A career in Paleontology in Argentina

LUCI, LETICIA; FERNÁNDEZ, DIANA ELIZABETH; CATALDO, CECILIA SOLEDAD; PÉREZ, DAMIÁN EDUARDO

Valdivia

Simposio; IV Simposio Paleontología en Chile; 2014

Universidad Austral de Chile-Asociación Chilena de Paleontología

Scientific careers in Argentina are structured in a five-year program, after which a graduate degree (called licenciatura) is obtained. Degrees in Argentina usually involve about 20-30 (or more) weekly hours of classes. Programs are commonly divided into a core cycle and a cycle of orientation. Most scientific careers are offered only in public universities, which are free and open, and many different kinds of scholarships and grants are available, mainly from the gov-ernment and universities. All Argentinian universities mentioned from here on are public. Biology and geology degrees commonly include at least one course of paleontology. Until 2002, only the University of La Plata (UNLP) offered a biology degree with orientation to paleontology. In that year the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (FCEyN-UBA) created the first formal degree in paleontology in Argentina and Latin America. This degree has had a steady flow of students of around 10-19 per year. Since 2008 about 32 graduates have completed their paleontology studies in the FCEyN-UBA. In 2009, the University of Río Negro (UNRN) also created a five-year degree in paleontology. Both in the UBA and UNRN the paleontology programs are strongly interdisciplinary and cover invertebrate and vertebrate paleontology, micropaleontology, paleobotany, paleoecology, ta-phonomy and biostratigraphy, as well as geologic and biologic subjects; both programs require a degree thesis. However, their curricula are structured differently; in the UNRN there are more, shorter courses per semester, while in the UBA courses are fewer but have a greater load of class hours. Other differences are that the UNRN offers an intermediate two-year Diploma in Geosciences, and that the degree in the UBA includes one extra year, the Ciclo Básico Común (CBC; basic common cycle) which has some subjects common to all degrees in the UBA. In 2011 there were 11 foreigners studying paleontology in the UBA, including people from Chile, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica and Ecuador. The paleontology degree in the UNRN has had an enrolment of about 20 students per year, including people from Bolivia and Chile, and the earliest students will be graduating this year. The most stable and the commonest employment for paleontologists is academic research through the Scientific Research Career of CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas), which requires a PhD degree. There are no tuition fees in Doctoral Programs in Argentinian public universities. A limited number of stipends for graduates wishing to pursue a PhD are provided by governmental agencies, allowing applicants to devote full time to their theses. Postdoctoral stipends are also available, but in a lesser number. A scientist commonly spends 5-7 years with one or more of these grants before applying to the Scientific Researcher Career of CONICET. There is yet much to do regarding employment options and only time will tell how far paleon-tologists can go as the graduates start exploring career paths and as their work becomes more widely known as well.