A New Doctoral Program in Chemistry, PhD (A.S.)
I provocative
I n the street below the tower, There i s a powerful tumult.
In the face of swift and dramatic changes within our society, graduate programs have continued to evolve a t a leisurely pace. Traditionally, a PhD in chemistry is awarded after -3-5 yr apprenticeship of study and research. Almost inevitably, this training prepares the man for a career of scholarly activity in the style and often in the narrow area of his research professor. But even if the new PhD starts a t the "bench," most do not remain there. Changes in research interests are typical of the 50% or so who continue to do research. As for the others, some may teach in the many colleges and universities which require the PhD but not the research; some begin to ascend the administrative ladder in industry and in government; a few end up in areas as diverse as science writing, information science, politics, patent law, etc. What I wish to do here is propose an optional PhD program for those chemists who plan to depart from a research career directly and wholly in chemistry. Because of its "interdepartmental" character or "cooperative" aspects, I will refer to the new degree as PhD (A.S.); as you will see, Arts and Sciences (A.S.) is not really appropriate, but I cannot think of a better label. This degree differs from the conventional PhD in chemistry (or in any interdisciplinary area) in that it is based on work, -75% in chemistry and -25% in another field. Thus, if four years is taken as the average time required to earn a traditional degree, the equivalent of one year's work is to be completed in another field. The intent here is to have the candidate develop a second concentration or strength at or close to the RfS level. T h i s specialty need not be in science and need not involve research. I n what follows, I will refer specifically to my institute (IIT) and to its requirements, which are described in its bulletin and in a departmental brochure.' Elsewhere, the local situation will differ somewhat, of course, but there should be no difficulty in adapting the new degree to a wide variety of universities and their graduate programs. All of the students that enter our graduate program normally take our "core" program, e.g., a t least one course in Quantum Chemistry, Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, and ('IIT Bulletin 1969-70" and "Graduate Study in Chemistry" both are available upon request. At the time of writing, the proposed PhD (A.S.) program had only just been submitted for study and scrutiny in the Department of Chemistry a t I I T ; it is now an approved program. The designation (A.S.) will be used for identification only within our department.
Spectroscopy. After two semesters of graduate study, the student is "evaluated" on the basis of his course record and a written level examination in three areas of chemistry. If the student qualifies for a PhD program, the present proposal adds the PhD (A.S.) to the usual PhD (pure chemistry or interdisciplinary) tracks. At this time, the student and his advisor formulate a tentative plan of study and research, which will carry the student through to the PhD. Orily the new degree program need be described in detail here. To acquire his strong second specialty, the student pursues graduate level study in a field which may be quite remote from chemistry. Specifically, he takes one course every semester, including summer, for three years for a total of -27 credits (9 X 3). If the student chooses to do so, he may fulfill all of the A4S requirements in this second field and obtain the MS degree but this is not essential. At TIT, the AlS degree requires the completion of 32 credit hours of graduate work exclusive of prerequisites and deficiencies; some departments, e. g., chemistry, require a research thesis. Students that are accepted for our PhD programs in chemistry would qualify, subject to few or no prerequisite courses, for a number of li2S programs at IIT, e.g., Environmental Engineering, Gas Technology, Industrial Engineering," Business and Economics,* Science Information, * Education, * Information Science; * the asterisk indicates that completion of the A!IS program within the named department could probably be accomplished by a BS in one year. If a student already has a strong undergraduate minor in the field, he could qualify for several more programs, e.g., Chemical Engineering, Biology, Mathematics, Rfetallurgical Engineering, Applied Physics, Physics, Political Science, Sociology. On the other hand, it is improbable that a chemistry major could readily take courses in departments such as Electrical Engineering, Architecture, City and Regional Planning, Linguistics, etc. I n addition to such fairly straightforward programs, hybrid programs involving more than one department could be devised. To illustrate how substantial this specialty would be, we give abbreviated versions, by listing some course titles, of four of them. Information Science: Programming for Digital Computers, Numerical Methods, Programming Languages and Language Translators, Time Sharing Computer Systems, Information Storage and Retrieval, Coding and Information Theory, Theory of Formal Computation, etc. Science Information: Scientific Writing, Analysis of Prose, Library Orientation for Science, The Literature of Modern Science, Information Processing, Philosophy of Physical Sciences, Linguistics, etc. Environmental Engineering: Chemistry of the Environment, Water and Wastewater Analysis, Sanitary Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, Public Health Engineering, Water IteVolume 47, Number 1 0, October 1970
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sources, Unit Operations of Water and Water Waste-Treatment, Industrial Waste, Air Pollution Control, etc. Inclz~strialEngineering: Manufacturing Processes and Material, Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes, Statistics, Operations Research, Industrial Management Policy, Project Planning and Control, Organization and Management, Computer Simulation, Human Engineering, etc. Now, there is the sensitive question of what part of the traditional chemistry program must be deleted for the PhD (A.S.) student. I suggest that all of the usual advanced stage courses, except the seminar requirements, be dropped. The thesis research requirement should be decreased substantially. I would guess that something beyond a very good MS thesis, possibly equivalent to a lean (in content) PhD chemistry thesis be required. It does not seem helpful to talk about a 75% PhD thesis! A chairman of another chemistry department, commenting on this issue, made the point that the normal variability of the quality of PhD graduates and/or their theses from any department was probably larger than the formal cut suggested here. The proposed PhD (A.S.) requirements can be summarized as follows. The doctoral candidate must show a reading knowledge of one foreign language relevant to his field(s). H e must develop a substantial concen-
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tration near MS level in a second field. He is expected to mature and develop in his chosen areas chiefly by independent study and ultimately to pass a comprehensive exam, which covers all of his graduate work except for the dissertation. His thesis is to be based on the completion of an original research problem. I n conclusion, it does seem inevitable that the old doctoral programs will have to change, but it is not certain how far-reaching the changes will be. For convenience, we have designed the PhD (A.S.) to fit into the present "system" a t our institute. The major decision on the program will have to be taken a t a departmental level and is therefore fairly uncomplicated. Nevertheless, i t is a tentative move into a critical transition period in which innovation and adaptation in education seems essential. What must be emphasized is that the PhD (A.S.) is not the weak sister to the traditional PhD. If anything, the requirements in the A.S. program are as formidable and challenging-perhaps more so-than those in conventional programs.
Sidney I. Miller Illinois Institute o f Technology Chicago, Illinois 60616
