Munich

Guido Fischer has an identity problem. The 36-year-old microbiologist at the RWTH-Aachen University in Germany has no idea what to call himself. On his letterhead, he uses the bizarre Vorgriffsjuniorprofessor — which roughly translates as ‘junior-professor-to-be’.

Fischer's dilemma is the result of a court ruling in July, which declared his chosen career path unconstitutional (see Nature 430, 599; 200410.1038/430599a). His title of ‘junior professor’ was created in 2002 by a federal law that aimed to provide a fast-track to tenure for Germany's young scientists. But some of Germany's individual states, or Länder, took issue with the federal government's intrusion on the way they oversee science and education. Germany's highest court agreed that the federal government had no right to intrude, and some 600 young researchers were left unsure of their future.

At a meeting last week in Berlin, about 150 of these ‘junior professors in limbo’ called on federal and state science ministers to sort out the resulting mess.

Although initially employed under the same conditions, junior professors in different parts of Germany now have quite different rights and academic status. Those employed by universities in Berlin or Hanover, for example, can still call themselves professors, whereas their colleagues in Dresden or Aachen cannot.

The Förderverein Juniorprofessur — a lobby group for the junior professors — last month drafted a proposal on how to restore equal status and improve career prospects. At last week's meeting, Edelgard Bulmahn, Germany's science minister, promised to include key points of their proposal in a revised federal university-education law, due to be introduced to the cabinet by the end of the month.

The Länder have indicated that they will not challenge the revised law, particularly as it now omits a promise to phase out the traditional method of obtaining tenure in Germany — a process called Habilitation that requires researchers to complete a second thesis. Some of the more conservative German Länder strongly opposed this change.

The revised law would reinstate the position of junior professorships, but critics say that the continued presence of Habilitation as a career option will make it difficult for junior professors to compete with other scientists for jobs.