2000 Conference: Selected Bibliography

Selected Bibliography on the topic of Relationships between Business, Government, and Academia

Bander, K. W., & Rosenberg, L. E. (1996, November 1). Building bridges between academia and industry: Forms, foundations, functions. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. Available: rosenburg_leon_e@msmail.bms.com

This paper focuses on the nature and importance of connections between the academy and industry. Industrial institutions spend up to four times as much on research as do academic institutions, though both employ similar numbers of researchers &endash; indicating comparatively lower compensation for academic researchers. Five differing dimensions of academic and industrial research are noted: principal goals, organization, planning modes, funding, and interaction with the federal government. Means of building bridges between academia and industry are examined; the Yale Children's Hospital Research Center is cited as an example of such a development.

Business-Higher Education Forum Task Force on High-Performance Work and Workers: The Academic Connection. (1997, January). Spanning the chasm: Corporate and academic cooperation to improve work-force preparation. Washington, DC: Business-Higher Education Forum.

This report summarizes task force findings from the perspectives of various stakeholders. Generally, the committee found that somefaculty members &endash; especially professional school faculty &endash; are committed to preparing students for the workforce. Yet many others &endash; primarily liberal arts faculty members &endash; have little or no exposure to business and are skeptical about the values of the corporate world. Business and higher education leaders will all need to take active roles in efforts to better prepare future workers; these cooperative efforts must be undergirded by mechanisms for reward and sanction. Specific recommendations are offered for both business and higher education sectors.

Gomory, R. E. (1993, May). Goals for the federal role in science and technology. Physics Today, 46(5), 42-45.

Gomory argues that a lack of agreed-on goals has complicated the discussion of scientific and technological priorities in the federal government. He therefore suggests a number of possible goals for various aspects of federal government support for science and technology: 1) the goal of being world class in all major scientific fields, which implies continued support of true basic science, especially support for individual investigators; and 2) the goals of meaningfully contributing to the nation's industrial competitiveness through science and technology (pursuing the means by which government-funded science and technology programs can actually contribute to making our commercial products world class). In setting these goals, the author notes that by redesignating non-"science-producing" programs -- such as the bulk of NASA's space exploration budget -- to other more appropriate categories of national interest, then university scientists and Ph.D. students can return to being funded in an appropriately generous manner.

National Academy of Sciences. (1995, November 28-30). Industry-university research collaborations: Reports of a workshop. Durham, NC: Duke University.

This case presentation aims to guide those seeking to stimulate and develop research partnerships between industrial and academic participants. The cases presented range from single company/multi-university models to a multi-company/multi-university model. The report identifies the objectives of these partnerships, characteristics and measures of successful partnerships, criteria and predictors of success, and various approaches to improving partnerships between industry and the academy in the U.S. As partnerships in research increase in number, there will be a greater need for guidance on the factors that lead to failure, as well as those that lead to success.

National Science Board. (1998, June 25). The federal role in science and engineering graduate and postdoctoral education. Available: http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/documents/1997/nsb97235/nsb97235.txt

Responding to a request from the President's Science Advisor, the Board offers its views on the role of federal government in graduate and post-doctoral education. This report examines the general framework of the partnership since 1945 and concludes federal involvement is critical; the general principles of the partnership should be maintained. However, the Board suggests some adjustments to increase the effectiveness of federal policies and practices in meeting the aims of the partnership. Recommendations are made under four main headings: federal support to the enterprise (including a recommendation that model programs that integrate research and education be rewarded); breadth vs. narrowness of graduate education (e.g., institutions that provide the graduate student with a range of options for training and education, in addition to the core Ph.D., should be rewarded); human resource policies (e.g., federal and academic partners seeking more effective ways to promote diversity); and impact of federal regulatory and funding practices on the culture of institutions (e.g. examining how to prevent unnecessary and unintentional interruptions in academic research programs).

Normile, D. (1996). Corporate concerns and cost clamp down on Ph.D. output. Science, 274, 52-53.

