"Until the job environment for the graduates is improved, especially in terms of salary, the workforce of scientists in the U.S. will continue to be at risk," says Chu.
The NSF Strategic Plan includes two relevant goals: to develop "a diverse, internationally competitive, and globally engaged workforce of scientists, engineers, and well-prepared citizens" and to support "discovery across the frontiers of science and engineering, connected to learning, innovation, and service to society".
Throughout the second half of the 20th century, officials in developed countries focused on improving science, mathematics, and technology instruction, intending to not only increase literacy in those content areas but also expand existing workforces of scientists and engineers.
Second, nurture and support a collaborative implementation workforce comprised of scientists and on-the-ground practitioners, with an explicit focus on enhancing appropriate incentives for both.
The emergence of new science demands an adequate workforce of new scientists.
Yet there has been growing concern over the past 3 decades that the workforce of physician-scientists, at least in the form we have come to know them in previous generations, may be vanishing.
As these people complete their education and join the workforce, total production of scientists and engineers will accelerate.
DRDO is a collective of 52 laboratories with a workforce of over 7500 scientists and an annual budget of about $1.8 billion, best known for making India's ballistic missiles, a fighter plane, and a nuclear-powered submarine.
But far from the media lenses, a workforce of people--scientists among them--dedicate their professional lives to predicting, preventing, and dealing with the consequences of disasters, whether natural and man-made.
For many years, the national discourse on the scientific workforce focused on imaginary shortages of scientists.
It is also at cross purposes with the purported goals of insulating the country from heavy dependence on a potentially unreliable international workforce and of increasing the number of scientists qualified to do national security research.
