%hemistry EDITOR: GEORGE H. MORRISON EDITORIAL HEADQUARTERS 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. , Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: 202-872-4570 Teletype: 710-8220 151 Execufive Editor; Josephine M. Petruzzi Managing Editor: Barbara Cassatt Assistant Editor: Stuart A. Borman Editorial Assistants: Marcia Cohen, Jacquelyn Dane!; Production Manager: Leroy L. Corooran Art Director: John V. Sinnett Staff Artist: Linda M. Mattingly Copy Editor: Gail M. Mortensan Circulation Manager: Cynthia G. Smith Journals Depl., Columbus, Ohlo Associate Head: Marianne Brogan Assistant Editor: Rodney L. Temoz; Advisory Board L.S. Birks, Donald D. Bly, Richard Durst, Shizuo Fujiwara, Georges Guiochon, Wilbur I. Kaye, Bruce R. Kowalski, Robert A. Libby, Robert S. McDonald, Royce W. Murray, Richard S. Nicholson, Janet Osteryoung, Robert E. Sjievers, Waiter Slavin, Rudolph H. Stehl, John P. Walters lnslrumentatlon Advisory Panel: Nelson L. Alpert, Edward Chait, Stuart P. Cram, Martin S. Frant, Tomas Hirschfeld, Fred E. Lytle, Carter L. Olson, Thomas H. Ridgway, Yair Talmi Contributing Editor, The Analytical Approach: Jeanette G. Grasselli The Analytical Approach Advisory Panel: Edward C. Dunlop, Robert A. Hofstader, Wilbur D. Shults Regulatory Alfalrs, Analytical DYvlsion Committee: Fred Freeberg (Chairman) Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 1155 16th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 Books and Journals Dlvlslon Director: D. H. Michael Bowen Journals: Charles R. Bertsch Production: Elmer Pusey, Jr. Research and Development: Seldon W. Terrant
New Faculty and the Future of Analytical Chemistry The demand for PhD analytical chemists in industry, government, and academic institutions has grown in recent years to the point where new PhDs in other areas of chemistry are belatedly discovering an interest in analytical. This resurgence of the field has obviously caught the academic community unprepared for the task of adequately supplying the demand for graduate analytical chemists in the foreseeable future. Garry A. Rechnitz at the University of Delaware recently noted that analytical faculty in U.S. institutions that grant the PhD degree has increased in the past 20 years from 244 to 424, with an average of 2.3 analytical faculty members per chemistry department in 1980 (Anal. Chem. 1980,52, 611A-12 A). While this increase is encouraging, it appears to be insufficient to meet the rising demands of the marketplace. The problem starts with an inability to attract top-quality doctoral students to the large number of available analytical faculty positions in colleges and universities around the country. With industry offering such large starting salaries to new PhDs, it is unrealistic to expect a graduating student to embark on an academic career. Preference for people with postdoctoral experience prior t o joining a faculty further deters an analytical graduate from choosing a career where financial solvency is slow in coming. Another deterrent to entering academe is the high cost of setting up a research program in the university environment. Today’s young analytical chemists require expensive modern instrumentation which most often has to be obtained by writing very competitive research proposals to governmental agencies. New investigators with no prior track record are a t a definite disadvantage. In contrast, industry and government have no problem in providing the new PhD employee with the latest and best in hardware. As Rechnitz points out, although the analytical faculty members in PhD-granting chemistry departments represent only a small fraction of the analytical community, they exert a disproportionately large influence on the profession through their research publications and the education of new analytical chemists. Indeed, the standing of the analytical profession as a whole in some ways reflects the degree of strength and productivity of its academic component. Therefore, it is essential to the growth and prosperity of our profession to find ways to encourage the best students to pursue a university teaching career and to reward them appropriately.
Manuscript requirements are putilished in the January 1981 issue, page 139. Manuscripts for publication (4 copies) should be submitted to ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY at the ACS Washington address. The American Chemical Society and its editors assume no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors. Views expressed in the editorials arethose of the editors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the American Chemical Society.
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 53, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 1981
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