Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a couple of my friends work at APL and they are happy.

Depending on your field, I would apply to MSR and leave the area for Cambridge or Redmond.

or D.E. Shaw Research (bio, chem, etc).

MSR?

Mircosoft Research

Cambridge is very competitive, don't know much about Redmond. patent law has its tedious parts.

Anonymous wrote:a couple of my friends work at APL and they are happy.

Depending on your field, I would apply to MSR and leave the area for Cambridge or Redmond.

or D.E. Shaw Research (bio, chem, etc).

MSR?

you could always cook meth for more excitement

Anonymous wrote:Op here: apologies for being deliberately vague. I am in a interdisciplinary field close to applied biochemistry. I do a lot of bench science but am stuck doing the same thing for the last 4-5 years. I am wondering if it is time to make a change and if I should try other areas like patent law. But like doing science so I want to make it work if I can. Too junior to bring in my own money.

http://www.deshawresearch.com

this could be right up your alley

Op here: apologies for being deliberately vague. I am in a interdisciplinary field close to applied biochemistry. I do a lot of bench science but am stuck doing the same thing for the last 4-5 years. I am wondering if it is time to make a change and if I should try other areas like patent law. But like doing science so I want to make it work if I can. Too junior to bring in my own money.

I know a few NIH folks that are very happy as NIH research scientists. Obviously their areas of science can be and are very different from one another, so as a PP said, "science" is inclusive of many, many fields.

Are you referring to "hard" science such as physics, chemistry, biology, etc?

a couple of my friends work at APL and they are happy.

Depending on your field, I would apply to MSR and leave the area for Cambridge or Redmond.

or D.E. Shaw Research (bio, chem, etc).

I'm a NASA PhD chemist, and I do get to do a lot of interesting research, as well as some management stuff. But I also have to bring in all the money for my salary and lab through competitive proposals, and the funding environment right now is brutal. It is hard, but satisfying, and I worry about the long-term stability.

Anonymous wrote:Which places have the best environment - relaxed yet interesting or am I looking for the holy grail? Looking specifically at DoD, DoE and Army research labs.

Science jobs....science is a big field. There is a big difference between a physicist, chemist, geologist. From what I can tell, outside of the DoD and DOE labs, most government positions are Program management rather than science. The science is done by the contractors. DOE and DOD labs do have technical performers (scientist), but they still have to bring the work in house. NRL does not give you a pot of money and say "do good things". You need to write formal proposals for the money, and hope they get funded.

I am not sure how NASA works, or some other locations. FWIW, I am a scientist (PhD) level with 29 years experience, and am finding federal funding to be worse than I have ever seen it. Federal/ Federally funded scientific research is shrinking....

And science is not a relaxed atmosphsphere....

Which places have the best environment - relaxed yet interesting or am I looking for the holy grail? Looking specifically at DoD, DoE and Army research labs.