Sloan Foundation Grant Supports Master's Degree Programs for Scientists at Penn State

A grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has allowed the Eberly College of Science at Penn State to create three distinct programs that offer graduate students the opportunity to earn stand-alone master's degrees in certain emerging fields.

Through the Sloan Foundation's Science Master's Outreach Initiative, the college was awarded $420,000 over a three-year period to create and implement programs in applied statistics, bioanalytical chemistry-mass spectrometry, and biotechnology. According to the Sloan Foundation, such programs are designed to provide a different kind of graduate degree. While master's degrees in many scientific fields usually represent a step along the way to a doctoral degree and a job as an educator or researcher, the Sloan Foundation hopes programs such as those at Penn State will help to create stand-alone master's degrees to prepare students for challenging and diverse opportunities in high-tech and scientific fields.

"These programs enable us to reach out to an entirely new graduate population, which should make us an attractive option for more students," said Norman Freed, associate dean of the Eberly College of Science and principal investigator of the grant. "They also increase our accountability and relationship with business and industry because these programs are specifically designed to prepare students for employment in a growing number of important fields."

Each of the three degree programs, all of which should be fully implemented before the end of the initial three-year grant period, include interdisciplinary course work and combine expertise from different departments in the college. Each also requires an internship. Officials from Penn State and the Sloan Foundation believe such programs provide a service by preparing scientists with the specific background and experiences necessary to thrive as professionals in their selected fields.

"Science-trained professionals can make unique contributions in whatever company they work for because they will be able to provide the interface-as few others can-among the research, marketing, legal, and financial departments," said Sheila Tobias, an education consultant who helped the Sloan Foundation develop the grant program. A book she co-authored in 1995 titled Rethinking Science As a Career: Perceptions and Realities in the Physical Sciences helped outline the need for a different approach to scientific training. She believes such training meets an important need for the scientific community at the professional level. "In smaller companies science-trained professionals will offer variety and flexibility. Consultant and financial firms will capitalize on their breadth."

For Penn State's three programs, collaboration and innovation play a large role. For example, the applied-statistics program, conducted by the Department of Statistics, emphasizes projects and field research rather than abstract theory as a foundation upon which to build knowledge and understanding of statistical concepts. For the bioanalytical chemistry-mass spectrometry program, faculty from the Department of Chemistry designed a program to fill a need by encouraging students to become a bit more generalized in their approach. A "clinic" requiring analytical approaches to real-world problems represents a big part of the curriculum, as faculty members hope to enable chemists who complete the program to be well prepared for full participation in the efforts of research teams. For the biotechnology program, faculty in the Life Sciences Consortium and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology plan to provide students with a broad education and training in various aspects of biotechnology-ranging from laboratory techniques to ethical and social issues.

"The ultimate success of these new masters programs will be determined by their ability to enhance career opportunities for the enrollees," said Don Genson, executive director of Professional Masters Programs in the Eberly College of Science. "In order to have the necessary student interest, there needs to be an attractive return on the time and energy invested to earn the additional degree."

Each of the programs involves partnerships with business and industry and provides hands-on opportunities and interdisciplinary experience. Many representatives from business and industry have already committed to their partnership with Penn State, discussing internship opportunities and providing input about the programs in order to best prepare science-trained professionals for their respective fields. Such cooperation and commitment to quality represent the Sloan Foundation's approach for the initiative and Penn State's approach for its three degree programs.

"Numerous young people well-skilled in science prefer not to wait until they are 35 for their first real job and income, and also may not want careers as full-time researchers or professors," said Jesse Ausubel, program director for the Sloan Foundation. "The goal of the program is to bring into being a new type of master's degree in the sciences that equips people for gratifying and rewarding work outside academia."