Title: AGI Report
OK. The Kepkupaiui string has gone on way past long
enough. Surely there's something else of interest to talk about. For
instance, I recently came across an AGI report on the status of
geosciences in US universities. The url where with a link to the full
report is: http://www.earthscienceworld.org/careers/ The report seems
to suggest paleontology/stratigraphy has been the big loser in terms
of faculty positions between the 1980's and 2002. The histogram that
compares the stats for the various specialty groups showed a larger
drop for geochemists, but this was more than made up for by a net
increase in environmental geology positions, many of which would be
environmental geochemistry. Yet, I see lots of activity in terms of
the paleo. job market. What's the real story? Are academic
paleontologists and palaeo. programs being differentially
singled out? Also, where do paleontologists who don't go into
academics find jobs these days? Many leave the field. But are they any
employment sectors where paleontologists can be paleontologists that
are growing? Last, but not least, how many paleontology positions are
there in the world right now?
Norm MacLeod
--
___________________________________________________________________
Dr. Norman MacLeod
Keeper of Palaeontology
The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD
(0)20-7942-5204 (Office)
(0)20-7942-5546 (Fax)
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/palaeontology/a&ss/nm.html (Web Page)
___________________________________________________________________