Social Organization of Work in Academic Labs in the Biochemical Sciences in Canada: Sociohistorical Dynamics and the Influence of Research Funding

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org

Significant change in the structure of academic labs in the biomedical sciences in Canada and the United States has occurred over the past few decades. A typical lab in the 1960s consisted of a professor and perhaps a technician or a graduate student or two, but many labs now have 20 or more members, most of which are graduate students and postdocs. This talk will describe major changes in the social organization of work in labs in the biomedical sciences in Canadian universities since the 1970s, and that the major influence bringing about these changes was dynamic research funding and its institutional integration by universities.

Annalisa Salonius is currently the 2009 Gordon Cain Postdoctoral Fellow at CHF. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from McGill University and a B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Toronto. Prior to coming to CHF, she was an FQRSC postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the social organization of research labs and postgraduate studies in the biomedical sciences in Canada and the United States, and how and why their organization has changed since the 1960s.