Academic Prepurution for Industry
editorially speaking
A n area of chemical education which might be in need of attention is that related to the preparation of students for careers as industrial chemists. Current thought in this area-which comes from widely divergent sources including the hoard rooms of major corporations, chemists in industrial laboratories, and faculties in colleges and universities-reveals a complex pattern of consternation, concern, confusion, need, insight, and righteous self-disencumbrance by each of the various groups involved. Industrial managers frequently ask why more PhD chemists do not choose industrial careers, or why, having chosen them, they are reticent to embrace nouaca demic research or are recalcitrantly resistant to tying their research to rigid economic considerations. These managers suggest that training of chemists should include more examples of applied chemistry, stronger emphasis on chemical economics, and experiences that produce attitudes more empathetic to the mission of the corporation. Some young industrial chemists ask why the industry does not make more of an effort to use the training they have; why their creativity must be crippled by so many constraints; and why an industry which found such remarkable success in boldly and imaginatively developing products from the research of chemists who knew little more than academic-type chemistry should in its sfffueuce become so conservative that if polyvinylchloride or styrene-butadiene rubber were invented in a research laboratory today, economic considerations would rule out their development. These same young chemists suggest that their academic training would be more valuable to them if it had included examples of how chemistry is applied and if it had required them to give at least some thought to the principles of American capitalism. However without exception, they feel that their knowledge of chemistry is at least adequate for the purpose. In the academic community considerations of how to prepare industrial chemists understandably have assumed a secondary role. To academic chemists the two top priority items in the education of a PhD are his learning to do research, culminating in the development of significant new knowledge and his assimilation of the fundamental principles, techniques, and essential facts of present day chemistry. No one will dispute the contention that this kind of training is precisely what is needed in industry, and most industrial research directors would caution against anything less. Neverthe-
less, if new PhD's who enter industry are finding the transition unusually difficult, and if, as is asserted, interest in industrial positions is waning, it would seem incumbent upon both the academic and industrial communities to look into the causes of these problems. There has been a t least a hint that the industry, caught in a squeeze on profits and sensitive to faltering research productivity, will respond by decreasing its research commitment, relying more on increased automation and operational efficiency to reestablish a favorable profit pattern. While such a response would appear to he a temporary measure and to assure a period of nongrowth in the industry, it also must be regarded as a challenge to the academic community to develop chemists who are better prepared to produce in industrial research. Just how this can be done is not obvious. A first step might involve decreasing the communication barrier between industry and education so teachers at all levels can acquire a working knowledge of how modern chemistry is being applied. We have found the industry and especially the Education Committee of the Manufacturing Chemists' Association most cooperative in this concan assist in imnection, and we hope THIS JOURNAL proving communications. But this is only a start on one facet of the larger problem, and we hope that all departments of chemistry would feel compelled to examine the issue. However, this challenge also should be faced by the student who contemplates a career in industry. Without detracting from his formal education in chemistry, any student can enter into an extended self-study program centered around the chemical industry. By choosing appropriate elective courses in business management, economics, or industrial engineering, by reading selected industrial literature, by sending thoughtful queries to the personnel departments of companies in which he is interested, he can so enrich his preparation that the transition from the academic to the industrial research bench will be both facile and rewarding. Preparing professional chemists is a complex assignment; preparing chemists for industry compounds the complexity. Just how far the colleges and universities should go in this connection will he debated. However, it would appear to be in the national interest, in the iuterest of the science itself, and perhaps in the interest of human progress to intensify considerably the effort in WTL this direction. Volume 45, Number 3, March 1968
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