[Taxacom] What A Great Time to be a Young Systematist

[Peter Rauch]

Apropos the upbeat observation made by Mike I. recently, I wonder how this
most recent  doom and gloom commentary about U.S. museum collections
squares ?

http://nmnh.typepad.com/the_plant_press/2014/10/the-erosion-of-collections-based-science-alarming-trend-or-coincidence.html

The Erosion of Collections-Based Science: Alarming Trend or Coincidence?

>From Plant Press, Vol. 17, No. 4
<http://nmnh.typepad.com/files/vol17no4.pdf>, October 2014.

*A Curator’s Perspective*
*By Vicki A. Funk**

Are they --systematists and collections-- independent of one another,
unreliant upon one another ?

And, perhaps more importantly, at this dramatic moment in world history
--as we watch our evolutionary context of Humanity disappearing before our
aged eyes-- is Funk's cutator's perspective alarmist rather than alarming
(interesting that the NMNH / SI want to distance themselves ("...do not
represent...", not e.g., "...do not necessarily represent ...") from her
"personal opinion" --what's with that ?) ?

I'm stunned by the long Funk list. Tell me I can relax and can ignore it.

Peter

On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 4:58 PM, Michael A. Ivie <mivie at montana.edu> wrote:

> Dear Taxacomers,
>>
>> We see a lot of doom and gloom on this list, but in my career,* I have
>> never seen a better time to be a young systematist*!  In North American
>> entomology, we have seen 6 endowed professorships/curators, 3 of them new,
>> either just filled, open or about to be open.  Plus, a major opening in a
>> top university just filled, leaving an opening where that person came from,
>> 2 in top museums, plus more than the normal set of collection managers and
>> other non-faculty positions. The death of US systematic entomology is no
>> where in sight!
>>
>> Mike
>>
>