A recent survey of chemists found that many scientists don’t think the field is innovative enough.
The results were generated by Reaxys, a chemistry research tool developed by Elsevier, a global information and analytics company.
For its research, Reaxys surveyed 186 chemists and found a general consensus that the field is struggling to attract new talent and keep up with the latest technology.
About 78 percent of the respondents said they believe that potential chemists choose other scientific disciplines with research that is more “newsworthy.”
A large majority of those polled (80 percent) also said that there is too much emphasis on research with industrial applications, which is stifling innovation. In addition, 76 percent said that there are not enough opportunities for chemists to collaborate.
“Scientific innovation inherently needs the space to explore, collaborate and seek multidisciplinary partners – but the speed at which innovations become practically impactful is still often insufficient to the demands of stakeholders from a business and funding perspective,” Tim Hoctor, vice president of professional services at Elsevier, said of the findings. “The question is, how should current and future chemists adapt and be trained for this environment?”
The respondents overwhelmingly agreed (84 percent) that being “technologically savvy” is either “crucial” or “very important” to their careers. However, there was no broad consensus on what exactly that means. About 26 percent said that chemists need access to deep dive analytical tools, 22 percent said that researchers need computational chemistry resources and 12 percent believe that scientists need machine learning.
In addition to keeping up with the latest tech, the respondents lamented the lack of public knowledge about the vital role chemistry plays in everyday life.
“Many chemists seem to believe that there is a lack of recognition for chemistry innovation, which is negatively impacting the field’s reputation,” Hoctor said.
Hoctor argued that the chemistry community needs to be presented to students as an “innovative field” that is adapting to the digital age.
“Institutions and businesses need to make sure they are providing chemists entering the industry with the right tools for the job,” Hoctor said.
