What can we learn when we follow people over the years and across the course of their professional lives? Joseph C. Hermanowicz asks this question specifically about scientists and answers it here by tracking fifty-five physicists through different stages of their careers at a variety of universities across the country. He explores these scientists’ shifting perceptions of their jobs to uncover the meanings they invest in their work, when and where they find satisfaction, how they succeed and fail, and how the rhythms of their work change as they age. His candid interviews with his subjects, meanwhile, shed light on the ways career goals are and are not met, on the frustrations of the academic profession, and on how one deals with the boredom and stagnation that can set in once one is established.

An in-depth study of American higher education professionals eloquently told through their own words, Hermanowicz’s keen analysis of how institutions shape careers will appeal to anyone interested in life in academia.

“This book is a must-read for anyone contemplating a life in academia or already working as a professor. Lives in Science explains what the high point will be of your career, whether you will be sufficiently appreciated by your peers, when you can expect to be satisfied with your work, and whether you will look forward to your retirement.”

“This fascinating longitudinal study of 55 academic physicists integrates insights from the sociology of occupations and professions, the life course, and science to illuminate the interplay of agency and structure as scientists navigate their careers. Lives in Science convincingly demonstrates that the subjective experience of scientists, including their aspirations, satisfactions, and disappointments, varies over the course of their careers in distinctive ways that parallel the rewards, opportunities, and constraints typifying their organizational contexts—elite (research oriented), communitarian (teaching oriented), and pluralistic (encompassing both). In the face of increased emphasis on the research mission throughout academe, Hermanowicz raises provocative questions about the continued vitality of scientists and the scientific enterprise as a whole in the midst of institutionally generated anomie and widespread dissatisfaction.”--Jeylan T. Mortimer, University of Minnesota