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When zoologists Tamatha Barbeau and Greg Pryor began their job search for tenure-track faculty positions in the same departments at the same colleges a year ago, they were called naïve, unrealistic and out-of-touch. "As a married couple, our quest to find two faculty positions in the same department seemed to many like a pipe dream," Greg says. "We are thrilled that the pipe dream has become a reality--we have both landed positions as assistant professors of biology."

Greg and Tamatha have spent the past year applying for jobs and writing about the process for the Chronicle of Higher Education's job search diary program. The couple received discouraging feedback from their readers, warning they were being overly optimistic about their chances of landing a dual appointment straight out of graduate school. The couple recently proved the naysayers wrong when they were hired by Frances Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, for two tenure-track positions, beginning in August.

But Tamatha and Greg realize their good fortune is not typical, or easily acquired. For many PhD students at UF who find their soul mate gazing across a research lab, starting a life together after graduate school can prove to be a very trying process.

Laura Sirot, a zoology PhD candidate, and spouse Peter Piermarini, who received his PhD in zoology in May 2002, spent much of their first year of marriage living apart in 2003, while she finished her PhD research in Gainesville and he started a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Though they are currently cohabitating in New Haven while Laura writes her dissertation, they will be separated again for another year while Peter continues to work at Yale and Laura starts a post-doctoral fellowship at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in January.

"Many people have asked me why I don't find a position in New Haven where Pete has his post-doctoral position," Laura says. "I thought about this for a while, but I found a person with whom I am really interested in working at Cornell and secured a position there. Both Pete and I think that it would be better for our relationship if we both pursue what makes us happy."

Engaged couple Joanna Levine, an astronomy PhD candidate, and Tim Spahr, who received his PhD in astronomy in May 1998, find themselves in the same predicament. They met during the fall semester of 1997, when Joanna was entering the PhD program and Tim was finishing his dissertation. After dating most of the academic year, Tim graduated and took a post-doctoral position at the University of Arizona. Unwilling to break off the relationship, the couple has spent six of their nearly seven years together living in separate states.

"It has definitely been a challenge," Joanna says. "Sometimes you wonder why you are with this person you never see. It has been hard." Joanna will defend her dissertation in December, and is hoping to join Tim in Cambridge, Massachusetts--where he is now working for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics--if she can find a job nearby. They have not set a wedding date yet, and do not plan to until Joanna finds a job. "I want to graduate and get my degree first and then live together for a while, or at least in the same state, before we get married," she says. "It really depends on the job hunt. If I get a job in Massachusetts that starts in the fall, we'll probably go ahead and get married sooner than if I get a job elsewhere."

Sacrifices like these have become common to couples in the academic career field. "The opportunities for two spouses in the same general discipline are extremely limited," says Craig Osenberg, a zoology professor who is married to fellow faculty member Colette St. Mary. "As a result, compromise is almost always necessary. Making it work takes an incredible amount of goodwill and mutual respect, to say nothing of forward-thinking departments and administrators who are willing to find creative ways to accommodate these couples."

For Tamatha and Greg, it was a question of being taken seriously as scientists, since neither wanted to be labeled as the "trailing spouse"--the one hired by a university in order to get the other person on the faculty. "When we applied for jobs, we did not put anywhere in the applications that we were married, and we didn't apply for the same positions," Greg says. Tamatha adds, "We wanted to be sure that any offer was made on our merit, not on the basis of our marital status. We wanted to both be wanted--I didn't want to be the dinghy on someone else's yacht."

The two, who met while working at a veterinary clinic in upstate New York, came to UF in 1996 when Greg was accepted into the zoology PhD program. A year later, Tamatha beat the odds by being admitted into the same program. When Greg graduated in summer 2003, he took an adjunct professor position at UF to give Tamatha time to finish up her dissertation. When they started applying for jobs last August, their search was further complicated by the fact that Tamatha had not yet defended her dissertation.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, intrigued by the couple's story, picked them out of 400 applicants to write columns for its job search diary program. The couple wrote three columns for the academic publication, expressing their desire for a dual appointment at the same university, preferably in the South. Though they discussed in detail their application and interview experiences, they refrained from identifying the colleges at which they applied. After a year of ups and downs, the couple landed their dream jobs--tenure-track faculty positions in biology at a small liberal arts college in the South.
"People said we were naïve, but I think we were actually very realistic," Tamatha says. "We know that we were lucky, but we strategized and devoted every moment of the past year to this and did our homework. We decided not to be negative until proven otherwise."

Brian and Nicole Kreisman are also optimistic about their career
options. Nicole is starting her qualification exams in audiology, and Brian is working as a post-doctoral associate, having earned his PhD in 2003. Proud parents of Anna, 2, and Josiah, who was born on Memorial Day this year, a long distance marriage just is not feasible. Nicole hopes to finish up her PhD within a year, and the couple then plans to look for jobs in larger cities, where if they cannot both find faculty positions, they can work in a clinical setting. " Even if I were to find a really great teaching position, he could get a job with a hearing aid manufacturer, so there's a lot of flexibility," Nicole says. "We are not as closed off as couples in the sciences or humanities."

Donovan German and Lisa Crummett, who met in high school and got married in June 2001 while working on their master's degrees in California, just finished their first year in UF's zoology PhD program. They hope to follow in the footsteps of Greg and Tamatha and get a two-body appointment at a university upon graduation.
"For those of us starting off our academic careers together as couples, to have role models within the department is a really amazing thing," Lisa says. "We doubted whether we could have children if we both went into academia because the work is quite demanding when you are constantly applying for grants, writing papers, teaching, doing research and advising. So how would we ever have time to raise a family? Seeing that there are other couples who are making it work, like Craig Osenberg and Colette St. Mary, is very encouraging."

For other couples hoping to land jobs together in academia, Greg and Tamatha have some advice. "Sit down as a couple and decide what you want, not the semester before you graduate, but years before you enter the job search," Tamatha says. "Know who you are and what you want to do, and apply to universities where you can make that happen."

--Buffy Lockette

On their own terms
Zoologists Greg Pryor and Tamatha Barbeau's year-long search resulted in tenure-track faculty positions at the same liberal arts college.