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2. Basic Biomedical Scientists
Pages 18-30

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From page 18...
... We were thus unable to include them in our analysis of the size and demographic characteristics of this workforce. Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that the basic biomedical workforce includes many who have not earned Ph.D.s and that their training follows a path that differs from traditional doctoral programs in the basic biomedical sciences.
From page 19...
... TRENDS IN THE EDUCATION OF BASIC BIOMEDICAL SCIENTISTS As shown in Figure 2-2, doctorate production in the basic biomedical sciences was relatively stable from 1975 to 1985 but began to increase at a rapid pace there2 Unpublished tabulation from the Survey of Doctorate Recipients; available from the archives of the Academies. after.
From page 20...
... , just over 65 percent of biomedical Ph.D.s receiving their degrees in 1997 reported plans for postdoctoral work Temporary-visa 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 Year FIGURE 2-3 Ph.D.s awarded in the basic biomedical sciences in the United States by citizenship. SOURCE: Data are from the Survey of Earned Doctorates (see Table G-1~.
From page 21...
... Among Ph.D.s graduating in the early 1970s who pursued postdoctoral work or study, 60.7 percent spent between two and four years in postdoctoral appointments, and 20.6 percent spent more than four years in such positions. In contrast, among Ph.D.s who received their degrees in the late 1980s and completed postdoctorates in the 1990s, 76.3 percent spent between two and four years in postdoctoral work or study and 39.8 percent spent more than four years in such appointments.3 TRENDS IN EMPLOYMENT Upon completion of training, Ph.D.s in the basic biomedical sciences have traditionally worked in academic settings, and that remains the case for the majority of those in the workforce today.
From page 22...
... Postdoctorates increased in industry as well but remained well below the levels found in government and academia: only 2.5 percent of biomedical Ph.D.s working in industry reported holding postdoctoral appointments in 1997. As is the case for all highly educated workers, unemployment rates for Ph.D.s consistently register well below the overall national average, and biomedical scientists are no exception.
From page 23...
... With increasing numbers of new Ph.D.s entering the job market over the last decade and a half and comparatively few openings for independent investigators on university and medical school faculties and in government labs, Ph.D.s have increasingly taken on the day-to-day work of research tasks that command lower salaries and in past years were often performed by technicians. This trend was noted in a 1993 study of staffing patterns for NIH grants, in which agency analysts found that "technical" and "other" support staff 6 Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology.
From page 24...
... In competitive health care markets, they like other junior faculty surveyed in a 1997 assessment of the activities of medical school facultymay be more apt to be assigned to patient care duties and less likely to conduct research.~3 Indeed, by the latter half of the 1990s, M.D.-Ph.D.s emerging from some of the best-known training programs in the country were reporting difficulties identifying faculty positions that would allow them to perform research.~4 THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE AWARD PROGRAM When the NRSA program began in 1975, 20,522 graduate students in the basic biomedical sciences received some form of financial assistance for their studies (see Figure 2-6~. Of these, 42.9 percent (8,797)
From page 25...
... training grants and fellowships fell by more than half, while the percentage receiving funding through NIH or other DHHS research grants more than doubled. Though the information available on funding patterns for postdoctorates in the basic biomedical sciences is much less detailed than that for graduate stu of research grants awarded by the NIH and other DHHS agencies has more than doubled.
From page 26...
... Moreover, evaluations of the NRSA program suggest that its participants complete their training faster than other students and go on to more productive research careers. Since the beginning of the NRSA program, the NIH has required most predoctoral training grants in the basic biomedical sciences to be "multidisciplinary" in order to expose students to a range of biomedical fields.
From page 27...
... Examples of model approaches to research training that could be adopted more widely include the "Frontiers in Interdisciplinary Biosciences" course introduced at Stanford University in the fall of 1999, which brings together students from the biosciences, chemistry, physics, and engineering to evaluate cuttingedge research,20 and the long-standing pathobiology course at the Tufts University Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, which provides nonphysician graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with grounding in human disease and the skills to collaborate with physicians. Evaluations of career outcomes suggest that NRSA participants complete training faster and go on to more successful research careers than classmates at the same institution or those graduating from universities without NRSA funding.
From page 28...
... The committee believes that the tradition of multidisciplinary NRSA training would be even more effective if it were broadened to emphasize the connections between the biomedical sciences and other related fields. In addition, the committee is greatly concerned that the number of underrepresented minorities earning Ph.D.s in the biomedical sciences has increased at a very slow pace.
From page 29...
... At the postdoctoral level, the NIH should also seek to provide advanced research training to a greater number of recent Ph.D.s through NRSA training grants and fellowships, rather than postdoctoral appointments on research grants. Coordinating reciprocal increases in the NRSA program and reductions in other funding for graduate student support will undoubtedly require the NIH to consolidate its oversight of research training and training-related activities.
From page 30...
... The NIH should increase its efforts to identify and support programs that enADDRESSING THE NATION'S CHANGING NEEDS courage and prepare underrepresented minority students for careers in basic biomedical research. Although there has been some increase in minority Ph.D.s in the basic biomedical sciences, their number is still low.


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