He had been a postdoctoral research scientist for several years, in hopes of one day fulfilling the traditional postdoc goal—running a lab of his own at a top-tier research university. But after a seemingly endless series of academic job applications failed to produce employment, he took a position termed "lecturer," teaching entomology to undergraduates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—while continuing to do some lab work and applying for faculty jobs. When the university's biology department created its first Website in the mid-1990s, it listed graduate students, faculty, and staff. His name appeared nowhere on the site.

Illustration: Steven Dana