Future of chemistry

Nelson Marans is worried about the future of chemistry because of the declining numbers of chemistry students (C&EN, Jan. 16, page 38). I am equally worried.

To paraphrase Walt Kelley, we have met the enemy and we are it. I came to this conclusion based on a conversation with a group of high school juniors. My son and three of his friends were sitting at our house and talking about college. One announced he had not decided between a science or engineering degree. All the others laughed at him. One of the boys, through his laughter, asked why his friend would willingly work his tail off for at least four years only to end up training someone in another country to do his job at half the price, and then end up working in the mall selling shoes.

It turned out the questioner's father was a biochemist at a local pharmaceutical company who had had such an experience. I had also recently been laid off, and my son said something to the effect that he doesn't want to go through what I have gone through.

These boys are honors students at the local high school, the type of students we, as chemists, should be enticing. We should be showing them the beauty, yet all they see is a watered-down high school chemistry curriculum and people treated as though they were resources, not assets.

Luckily, I have found a new position as a chemist, but it was a process made difficult by computerized human resources systems and a complete lack of human contact. If the chemical industry continues to treat its employees as renewable resources, continues the off-shore relocation of corporate functions, and continues myopic and impersonal hiring practices, who in their right mind would want to be a chemist?

M. Neal Golovin
Carmel, Ind.