Careers and Recruitment

Electronics companies in Japan are slashing jobs for silicon physicists — once the veritable élite of the country's corporate R&D world. And public-sector research is only slowly picking up, says Robert Triendl.

Many large drug companies are now taking advantage of the specialist skills offered by smaller biotech firms in their search for new drugs. This trend for outsourcing elements of research is forcing a careful evaluation of licensing policy, says Adam Smith.

Researchers who aspire to work in drug discovery need to adapt to constantly changing technology and be able to harness new tools both to ask and to answer pertinent scientific questions, say Paul Smaglik and Adam Smith.

As ecologists attempt to get to grips with the Kyoto Protocol, many European climate scientists are concerned that there are insufficient resources available to understand the science behind the environment. Paul Smaglik reports.

It may have profited from the increased interest in environmental issues, but ecology in Japan is still struggling to make ends meet. Robert Triendl crosses the divide within the discipline.

A new awareness of environmental problems is changing the landscape for scientists. In the United States, it is creating jobs for a diverse range of specialists in some unexpected areas. Potter Wickware reports.

America may be thinking big, but in Europe the rise of neuroscience is finding favour in a more localized manner. Helen Gavaghan taps into the continental flavour of European interdisciplinary research.

Multidisciplinary approaches pave the way towards new frontiers in understanding complex human behaviour and intractable diseases. Diane Gershon assesses the US field.

Japan's Brain Science Institute offers young neuroscientists jobs — but doesn't guarantee them long-term employment, says Robert Triendl.

Japan's government is belatedly realizing that it needs to increase funding for training in bioinformatics, says Robert Triendl. But lack of specialists in the field could hinder the country's efforts.

As data analysis shifts towards protein expression and structure determination, demands for standardization and ease of access are leaving bioinformaticians scrambling to keep their skills up to date, says Helen Gavaghan.

Courses to teach bioinformatics are starting to spring up all over North America. But the interdisciplinary nature of the subject means that there is a severe lack of experienced instructors, so the quality may vary between programmes, warns Potter Wickware.

Over the past two years, the Japanese government has increased funding for research in structural genomics. Although companies remain uncertain as to how this will benefit them, there will be more job opportunities in protein engineering and structural biology, says Robert Triendl.

The industrial revolution that is reshaping structural biology is opening doors of opportunity for computer scientists and protein chemists alike, says Paul Smaglik.

Inorganic chemists face a range of possible career options when they qualify. But catalysis and biomimetics look to be reasonable bets in Britain, says Alok Jha.

Renewed investment into fields such as nanotechnology should improve job prospects for inorganic chemists in Japan, says Robert Triendl.

The research boom in biology is helping to reshape classical chemistry disciplines, providing fresh challenges for inorganic chemists, says Steve Bunk.

Young European immunologists should benefit from demographic shifts if they can wait long enough for the opportunities to materialize, says Helen Gavaghan.

Foundations and philanthropists are injecting new life into vaccine and drug development, especially for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, says Diane Gershon.