Chemical Education Today
Editorial
Doctoral Education During the past few years there have been increasing interest and activity in the area of graduate education of chemists. The ACS Office of Graduate Education publishes a semiannual newsletter, organizes the annual Academic Employment Initiative at ACS national meetings, and carries out other programs aimed at improving graduate education and the prospects of chemistry Ph.D. students (1). The Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate encourages efforts to improve the quality of their doctoral programs in more than 80 departments in six disciplines: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience (2). Whether or not you are in a department with a doctoral program, these initiatives are likely to affect some—perhaps many—of your students. If you have not already looked into them, now would be a good time to do so. For example, consider the list of articles in the Spring 2006 issue of the ACS Graduate Education Newsletter: The Role of University Research in Preparing Professional Chemists (Ann Nalley, ACS President 2006); Preparing for Life After Graduate School (Joel Shulman, U. of Cincinnati); Overcoming National Boundaries to Education Experiences (Kim Baldridge and Jay Siegel, U. of Zürich); Globalization of Human and Technological Resources (Kim Baldridge and Jay Siegel, U. of Zürich); Doctoral Reform Initiatives (Marjorie Caserio, U. C. San Diego); Thinking about Becoming a Faculty Member? (Jerry Bell, ACS); Graduate Student Participation in Symposium Planning at National Meetings: Introducing the GSSPC (Marja Engle, U. of Illinois). It is hard to imagine any graduate student who would not find something of interest. The newsletter also contains much useful information for undergraduate students who are considering graduate work. If you and/or your department are not receiving it, email
[email protected] to get on the mailing list. Similarly useful information is available from the Carnegie Initiative for the Doctorate (CID). In chemistry seven institutions are involved: Howard University; State University of New York, Stony Brook; The Ohio State University; University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Michigan; University of Oklahoma; University of Wisconsin–Madison. Each of these institutions reports on its new initiatives at the CID Web site (2). For example, at Howard University changes involve a more flexible curriculum, earlier assessment of students’ competencies and commitment, and integration of professional development into the curriculum. At SUNY, Stony Brook graduate students have carried out an assessment of the entire program and their report is now available. The Ohio State University has surveyed faculty and graduate students and developed a CID Web site. The University of Colorado at Boulder has created a program that supports students who are interested in applying their chemistry knowledge to research in other fields; in their last two years such students will work on projects at the interface of chemistry and disciplines such as public policy, education, philosophy, or law. The University of Michigan has initiated Town Hall Meetings of students and faculty over www.JCE.DivCHED.org
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The ACS Office of Graduate Education [and the] Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate…are likely to affect some—perhaps many—of your students. If you have not already looked into them, now would be a good time to do so.
pizza and soda, has a research rotation program where incoming students rotate through several research groups before making final decisions regarding research mentors, and has a summer program to enhance teaching skills of graduate students. The University of Oklahoma has held a minisymposium to discuss changes in the graduate program, has developed a conceptual framework, and is designing a core course that encompasses a minimum knowledge base for graduate students. The University of Wisconsin–Madison has developed a graduate-student colloquium course that provides orientation for incoming students in joining a research group, teaching, ethics, management skills, communicating, proposal-writing, publishing, and careers. The previous paragraphs describe only a tiny portion of the information available at the ACS and CID graduate education Web sites. Far more is immediately available if you peruse these sites in greater depth. And almost certainly there is much more going on in graduate programs in chemical sciences throughout the country that is not included in these sites. Out of nearly 100 articles that involve graduate education published during the past decade in this Journal, only about half a dozen deal with organizational and curricular issues such as those described above. Many of these were clustered in the December 2004 issue, which reported on new ACS initiatives. I would like to see more discussion in these pages of new kinds of graduate programs or new ways for improving graduate programs. Because the nature of chemistry is changing—becoming more supportive of and vital to many other disciplines—it is essential that the education of Ph.D. chemists also change. If you, your graduate students, or your graduate program have been involved in making such changes, please write them up for us. I am sure there are many JCE readers who will want to know about them. Literature Cited 1. For ACS activities in graduate education, go to http:// acswebcontent.acs.org/home.html (accessed Aug 2006), choose “Education” in the pull-down, Quickfind menu (upper left) then click on the “graduate education” link under “Colleges and Universities” (bottom of the left column). 2. Activities of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate can be viewed at http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/cid/index.html (accessed Aug 2006).
Vol. 83 No. 10 October 2006
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Journal of Chemical Education
1415
