New UNC Chancellor is a scientist. w00t!

He is rather the exception than the rule. The National Academy of Sciences has published a book on the sorry state of science education in the U.S. It is free in pdf.

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12021

"Part of this unfamiliarity probably stems from the fact that as they pursue their primary and secondary education, few American youths ever come into contact with a practicing engineer or scientist. It is indicative of that local nonprominence that a few years ago at a meeting of American university presidents and the presidents of seven Chinese universi ties, the US representatives were a Renaissance scholar, an economist, a political scientist, a linguist, a lawyer, and a mechanical engineer, and the Chinese delegation constituted of six physicists and an engineer."