In a recent commentary in PNAS (1) Ronald Daniels, the President of Johns Hopkins University, discusses the increasingly slow career progression for young scientists. He points out that the average age for attaining an initial medical school faculty appointment has gone up by about 5 years between 1980 and today while the average age for the first NIH R01 grant for MDs has gone from 38 to 45 yrs. While Daniels mentions several possible contributory factors, clearly the key is the ever-increasing length of the postdoctoral training period. This in turn is built on the continuing over-production of biomedical Ph.Ds which raises the level of completion for ‘real’ jobs in academia or industry to impossible levels.
As stated previously on this blog the solutions to this problem are first to reduce the supply of Ph.D trainees and second to begin to develop stable career paths in science that are distinct from the traditional professor/PI pathway.
(1) http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/brain-drain-threatens-academic-research-jhu-president-warns/81250771/
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