I just graduated, but I didn't look very hard for experimental crystallography positions, so I can't comment on job ads. Still, I live in Berkeley, which gives me plenty of perspective on the state of the field. Two thoughts: 1. Many universities would prefer not to hire many tenured professors if possible. They're expensive, and tenure is annoying. This is true even at the richest US institutions, so I assume it's true internationally as well.
2. Crystallographers aren't exactly becoming obsolete, but the field of structural biology will continue to expand without an increase in the number of full-time (PhD-holding) crystallographers. Everyone needs to have experts around for the really tough problems, but I don't see much need for entire labs devoted solely to crystallography in the future. We're all going to be replaced by robots anyway. (More importantly, every other technique has become more accessible too, so there's no excuse for a crystallographer not to do follow-up experiments if he or she has the opportunity. Which is why both of our former P.I.s ended up publishing results from work in biosafety facilities in addition to crystal structures; and Jean Pieters' PknG structure is a good example from the other direction..) I did in fact spend all of grad school working exclusively on crystallography problems, which may have been unwise; fortunately, I'm also good enough with computers to have plenty of options. I didn't even bother looking for industry jobs; there are still a few available, but I've seen far more qualified people than I turned down. On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 6:40 AM, Miguel Ortiz-Lombardía <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear list members, > > Sorry to bother you with a personal reflection that somehow asked for a way > out of my mind after the umpteenth announcement of this kind. Please, no bad > feelings for that post, no more than for any other of its kind, anyway. > > As it often happens, my reflection takes the form of a question: has > anybody else noticed that it is becoming more and more common to see job ads > in our field where the duties of the candidate are ( rather ) well > established, but not their rights, let alone the type of contract that is > offered? > > Or perhaps because being myself looking for a job I have become > hyper-sensitive? To clarify, I come from a working-class family, I'm used to > these ads when it comes to the so-called 'non-qualified jobs'. > > I'm not really willing to open a debate, most likely prone to be a futile > one, I just wanted to raise the question on other minds. > > Thanks for your patience! > > > Miguel > -- > http://www.pangea.org/mol/spip.php?rubrique2 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Je suis de la mauvaise herbe, > Braves gens, braves gens, > Je pousse en liberté > Dans les jardins mal fréquentés! > Georges Brassens
