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

研究生和本科生正在接受培训，成为下一代科学家，同时完成科学知识生产方面的大部分日常工作。这一博士论文研究改进项目调查了知识经济的变化如何影响这些培训和工作动力。近几十年来，教师科学家和行业科学家之间的合作程度有所提高。学术界和行业科学家共同取得了突破性进展，改善了人类健康、技术和生产流程。这个项目调查了科学和工程方面的研究生培训是如何随着学术界和工业界之间的这些更紧密的联系而发生变化的。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。该项目对扩大科学和工程领域的参与度也有影响，因为结果将揭示在科学和工程领域招聘和留住男性和女性研究生的方式。本论文项目采用了两种定性研究方法：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理解学生在知识生产中所扮演的复杂角色的范围。这些数据揭示了研究生是如何接受培训来传播他们的科学知识，以及如何在校园外的学术和行业环境中与同事合作的。对学生、教职员工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。观察和访谈将辅之以对每个站点和专业科学协会的文件和书面材料进行的内容分析。这个项目的目的不仅是为了了解培养学生成为科学家的工作和职业化的动态，而且也是为了揭示学生对知识经济中更广泛变化的看法。这项研究将产生关于学术和工业科学之间的关系如何塑造学生工作、培训和专业发展的新知识。本论文项目的发现将为有关美国科学工作者未来发展的政策讨论提供信息。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.