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SOMETHING IS WRONG when a lot of young scientists, after achieving Ph.D.'s, are feeling like losers.
It's a given that the job market for science positions in academe is bleak. A doctorate is supposed to be a ticket to a dream job, but many Ph.D.'s aren't even landing their third or fourth choices.
But with reliable statistics hard to come by, the scientific community is at odds over whether it is producing too many Ph.D.'s. Some scientists believe that doctoral programs should be practicing "birth control," cutting back the number of graduate students they admit. Most, however, say the answer lies in changing doctoral education, which they say has been too focused on producing university scientists.
"It's really destructive to the profession to have the sense that Ph.D.'s aren't valued," says Ronald Breslow, a chemist at Columbia University and president of the American Chemical Society.
'SMALL PERCENTAGE OF SUCCESS'
Young scientists in the post-Cold War era are facing two major difficulties: Many have had to work in postdoctoral or temporary research positions for four years or longer, because they can't find jobs. Others, like Kathryn S. Jones, have found jobs but can't find financing for their research. Ms. Jones, a retrovirologist, got a non-tenure-track position as a research assistant professor at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, but is about to lose the job because she hasn't landed a major grant.
"I have a Ph.D.," says Ms. Jones, who earned it at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "I've given my data at international meetings. But because of the small percentage of success in this field, I walk around feeling like a failure."
By the end of this month, the start-up money that Ms. Jones received three years ago, when she was hired by the university and the Veterans Administration Medical Center on the campus, will be gone. She can keep her laboratory and her titles for up to a year, and could be back in business if she gets a grant. But she's not hopeful. In fact, she's thinking about getting certified to teach high-school biology. "I have to wonder if I want to be the last rat leaving a sinking ship," she says.
FELLOWSHIP ON CAPITOL HILL
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