Just let me be a scientist.

Abstract

Earlier this year, Karl Gensberg, an academic at the University of Birmingham, UK, quit his position in favour of fitting gas appliances. Although a gas fitter's job might not be intellectually as challenging as molecular biology research, for Gensberg it will apparently pay the bills with a lot more to spare than the job of postdoctoral researcher in academia. Partly his story is merely another face of the poor funding of academic science and many of its junior‐grade practitioners. However, a closer analysis raises important questions about the use of human resources in academic science. Is the practical scientist, especially the older, more experienced type, simply not recognized as a valuable commodity and, therefore, not paid a salary commensurate with his or her experience and quality? Is this desirable? Furthermore, does the tortuous promotion and selection system in academia squeeze some of the better practical researchers into positions where they actually do not practice research at all? Is academic science selecting only a narrow band of the spectrum of people who are good and motivated? Lastly, does it provide career opportunities for those who do it for the pure love of science? > …does the tortuous promotion and selection system in academia squeeze some of the better practical researchers into positions where they actually do not practice research at all? The reasons for younger scientists leaving academic research or science altogether are manifold, and have been highlighted time and again. Short‐term contracts, often with no health benefits or retirement funds, lack of job security, unclear career structures and long working hours in the laboratory are just a few of the features of academia that postdocs all over the world deplore. However, another force, usually associated more with commercial enterprises than the academic world, appears to be at work: the pressure to …