How to turn USA science degrees into science careers
- Published
- Subject Areas
- Science and Medical Education
- Keywords
- STEM education
- Copyright
- © 2013 Stelling
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Cite this article
- 2013. How to turn USA science degrees into science careers. PeerJ PrePrints 1:e3v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3v1
Abstract
This essay discusses the current situation in USA Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) higher education. Possible solutions to the current "skills gap" facing an entire generation of young Americans are considered. It is put forth that an "Industry PhD" may be helpful for guiding the next generation of scientists into stable careers in the sciences. Discovery science, wherein one discovers natural laws of the universe, requires a different toolkit than one needs for doing applied science. This is the proposed "Academic PhD" track. Applied science is usually focused around a three to five year targeted plan, with a directly patentable application as the "end product". Discovery science usually takes longer, and is by its very nature uncertain. However, one must discover natural laws before one can apply and patent them. Both "Academic PhD" and "Industry PhD" tracks are required for healthy economic growth in industrial nations.