The Rise of the Scientist-Bureaucrat: Survival Guide for Researchers in the 21st Century

Perez Velazquez has written a little gem that I advise reading to anyone persuing a scientific career, as well as for the general public interested in the sociological aspects of science. It alerts the reader about the rise of a new type of scientist, buried in bureaucracy and financial issues. In contrast to past generations, this new scientist is sadly left with minimal time to dedicate to creative work. It studies the consequences of this state of affairs, the problems associated with peer reviewing, the dilemma of funding innovative research, the nature of corporate academic culture and the trivialization of scientific achievement by grant agencies and universities. It also provides possible solutions for these problems. All this is magnificently exemplified and documented, including personal experiences from the author and a touch of humor illustrated in the accompanying cartoons. Despite the humor, it is a serious piece of work that would also be useful for the conscientious academic worried about the difficulties of the current research scene.

Marina Frantseva, MD, PhD

Jose Luis Perez Velazquez is a Spanish biochemist/biophysicist. He has a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular Physiology & Biophysics. His research activities are mainly in the fields of the brain-behaviour relation at a high level of description, seeking principles of biological organisation. He worked as a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and was Professor at the University of Toronto, where he taught a graduate course on consciousness and self-awareness, which derived in part from his book The Brain-Behaviour Continuum (World Scientific). He also edited the book Coordinated Activity in the Brain (Springer), and edited special issues for The Journal of Biological Physics, Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience and Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. Currently he is a Research Scholar at the Ronin Institute, where he continues to investigate a possible global principle, a scheme that combines theoretical studies and experimental observations, aimed at conceptualizing how consciousness arises from the organization of matter.