An opportunity for chemists

There aren't as many chemists as there once were. To be more precise, there aren't as many new chemists. In academic year 1988-89, chemistry departments offering an ACS-approved undergraduate program awarded 8122 B.S. degrees. Just four years earlier they had awarded 9679. The figures for new Ph.D. chemists are not yet as alarming. There has been a modest increase in recent years. But the level is still below the peak of 20 years ago and an increasing percentage of these degrees are being earned by foreign students. It can confidently be predicted that the U.S. will produce only about as many native-born doctoral chemists in the year 2000 as it did in 1985. Combine these supply trends for the 1990s with a coming upsurge in chemistry faculty retirements, an increasing demand for chemical talent in today's high-tech world, a further decrease in the college-age cohort, a dwindling interest in science among the young, chemistry's very ...