P-L's PR and posting job and grant opportunities

[Gayle Hansen]

       I'm with you Pooi-Leng.  I'm a classical algal taxonomist without
       a permanent job.  I also do small contracts identifying algae and
       writing databases -- and occasionally I even get a grant or teach
       classes in my field.  But, most of the time, I am hungry and
       looking for salaried work.  Many of my colleagues are in the same
       situation.  Some of them are in better off because they have
       retrained in other fields, but many of them are in far worse
       situations.  I am reminded of the TAXACOM note we got earlier
       this year from a man who could not find a world-class taxaonomist
       to describe his new polychaete taxa.  I wanted to suggest that he
       go down to the local grocery store and look over the check-out
       clerks--it's a wonderful repository of very good descriptive
       taxonomists who could not find work in their field.

       Perhaps, one of the roles TAXACOM could play to help everyone in
       this world of diminishing jobs and funding -- would be to post
       job opportunities (as we have done) and grant and contract
       opportunities for taxonomists.  Even those of you with permanent
       jobs might profit from this.  NSF postings would be nice -- but,
       surely there are many other opportunities out there that few
       people know about that could be better advertised.  How about it?

                                      Gayle Hansen
                                      Oregon State Univ.
                                      hanseng at ccmail.orst.edu