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New Academic Degree Joins Business and Science

Good research is obviously essential for high-technology businesses--but so is the ability to translate that research into marketable products and services before the competition, to figure out and pursue the most effective research collaborations, and to safeguard the intellectual property produced in the lab. Universities are coming to recognize this, and in response are beginning to offer what they call "professional degrees" in science. These Master's degrees differ from the traditional M.S., which offered either an opportunity to obtain research experience not acquired during work for a Bachelor's degree or a consolation prize for Ph.D.s who didn't work out. The new degrees are roughly equivalent to MBAs or law school degrees. They aim to give graduates both sufficient understanding of a scientific subdiscipline to permit them to talk knowledgeably with experts in their fields and sufficient skills in, and knowledge of, business to enable them to interact comfortably with corporate functions outside the industrial research lab. According to Sheila Tobias, an adviser to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York City, about 50 professional Master's degree programs have started up in the United States in recent years. The programs generally focus on emerging fields such as biotechnology or interdisciplinary enterprises that match scientific and nontechnical skills, such as financial mathematics. In the past, industry managers generally hired Ph.D.s and expected them to perform extra-laboratory tasks that involved sales, marketing and the like. However, Ph.D. training does not necessarily prepare science students for work outside the lab--particularly work that involves the practicalities of business rather than academe. "It just doesn't occur to them that they were hired to make money for the company," says University of California physicist Hans Bozler. Learning To Make Money As their need for individuals versed in both science and business has grown, corporations have tried to persuade academic departments to make their offerings more business-friendly. "We've been hearing that there's a tremendous demand for people who not only are technically proficient, but can plan and manage a project, particularly with a commercial orientation," says Tim Olsen, student services coordinator in the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "Industry has an increasing interest in sending some people back to school to get an MBA to go with the science degree," says David Pond, vice president of chemical technology at Eastman Chemical Company. "It's not for everybody, but in some circumstances having a person well trained in both science and business will be a real strength." Some science students aim to obtain a combination of qualifications before finding a job. A small albeit growing number of doctoral candidates sign up for MBA degree courses while they work on their Ph.D.s. And several Ph.D.-granting science departments at U.S. universities attempt to offer their students some of the necessary business experience by making the course work that they require for doctorates more "practical." They have, for example, introduced courses on communication and presentation, and have encouraged students with an interest in working outside academe to seek postdoctoral fellowships in industry. More recently, however, a new educational approach has emerged that promises to satisfy industry's needs for scientists with business savvy by offering the professional science degree. The Northwestern University Center for Biotechnology was the first to offer a significant degree program that linked science and business. Founded in 1990 with a grant from the state of Illinois, the Center initially concentrated on supporting research in the fledgling field of biotechnology. Its original Master of Science degree, the nation's first in biotechnology, reflected that focus. …