##1 Advice/Input Wanted

[Yuan Jiang <yjj () ctr columbia edu>]

  Since many of us are changing or thinking of changing fields, can some
people compile a list of hot fields that offer high employment
prospects.  I have to limit the fields to those that may require some
further education/training but not 3-15 years of experience.  We PhD's
are good at learning things.

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From: MORGAN () MAIL LOC GOV (Daniel Morgan)

  For a report I am writing for the Congress I am interested in hearing
the experiences of any YS who has
       - left (either by choice or for lack of a job) the
         field of research in which he or she received the Ph.D.
       - done something else for at least one year
       - and then tried (successfully or otherwise) to get back
         into his or her original research field.
First-hand accounts would be best.  Second-hand are welcome too.
No "a friend of a friend of mine knows someone who says," please.

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From: GDC () LNS62 LNS CORNELL EDU (Glen Crawford)

  I just received my election ballot for officers in the Division of
Particles and Fields (DPF) of the APS, one of several Divisions that
represents the interests of a particular APS subfield.  There are
officers specific to this Division, which run its business, and
"Councilors" who sit on the APS governing board and represent DPF.  YSN
was successful in putting its own members on the at-large APS ballot by
petition; what I'd like to know is: `Can we get more representation at
the Division level, (particularly the Councilors)?' The candidates for
Councilor were all well-known researchers but from their bio's, it seems
that none of them ever had much trouble getting a job, and are not
particularly "young."  A couple of the candidates did recognize the
employment problems of young physicists in their statements (guess who I
voted for...).
  Does anybody out there have info on how we can get younger, less
"established" scientists on the ballots for APS Division elections?

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From: dewey () esau mit edu (Torin Dewey)

  I was wondering if anyone has information regarding a post-doctoral
fellowship offered by the AAAS that allows one to work with Congress on
science policy-type issues.  Pardon my vagueness, but I can't seem to
remember the name of this fellowship.
  Also, does anyone know of the best way to find out what research
different groups at Los Alamos National Labs are doing (specifically, in
chemistry)?

[See Item 2 below for a response.  -ed.]

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From: jke () u washington edu (Jon Eisenberg)

  An issue the young scientist faces in many fields is a lack of support
for or interest in new computing methods (i.e. better programming than
FORTRAN).  My question is: how can we as young scientists convince those
more established (and often less in touch with the trends in computing)
that exploring new computing methods will allow for much better science,
get results out _faster_ in the long run, and is a legitimate area of
research?  I would be interested to hear from people who have been able
to sell new software approaches such as object-oriented programming.

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From: liding () sirius UVic CA (Li Ding)

  Does anyone know what the average salary is now for a first-year
postdoc at the Univ. of California at San Diego? Is there any increase
after a certain period? Any information regarding this would be
appreciated.

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