I received the following message today from Alan Hale, codiscoverer of the
Hale-Bopp comet, on the general subject of science funding and availability
of scientific career openings in the U.S.  I thought some of you might be
interested in this.  I answered his open letter and received another reply
back from him on our contrasting experiences in finding scientific
employment.  I'll gladly forward that dialog on to anyone who wants it, but
(barring a clamor of requests) I won't take up onlist bandwidth with it.

Ken Saladin
********************************

>Greetings everyone -- yes, another one of those blanket e-mails that
>I send out to folks from time to time. I don't think I know all of
>you personally, but at the very least we may have mutual acquaintances
>who suggested I include you in this mailing. To those of you whom I
>don't know (as well as those whom I do), please forgive my taking the
>liberty of sending you a message like this.
>
>The message which follows is an open letter to any and all young
>scientists who, like me, are frustrated, angry, bitter, etc. about
>the sorry state of science funding in our society today, and who
>have been struggling just to get a decent career started. Due to my
>current "15 minutes of fame" that I am receiving as a result of
>Comet Hale-Bopp, I believe I have an opportunity to raise some
>awareness of this issue, and possibly to get things turned around
>at least a little bit.
>
>Anyway, please take the time to read through this, and if you feel
>like responding to it, please do so. Most importantly, please pass
>this around to anyone and everyone you think might be interested in
>responding; I'm trying to reach as large an audience as I can, and
>the more responses I can get from those whose experiences have been
>like mine, the better the chances I have of actually being able to
>accomplish something.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Alan
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>An open letter to the scientists of my generation:
>
>I am Alan Hale, the co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp which, as I'm
>sure you're aware, is getting a tremendous amount of media attention
>at this time. Like I'm sure is true for many of you, I was inspired
>by the scientific discoveries and events taking place during my
>childhood to pursue a career in science only to find, after completing
>the rigors of undergraduate and graduate school, that the opportunities
>for us to have a career in science are limited at best and are which I
>usually describe as "abysmal." Based upon my own experiences, and those
>of you with whom I have discussed this issue, my personal feeling is
>that, unless there are some pretty drastic changes in the way that our
>society approaches science and treats those of us who have devoted our
>lives to making some of our own contributions, there is no way that I
>can, with a clear conscience, encourage present-day students to pursue
>a career in science. It really pains me a great deal to say something
>like that, but I feel so strongly about this that I have publicly made
>this statement at almost every opportunity I have been given.
>
>I am trying to use the media attention that is currently being focused
>upon me to raise awareness of this state of affairs, and perhaps start
>to effect those changes that will allow me to convey a more positive
>message to the next generation. So far, I'm sensing a certain
>reluctance among the media to discuss this issue, as they seem far more
>interested in items which I consider to be irrelevant and unimportant.
>But I intend to keep hammering away at this, and I'd like to believe
>that eventually some are going to sit up and take notice. I am also
>attempting to schedule meetings with some of our government leaders, to
>see if I can at least get some acknowledgement from Washington that
>this is a problem that needs to be dealt with.
>
>My reason for writing to you is to ask your help. I know that I'm not
>alone in being frustrated about the current prospects for pursuing any
>kind of decent career within science, and I'm quite sure that many of
>you have "horror stories" about your searches for decent employment
>that are quite similar to my own. I'd like to hear them. I'd especially
>like to hear from those of you who are on your second or third or
>fourth post-doc, or who have left the field as a result of the
>employment situation, or who have experienced severe personal
>difficulties (e.g., break-up of a marriage, etc.). I realize that some
>of these might be painful to discuss, but I'd like to show that we are
>not a bunch of impersonal statistics, but that we're human beings
>trying to make an honest living and perhaps make a contribution or two
>to society while we're at it. Speaking of statistics, though, if you
>received any information about the numbers of applicants to some of the
>positions you applied to -- which was often a 3-digit number in my case
>-- I'd like to hear that, too.
>
>Please e-mail your stories to me at ahale@nmsu.edu, with a subject
>line of "horror stories" or something like that. Please let me know if
>you would prefer to remain anonymous when I share these stories with
>the press and the government. Also, please pass this message on to any
>of your friends and colleagues who might be interested in sharing their
>stories with me, and keep in mind that I would like to receive stories
>from as many scientific disciplines as possible. (Because of the amount
>of e-mail traffic I'm receiving these days, along with everything else
>that's going on, I probably won't be able to acknowledge each message
>individually.)
>
>Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you. Perhaps, with
>the opportunity we have before us right now, we have the chance to make
>a difference.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Alan Hale