[Jassim]

Hello everyone,,
I am planning on studying a Bsc degree in chemistry next year but I've been reading that the field is apparently dying. Most of the issues seems to occur in U.S.A. I live in South Africa but I am worried if the profession is dead worldwide. Can any chemists out there perhaps give me some insight?

[Corribus]

I'm not sure why someone would think the field of chemistry is dying, or what "dying" even means in this context.

[jeffmoonchop]

Its not

[kamiyu2550]

Hello everyone,,
I am planning on studying a Bsc degree in chemistry next year but I've been reading that the field is apparently dying. Most of the issues seems to occur in U.S.A. I live in South Africa but I am worried if the profession is dead worldwide. Can any chemists out there perhaps give me some insight?

I would be very scared if someone says Chemistry is dying as I will lose my job very soon.
I am a chemist working in Switzerland

[hypervalent_iodine]

It certainly isn't dying, but in saying that, the job market is quite tough for someone wanting to pursue an academic career. I don't know enough about the US to comment, but in Australia, funding for the sciences is constantly being cut and used for political handball. With the way certain grants were announced last year / early this year, it's become increasingly difficult for PI's to know if they have money to hire anyone (frequently, they don't). The field is not 'dying' though, whatever that means.

[kamiyu2550]

So how about chemist jobs in academia or industry in the UK? Positive outlook?

[jeffmoonchop]

There was always a lot of jobs in industry in the UK when I was there, plenty of R&D, formulation, analytical. I'm in Canada now and there are still plenty of entry level jobs in R&D but there was less PhD level jobs here than there were in the UK. Not sure what its like now though.

Academia is definately a tough career choice, you'll be working longer hours for way less pay, partly due to funding, I think Universities should prepare students to be able to enter industry where their life in general will be much improved. Or Universities should work on developing actual products rather than knowledge, so they can self fund.

[kamiyu2550]

There was always a lot of jobs in industry in the UK when I was there, plenty of R&D, formulation, analytical. I'm in Canada now and there are still plenty of entry level jobs in R&D but there was less PhD level jobs here than there were in the UK. Not sure what its like now though.

Academia is definately a tough career choice, you'll be working longer hours for way less pay, partly due to funding, I think Universities should prepare students to be able to enter industry where their life in general will be much improved. Or Universities should work on developing actual products rather than knowledge, so they can self fund.

I am a organic synthetic chemist for materials, is this popular in UK?

[kriggy]

Universities should work on developing actual products rather than knowledge, so they can self fund.

So who would discover new knowledge? Not that im disagreeing with you  but I dont think its that easy. ALso, uni will IMO never be able to develop a product better than industry

[kamiyu2550]

Universities should work on developing actual products rather than knowledge, so they can self fund.

So who would discover new knowledge? Not that im disagreeing with you  but I dont think its that easy. ALso, uni will IMO never be able to develop a product better than industry

Oh, this is a typical argument between basic research and applied research.
In a lot of cases, basic research is the foundation of applied research. One typical example is GPS system developed from Einstein's theories of relativity.

[lawlady90]

There was always a lot of jobs in industry in the UK when I was there, plenty of R&D, formulation, analytical. I'm in Canada now and there are still plenty of entry level jobs in R&D but there was less PhD level jobs here than there were in the UK. Not sure what its like now though.

Academia is definately a tough career choice, you'll be working and after buy college research paper so you will spend longer hours for way less pay, partly due to funding, I think Universities should prepare students to be able to enter industry where their life in general will be much improved. Or Universities should work on developing actual products rather than knowledge, so they can self fund.

Universities usually don't prepare students for real life situations. And real science.