Analysis: 'I didn't expect opportunity so quickly'

Worldwide, there is a worrying shortage of scientists but Canada has made huge strides in tackling the problem. The THES reports

US-born John Abela says his career path would have worked out very differently if he had stayed at home rather than leaving for Canada.

The 29-year-old professor of child clinical psychology is three years into his first faculty post. If he had remained in the US, he would be an assistant professor, with little research money and expending valuable research time on submitting articles to journal publishers until he made a name for himself.

Instead, Dr Abela landed a position at Montreal's McGill University during a Canadian research renaissance. He has been awarded C$750,000 in grants since he arrived. "I didn't expect such opportunity three years out of my PhD," he said. During his first year at McGill, his department head would often come into his office to tell him to apply to different funding bodies. And, to his surprise, he was awarded enough money to equip his laboratory with sophisticated equipment.

In the US, it would have taken him ten years to accumulate the grants and resources he has. His work involves looking into the prevalence of depression among 14-year-old girls compared with boys the same age. His 300 subjects use hand-held computers to record their thoughts and feelings, while he and four graduate students observe their families in a lab equipped with unobtrusive cameras and wire microphones.

He has avoided discussing details of his circumstances with colleagues back home. "They're just used to it. They know that's the way things are."