I find it interesting that age discrimination is frowned upon in most situations but celebrated in science. It's a bit demoralizing now that I am on the losing side of the proposition, but I can see both sides of the argument.
The discrimination is even less defensible now that it can't even be used to screen out the "gone emeritus" hacks, as certain folk seem to be "going emeritus" quite early these days. ;)
It seems that unless you have "made it" by a certain age, you are deemed to be a "never-was-and-never-will-be". While this may be true for some sterotypical view of a "successful scientific career" as inevitably culminating in a professorship at a prestigious university with a large research group, excellent scientific research can be done by anyone, at any age, with pretty much any background. Were it not for the job insecurity, I would find very little to complain about in my position, for example (even with the job insecurity, it's not too bad).
The discrimination is even less defensible now that it can't even be used to screen out the "gone emeritus" hacks, as certain folk seem to be "going emeritus" quite early these days. ;)
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ReplyDeleteIt seems that unless you have "made it" by a certain age, you are deemed to be a "never-was-and-never-will-be". While this may be true for some sterotypical view of a "successful scientific career" as inevitably culminating in a professorship at a prestigious university with a large research group, excellent scientific research can be done by anyone, at any age, with pretty much any background. Were it not for the job insecurity, I would find very little to complain about in my position, for example (even with the job insecurity, it's not too bad).