The Unpaid Scientists of Greece

Greece, Spain, Italy, and Portugal are among the countries hit most severely by Europe's economic crisis. Science has not been spared. On Nov. 8, in a meeting organized under the auspices of EuroScience, scientists from the four countries gathered in Barcelona to discuss the impact of the funding cuts. Among the speakers was Varvara Trachana, a Greek biologist who, in April 2011, was hired by the University of Thessaly, Larissa, to fill an assistant professor position in cell biology at the Faculty of Medicine. But today, more than two years later, the Greek government has not yet approved the budget necessary to pay Trachana's salary, effectively leaving her unemployed. Trachana is hardly alone in this predicament. Some 750 Greek scientists, at least, have spent a minimum of two years waiting for their salary to be funded so they can start their tenure-track positions at one of the Greek universities.

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