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Connecticut wants to create a new bioscience hub in the state, attracting world-class scientists. But the state’s pharmaceutical industry has been cut back over the last decade and key parts of that workforce are leaving the state. As our series on education in science, technology, engineering and math continues, WNPR’s Aroosa Masroor looks at the difficulties of creating and retaining a scientific workforce in Connecticut.
In 2007, Jim O'Malley was laid off by Pfizer. With over a decade of experience as a research scientist, he decided to branch out and start his own small drug discovery company, Myometrics, in New London.
“We’re seeing a massive dip in productivity and employment right now as this whole industry restructures.”
Since O'Malley does not see a revival in the pharmaceutical industry any time soon, he believes smaller companies are the best place to be in right now. But does he believe that means we should be training fewer scientists?
“I would not want to say that we should cut back on the production of PhD students, but I think we should make it clear to them that it is a very risky environment to go into if you think that you’re going to be actually one day running your own lab. You probably only have about one in five chance.”
In such a shrinking industry, PhDs in chemistry and other related subjects then have the option of continuing with their postdoctoral research in academia.
“There are people who feel like they’re stuck in a post-doc or they can’t get the job that they want, so they just stay where they are for longer than they ever intended to.”
That’s Jennifer Frederick, co-director at the Yale Center for Scientific Education, who says extended research projects are not always the best option.
“We need to think about whether we are discouraging people from pursuing academic professions as well because if it’s so hard to get funding, if you can’t support the research that you want to do, what’s the incentive?”
At the graduate and undergraduate level, the picture isn’t that bleak. Dr. Barry Westcott is chair at the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Central Connecticut State University.
“We typically don’t have problems placing our students that graduate in chemistry, or even biochemistry from CCSU. Our students who want to go to graduate school get into graduate school and our students that want to go straight into the industry, get into jobs pretty easily.”
In fact, Westcott says his department is seeking to attract more students to chemistry and biochemistry. Only five to 10 students enroll in the freshman year in a school of 13,000 students.
“And in a time of budget crisis, the expensive things with low enrollment are often looked at in a light of well, is this something that’s important? Is this something we want to keep?”
Despite universities’ stress on the need to graduate more students with a STEM degree, nationwide statistics show that unemployment still exists in some science fields. According to The American Chemical Society, the unemployment rate among chemists stands at an all-time high at 4.6 percent nationwide. Nicole Smith, senior economist with the Georgetown University Center on Education, says the issue here is one of mismatch rather than lack of jobs, especially in this recession where decreased home values have made so many workers unable to pick up and move to a new location.
“We have mismatch at various levels. Mismatch between the skill required for the job and the skill level of the unemployed, but there is also mismatch between the location of the job and the location of the person who can fill it.”
“Talent is going to go where the jobs are.”
That’s Mary Holz-Clause, vice president for economic development at University of Connecticut. She says the bioscience initiative at the university aims to attract talent from around the country and the world.
“While we have a very strong bioscience base here, I think there’s also real strength in looking at attracting the best scientists whether they come from our backyard or whether maybe they come from across the ocean.”
The university is expanding its incubation facilities for startup companies as part of Bioscience Connecticut in part to retain the skilled workforce that is coming out of the pharmaceutical industry restructuring. But Paul Pascatello, president of Connecticut United for Research Excellence says the investment environment has changed for nascent companies because of the headwinds that have hit the industry on the financial and regulatory side.
“The clinical trial can cost 20 million dollars, 40 million dollars. That kind of uncertainty to investors makes them pull back. So you see a retrenchment in riskier investments and earlier stage investments.”
But the Malloy administration is also investing on a large scale, spending 291 million dollars to bring Jackson Labs to Connecticut, an initiative that will create hundreds of jobs in coming years. In New London, former Pfizer employee Jim O’Malley is pleased to see the state’s support for bioscience, but he says it’s too early to predict whether the investment will pay off.
“Can we attract someone who brings in jobs immediately? Well we really are having trouble doing that and it looks like we’re paying about a million dollars a job right now, and that’s an unsustainable type of investment. Or can we get some people up and going, enough companies up and going that in five or ten years time would’ve brought back at least a significant percentage of those jobs, so that the industry itself is at least is not lost.”
It’s clear that the state faces a challenge in fitting the skilled workforce that it wants to retain to the new bioscience industry it’s starting to create.
For WNPR, I’m Aroosa Masroor.
