prospects, specially in biotech and nanotech.