Doctoral Dissertation Research: Shaping Future Scientists: Student Labor and Training in the Knowledge Economy

研究生和本科生在从事科学知识生产的日常工作的同时，正在被训练成为下一代科学家。本博士论文研究改进项目探讨了知识经济的变化如何影响这些培训和工作动态。近几十年来，学院科学家和行业科学家之间的合作程度有所提高。学术界和工业界的科学家共同取得了突破，改善了人类健康、技术和生产过程。这个项目调查了科学和工程领域的研究生培训是如何随着学术界和工业界的紧密联系而发生变化的。通过了解知识经济的变化以及研究生培训如何支持知识生产，该项目解决了将研究生更有效地融入美国科学和工程劳动力的需求。该项目还将对扩大科学和工程领域的参与产生影响，因为其结果将揭示科学和工程领域招募和保留男女研究生的方式。本论文项目采用两种定性研究方法：民族志和访谈。详细的人种学观察记录了物理科学家围绕研究、合作和学生培训的日常实践。观察是在一个研究中心进行的，并有一个培训资助计划。此外，在专业科学会议上的观察将扩大对学生在知识生产中扮演的复杂角色的理解范围。这些数据揭示了研究生是如何被训练来传播他们的科学知识，并在自己的校园之外的学术和行业环境中与同事合作的。对学生、教师和研究支持人员的采访提供了科学家对知识经济中更广泛的变化以及他们自己的合作的经验和看法的数据。观察和访谈将辅以对来自每个站点和专业科学协会的文件和书面材料的内容分析。该项目不仅旨在了解学生成为科学家的工作动态和专业化，还旨在揭示学生对知识经济中更广泛变化的看法。这项研究将产生新的知识，了解学术和工业科学之间的关系如何影响学生的工作、培训和专业发展。本论文项目的研究结果将为有关美国科学劳动力未来发展的政策讨论提供信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Graduate and undergraduate students are training to be the next generation of scientists while performing much of the daily work in scientific knowledge production. This doctoral dissertation research improvement project investigates how changes in the knowledge economy influence these training and work dynamics. The extent of collaboration between faculty scientists and industry scientists has grown in recent decades. Together, academic and industry scientists have made breakthroughs that have improved human health, technology, and production processes. This project investigates how graduate student training in science and engineering is changing in response to these closer connections between academia and industry. Through understanding changes in the knowledge economy and how graduate student training supports knowledge production, this project addresses the need to integrate graduate students more effectively into the US science and engineering workforce. The project also has implications for broadening participation in science and engineering, as the results will bring out the ways female and male graduate students are recruited and retained in science and engineering fields.This dissertation project employs two qualitative research methods: ethnography and interviews. The detailed ethnographic observations chart physical scientists' daily practices surrounding research, collaboration, and the training of students. Observations are conducted at a research center and with a training grant program. In addition, observations at professional scientific meetings will expand the scope for understanding the complex role students play in knowledge production. These data reveal how graduate students are trained to disseminate their scientific knowledge, and collaborate with colleagues in academic and industry settings outside of their own campus. Interviews with students, faculty, and research support personnel provide data on the experiences and perceptions that scientists have of wider changes in the knowledge economy, and of their own collaborations. Observations and interviews will be supplemented with content analysis of documents and written materials from each site and from professional scientific associations. This project aims to understand not only the dynamics of work and professionalization for students training to become scientists, but also to uncover student perceptions of broader changes in the knowledge economy. The research will generate new knowledge on how relationships between academic and industry science shape student work, training, and professional development. The findings from this dissertation project will inform policy discussions about the future development of the U.S. scientific workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.