A main goal of Ph.D. training in any field is, ostensibly, to help students become independent practitioners. Over the past several decades, however, much concern has been expressed about the effectiveness with which this transition is achieved. Most recently the report, “Advancing Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences,” prepared by this organization’s Presidential Commission on Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences raised important questions regarding the preparation of Ph.D. students for entry into the workforce. As part of our long-term interest to better understand through educational research how students develop into practicing chemists, we have gained significant insights from our studies of the experiences of chemistry Ph.D. students. In this talk we will briefly describe some of this research and present factors that appear to catalyze the evolution of student into practitioner.

It takes a village: Transition from graduate student to practitioner

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.