Unexamined Consequences: Analyzing the Impact of Early Exposure to Proprietary Science on Careers and Knowledge Production

本项目由中国科学技术学会；生物与社会；数学和物理科学与社会，以及科学和工程教育的研究与评估项目解决了早期接触商业活动对物理和生命科学职业的影响。商业活动在大学教师中的传播现在被广泛接受，甚至在一些校园里受到鼓励。但是这样的活动应该延伸到研究生身上吗？此外，研究生在职业生涯早期就接触到导师的商业参与，这对他们的职业选择有什么影响？是影响了他们的职业选择，还是影响了他们的研究重点？本项目涉及研究生较少研究的领域，以及接触商业对职业和研究项目的影响。一个核心论点是，接触商业科学会影响职业选择，进而影响研究生研究项目的内容、人才的分布和科学的发展轨迹。本项目采用一种新颖的方法，将实证和定性分析与基于主体的模拟相结合，分析商业科学对学术生涯和科学成果的影响。这项研究涵盖了斯坦福大学35年的毕业生和在物理和生命科学方面培训他们的教师，然后利用这些发现开发预测模型。具体而言，该项目涉及：研究生培训期间接触商业科学的不同形式如何影响职业生涯和塑造研究计划；科学的形式和内容如何根据就业环境和科学家接受培训的实验室而有所不同；以及对人才分布和科学发展轨迹的潜在影响。

This project jointly funded by the Science, Technology & Society; Biology and Society; Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Society, and Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering programs addresses the impact of early exposure to commercial activity on careers in the physical and life sciences. The spread of commercial activity among university faculty is now widely accepted, and even encouraged on some campuses. But should such activity extend to graduate students? Moreover, what is the effect on graduate students of early career exposure to commercial involvement by their mentors -- does it shape their career choice or the focus of their science? This project addresses the less examined area of graduate students and the effects of exposure to commerce on careers and research programs. A core argument is that exposure to commercial science influences career choices, which in turn shapes the content of post-graduate research programs, the distribution of talent, and the trajectory of science.This project takes a novel approach by blending empirical and qualitative analysis with agent-based simulations to analyze the impact of commercial science on academic careers and scientific production. The study covers 35 years of graduates and the faculty who trained them in the physical and life sciences from Stanford University and then draws on these findings to develop predictive models. Specifically, the project addresses: how different forms of exposure to commercial science during graduate training influence careers and shape research programs; how the form and content of science differs depending on employment setting and relative to the laboratories where a scientist trained; and what the potential consequences are for the distribution of talent and the trajectory of science.