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Move Over, Coming Through

Your article on the gender gap in science [Women in Science Slowly Winning, July] said that science has a low staff turnover and people hang around for a long time preventing new blood from getting in.

You can see that in university departments and Research Institutes up and down the country. There was a report some years ago that the aging science population would provide good opportunities for young scientists, but this doesn't seem to have been the case.

Instead all we hear about is the brain drain as yet more young thinkers head overseas. It doesn't matter whether you're male or female. If the opportunities aren't there, you go elsewhere. Especially when the science population is thin worldwide.

Maybe some of those institutions should look at the idea of encouraging their older research population to move to Emeritus status. this doesn't mean grinding to a dead halt. They could play a good role in mentoring and still contribute, but this would give the younger ones a chance to start building a career.

That career-building process can be a long time under way. Science has got a higher level of entry than most occupations. You can't just step in with an undergraduate degree and expect to get somewhere these days. You've got to go through all the apprenticeship stages with postgraduate degrees and training.

It can be very discouraging for the young ones when they go through all that and emerge only to find that the system is clogged up with people who have been hanging aruond for years and years and years.

So I say to those on the edge of retirement, consider the possible benefits of standing to one side and helping a new cadre through.

K.Kerr
Christchurch