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Policy

Misguided Initiative

January 25, 2010 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 88, Issue 4

Okay. My mind is thoroughly boggled. A guest editorial by Sunil Kumar announces a program sponsored by the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) America International Group to introduce American undergraduate chemistry and chemical engineering majors to careers in the chemical industry (C&EN, Nov. 16, 2009, page 3). This is certainly a generous offer. In the same issue of C&EN (page 5) is news that Pfizer has already terminated or is about to terminate approximately 19,000 employees. Am I the only one who sees the irony in this?

In my opinion, it would be much more generous and conscientious if SCI America International, whose membership includes more than 40 of the country's largest chemical companies, were to do something to help those 19,000 people and the many more thousands of unemployed chemists and chemical engineers who have already committed their careers to the American chemical industry.

From what I have read in C&EN recently, the most helpful things SCI America International can do for U.S. undergraduate chemistry and chemical engineering majors is to buy them lessons in Mandarin and Hindi and tickets to Shanghai, Singapore, and Mumbai, because that's where the jobs are.

Gerard J. Putz
Jefferson, Md.

I appreciate the spirit of the SCI initiative, but like so many, it does not address the real issue. If we want to create more scientists, we need to create more high-paying scientific jobs. If the reward is there, the students will enroll. Getting a degree in the sciences is hard, finding a job in the sciences is hard, performing on the job is hard. So why would a student go into this field with all of these challenges when the reward in the form of compensation is not there? Why would someone go through all this when they could earn twice as much in a nonscience business field? Initiatives that deal with these disparities are what I would like to see.

Matt S. Melvin
Winston-Salem, N.C.

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