A panel of scientists discusses career paths at the LC2CAM 2008 conference.

Despite impressive employment gains in many fields of science, women remain underrepresented in fields requiring intensive use of mathematics. Here we discuss three potential explanations for women’s underrepresentation: (a) male–female mathematical and spatial ability gaps, (b) sex discrimination, and (c) sex differences in career preferences and lifestyle choices. Synthesizing findings from psychology, endocrinology, sociology, economics, and education leads to the conclusion that,...

Making a career as a researcher in academia is very difficult. I am using the iPhone game Plants versus Zombies as a metaphor to highlight good strategies for wining the game and to succeed in your career. The main conclusions are that time is of the essence, that you must maintain research as your prime objective and that you should use extra help, such as copy editors, to improve your research output.

In this short presentation I give practical tips for making a career as a researcher in academia and industry. I present sobering facts about the structure of research organizations and highlight important strategies. I gave this presentation at the Young Researchers career panel at the HRI2010 conference in Osaka.