Re: A better paleontological ratio

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>The industrial job base that sustains populations of bright new
>paleontologists entering the system
>has withered. ... Mutual respect is a must, even if we are driving at
>different goals.


Thats very true. The students in my micropaleo class are enthusiastic this
year. When I asked them for their career plans and mentioned the petroleum
industry they were laughing at me. So, even the students know about the
situation. We are trying to show them new fields where they can apply their
skills. We (the paleo people in general) can do a good job in environmental
analyses. I think we should do more research to explore these fields. Sorry
for our tradition in the petroleum industry but the students need jobs.

... and as a request for information: how many academic paleontologists do
consulting for oil companies and how much? Several leading representatives
of the seven sisters told me they give this work to universities. It's
cheaper and they get the data without having infrastructure themselves. The
prices he mentioned were amazing. They didn't even cover the costs for
personnel in some cases. It pays for the companies indeed but not for their
staff paleontologists and (sorry to say) for the academic paleontologists
only because their salaries are covered from research grants and university
money.

Anyway, I hope you can forget about jobs, names of fossils, and all these
things for a few days. Zurich received a little snow. It's getting dark
outside, the ETH institute is getting silent and the few people who are
still here are smiling and talking silently. Merry Christmas all together.

Heinz

P.S.: I'm leaving home. If you send a reply, I will read it on January 9, 1995.



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Heinz Hilbrecht
Geological Institute, ETH Zentrum, Sonneggstr. 5, CH-8092 Zuerich, Switzerland
Tel.: ++41-1-63 23676, Fax: ++41-1-63 21080, Internet: Hilbrecht@erdw.ethz.ch
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