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R.L. Ivie, K.M. Nies (American Institute of Physics)
The number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in astronomy increased by more than one-third between 2000 and 2001. Much of this growth is due to an increase in the numbers of women receiving bachelor’s degrees in astronomy. Time will tell whether astronomy PhD production follows a similar trend. PhD production in astronomy is currently holding steady, but is higher than it was 10 years ago. This talk will discuss supply and demand for the astronomy workforce, starting with data on the number of undergraduates taking introductory astronomy, the number of astronomy and astrophysics degrees awarded, and the number of astronomy faculty in stand-alone astronomy departments. Similar data will also be presented for physics. After declining throughout the 1990s, physics bachelor’s degree production increased by 12% between 1999 and 2001. This means a larger pool from which to draw for astronomy graduate students. Data on the changing numbers of non-US citizens receiving degrees in physics and astronomy also will be presented.
Because the astronomy workforce is becoming more diverse, data regarding the representation of women and minorities among astronomy and physics faculty will be emphasized. Data on retirement and recruitment of physics and astronomy faculty also will be presented. Retirement from physics departments has recently peaked at just over 3% per year and continues to be a major concern for many departments. Recruitment has become a difficult issue for those departments faced with budgetary problems that may preclude replacing faculty members. The effects of budgetary problems on the composition of the physics and astronomy academic workforce will also be discussed.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.aip.org/statistics. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: rivie@aip.org
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
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