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The Science and Engineering Workforce | 277 277 CHAPTER 16 The Science and Engineering Workforce What Is the Role of S&E Workforce Policy? A strong and vibrant S&E workforce is vital to America’s economic stability, as well as our quality of life, public health, and national security. Academia, industry, and the national labs are all critically dependent upon a workforce of able and interested professionals. Obviously, the federal government has a vested interest in ensuring the adequate supply of such professionals.1 While the strong connection between federal research investment and the quality of S&E training has long been recognized, it is not well understood. In fact, experts disagree on federal policy’s effect on the supply of U.S. scientific talent. Similarly, strong disagreements rage over the impact of current deficiencies in K–12 science and math education and, to a lesser extent, in undergraduate and graduate education as well. But how do we determine our future S&E workforce needs? If we cannot accurately predict our needs, how do we optimize our prospects in the face of uncertainty? Policymakers should develop programs that are flexible enough to respond to future needs, even if those needs cannot always be anticipated. As in so many areas of science policy, simple solutions are elusive, the data subject to interpretation and conjecture . While concerns about the future S&E workforce have often been used to justify increasing research funding , there is still much that we do not understand about the dynamics of the funding-to-training relationship. This chapter will examine some of the U.S. S&E workforce needs and concerns and will provide data on S&E workforce trends. It will map some of the critical junctures at which sound decisions on policy are needed, and will conclude with some possible options for addressing the S&E workforce challenges discussed. The S&E Workforce “Crisis” It has been asserted that “the United States is facing a crisis in science and engineering talent and expertise.”2 Some worrisome trends are certainly evident, particularly in the physical sciences and engineering. The number of doctorates awarded from U.S. institutions to students in the physical sciences declined during the 1990s but has been slowly increasing in recent years. Likewise during the late 1990s and early 2000s, doctorates awarded in engineering declined.3 The total number of undergraduate degrees issued in the physical sciences and engineering was also on the decline during the later 1990s and early 2000s, although, again, the data suggest these trends might be shifting.4 The number enrolling in doctoral programs has generally been increasing since 1999 largely because of the increasing enrollment of foreign students. Changes in visa policy instituted after September 11, 2001, however, caused great concern that this trend might be reversed. While in the first few years after September 11, the number of S&E doctorate degree seekers on temporary visas did, in fact, sharply decline, this number has recently begun to rebound.5 Of course, these numbers do not necessarily indicate a crisis. As was noted in a 2004 editorial in the journal Science , “Time after time we have been warned of impending shortages which, with evergreen consistency, are subsequently transformed into gluts, to the dismay of those 278 | BEYOND SPUTNIK most affected: the future practitioners of our disciplines. Somehow, the predictors seem to forget that calls to increase future supply should bear some relationship to the present balance between supply and demand.”6 Why is an accurate assessment of supply and demand so hard to achieve? For one thing, the job market in the high-tech sector is tremendously volatile. During the tech boom of the late 1990s, universities could not graduate computer science majors fast enough to satisfy industry’s seemingly insatiable demand. But when the bubble burst, the shortage quickly became a surplus, and a wave of layoffs quickly ensued. So, what constitutes a crisis? Some may claim a S&E workforce crisis exists when universities are not able to fill academic research positions largely dependent upon federal funding. Others may view a S&E workforce crisis as being when there are not enough qualified workers to fulfill the needs of industry, which might be looking for a different type of expertise than universities. Clearly, the extent of the S&E workforce “crisis” depends upon one’s definitions and criteria; one person’s workforce shortage is another’s glut. Likewise, what constitutes a “crisis” often depends on a particular view of the relevant importance of certain national needs as well as how certain needs are weighed against others. This makes defining scientific workforce issues particularly...

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