With the opening of my first RNAse-free pipette tips box today, I am setting the stage for my transition into the world of molecular biology. Ooooooh.
Previously I concentrated on in situ immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, gel electrophoresis, cell culture, but as I approach RT-PCR, it really feels different. I started off as a physicist, gradually converting myself to a cellular biologist, and with much satisfaction. With a PhD in DNA damage from the Department of Oncology of University College London, and two post-docs in low-dose radiation-biology, I can hardly define myself a physicist now.
And yet, when competing for science jobs supported by Italian public funds, what counts is your (undergraduate) degree. If you later matured into anything different than what your degree may suggest, you have little chances to compete for a public selection in the field of your real expertise, i.e. the field in which you could give a contribution. Isn’t that odd?
Perhaps this is due to the fact that the concorsi system (Italian public selections for both short term and long term employment in Science; I promise I will cover this topic one day on this blog) was designed at a time when getting a degree was considered the important passport for a scientific career. Also, career opportunities came not much after you got your degree, so there was no point in giving much value to what you did after graduating. Strengthening this hypothesis, the Italian PhD (called Dottorato) was launched for the first time in 1980. Yes, I mean nineteen-eighty. That is, most Italian senior lab leaders these days did not experience the thrills of a Ph.D. It’s not their fault – they just did not have the choice. No wonder though that a PhD is so much under-valued in a concorso.
Everyone recognizes the value of interdisciplinarity. That adds a new line on the would be agenda of Italian Scientific reform.
Ciao!