Print Email Font A A

The Two-Body Problem

Up to Finding a Job

Advice for two-PhD couples



Strange Bedfellows: Does Academic Life Lead to Divorce?
by Christina Boufis, Salon Magazine, March 24, 1999.
Tips for a Massive Academic Job Search
Ellen Spertus describes her experiences applying for over 100 PhD-level computer science positions and solving the two-body problem.
Dual-Science-Career-Couples page
Lots of great resources for dual-science-career couples courtesy of physicists Laurie McNeil and Marc Sher.
Partners in Science, Part Two: Looking For and Negotiating Faculty Jobs Together
"Whether or not a long-distance relationship is a part of a scientific couple's experience, most couples eventually seek permanent positions at the same institutions or in the same geographic regions. These types of job searches require that personal, professional, and financial compromises be made. 'Before even entering the job market,' says Susan Henry, dean of the Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, 'a couple has to sit down and assess the career goals of each individual.' She feels couples can benefit from adopting realistic strategies when determining the fates of their careers. 'Usually at the junior faculty level,' she says, 'the couple themselves have decided that one of them is going to look for the best job they can, and the other is going to be willing to take a research faculty position or a lectureship.'"
Partners in Science, Part One: Negotiating the Academic Job Market as Postdocs
"Marie and Pierre Curie are perhaps the most famous scientific couple in history. But science has served as both Muse and Cupid to not only to the Curies, but to couples in all fields of scientific research. Figures generated in 1995 by the American Chemical Society show that nearly 40% of female chemists and over 20% of male chemists are married to other scientists. A survey carried out by the American Physical Society in 1990 revealed that nearly 70% of married female physicists and 17% of married male physicists are married to other scientists. As this phenomenon becomes increasingly common, scientific couples are finding ways to juggle two careers and relationships. In the meantime, hiring institutions are gradually becoming more attuned to the needs of the professional couple."
Dual-Science-Career Couples: Survey results
"Physicists are increasingly faced with the 'two-body problem,' i.e. the difficulty of finding two professional jobs (possibly two physics jobs) in the same geographic location. The problem has a particularly acute impact on women, in part because 43% of married female physicists are married to other physicists, whereas only 6% of married male physicists have a physicist spouse."
Should Colleges Favor Faculty Spouses in Hiring?
A Chronicle of Higher Education Colloquy, March, 2000.
Dual Career Scientific Couples: Relocating Both Of You
An article on job interviewing and relocation for the person with another science career in the family. By Search Masters International recruiter Dave Jensen.
Love In (and Out of) Academe
"Shari Wilson considers whether professors are better off with partners who are also professors."