This article describes two major obstacles that face Japanese universities as they try to expand dramatically the number of students obtaining advanced degrees, particularly doctorates. The first is the view of the private sector that Ph.D.s are narrowly trained specialists with little inclination and inadequate preparation to tackle problems outside their niche; the second is the lack of financial rewards a student is likely to earn for the investment in time and training required for a research degree. Industry's attitude is crucial in shaping the academic decisions of budding scientists, simply because Japanese companies are the country's major R&D players. Industry and academic leaders are meeting to discuss greater cooperation. Further initiatives seek to ease the financial burdens on students. Some academic scientists are optimistic that Ph.D.s will eventually catch on in the corporate world, but others are worried that stronger demand for Ph.D.s may not evolve quickly enough to match the government's projected output. The article suggests that until this situation improves, the decision to end academic training at the master's level seems likely to remain the most popular option for graduate students interested in applied research.

Reklaitis, G. V., & Bartels, K. (1999, August). Does U.S. graduate education work for the chemical industry? CHEMTECH, 7-13.

This article reports that chemical research has become globalized, as well as the chemical industry, and corporations are looking for excellent researchers wherever the market demands. In contrast with the case in the U.S., research and development funding has increased in other parts of the world, where graduate education and funding for research differ from that in the U.S. This report compares graduate education and research in 16 countries including the U.S., covering the numbers of degrees awarded in chemistry and chemical engineering, and the length of study required to achieve these degrees. Significant differences are apparent: abroad, there is less emphasis on post-doctoral experience than there is in the U.S.; time to degree is shorter; and there is more direct student support rather than grants to faculty. Recommendations from the report include bringing the U.S. model more in line with those followed in other countries. Additionally, academic employment should require industrial experience, and a greater emphasis should be placed on international experience.

Rigolot, C. (1977). Alternate careers for Ph.D.s in the humanities. Proceedings from Princeton University conference, March 10-11.

At this conference, members of the business and university worlds met to share their insights and chart a future course by which the needs of industry and the skills of humanists might meet. Their goal was to determine how humanities Ph.D.s might serve business and how business might help alleviate the crisis in academic employment. A Ph.D. is an untested commodity in the marketplace, not readily translatable by the business community into useful skills and abilities. The reasons for this are economic, practical, and psychological. Business may view Ph.D.s as "wild-eyed, impractical people, political radicals" who eschew mainstream lifestyles, or as "absent minded professors" who are incapable of useful action outside of the classroom or lab, or as coming to business as a last resort. Academia may view businesspeople as anti-intellectual and hostile to creativity, individuality, and initiative. To bridge these two worlds, the conference's attendees devised steps of action for young Ph.D.s, universities, and businesses.

Shulman, J. I. (1995, October 27). Chemistry Ph.D.s: Industry's changing needs and implications for graduate education accreditation. Ohio State University: Industrial Associates in Chemistry Program.

This presentation begins by complimenting the quality of U.S. graduate education in chemistry. Three broad themes are presented: how the work of an industrial chemist has changed over the past 10-15 years; the impact of these changes on the demands industry makes on new employees; and how graduate education could be modified to meet these demands. Significant differences over time include the job market becoming much tighter, large companies closing or modifying their central research labs, and more companies looking for a perfect fit for research posts to reduce start-up time on projects. Currently, performing excellent technical work is no longer sufficient to bring success in the chemical industry. The industry demands that new employees have a breadth of technical skills, depth of knowledge in at least one area, initiative and "follow-through," as well as an ability to communicate, influence, and work well with others. Many of these qualities and capacities can be developed within existing graduate programs. The benefits of internships for graduate chemists in industry are stressed.

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. (1995). The SIAM report on mathematics in industry. [On-line]. Available: http://www.siam.org/mii/miihome.htm

The study leading to this report was carried out in stages including focus group discussions, telephone surveys, and site visits. Each stage involved discussion concerning the way that graduate-degree-holding mathematicians fit into employment in industry. The role of the graduate mathematician outside the academy is examined; the working environments of non-academic mathematicians are characterized; views of managers are summarized concerning the skills that math graduates are able to offer given the requirements of the job; and means for improving graduate education for mathematicians to prepare them better for non-academic careers are suggested. The study also recommends that non-academic organizations become better acquainted with the academic mathematicians' environment, and suggests that faculty invite non-academic mathematicians into the academy to establish an interactive flow of information and familiarity.

Spencer, A. (1998, March 29). Learning new tricks: A grad school sabbatical in industry. Science's Next Wave [On-line]. Available: http://nextwave.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/1998/03/29/231

Noting that many science doctoral students work in isolation where they struggle with the many techniques they must master, Spencer advocates sabbaticals from the academic world to participate in internships. The article discusses the need to choose the internship carefully and other practical matters.