1980's: a renewed role for chemists

In this issue (page 29) C&EN presents six essays on what likely is in store for the chemical world in the 1980's. These cover chemistry as a science, the technology of chemistry, the teaching of chemistry, the chemical industry, chemistry as a profession, and chemistry's interaction with society at large. As a preamble to these essays, this observer expresses the wish that the 1980's will turn out for chemists to be significantly different, in many ways, from the 1970's—a decade of retrenchment and inward-turning by the chemical profession. The 1970's have seen the number of Ph.D.'s graduated each year fall about 30%. The decade has also brought a curtailing of the previously strong growth rate in funding for chemical R&D. The early 1970's also saw the worst employment situation for the chemical profession in 30 years with considerable unemployment and many mass layoffs by industrial and governmental employers. The decade also brought stagnation to chemistry ...