170 



National Resources Committee 



Research Personnel 



The universities are of prime importance to all re- 

 search enterprises as the institutions that give initial 

 training in research to most research workei-s. In view 

 of the great importance of this feature of the work of 

 the universities a rather extended discussion of re- 

 search personnel seems desirable. Inasmuch as men 

 entering research at present almost without exception 

 hold the Ph. D. degree, a study of our Ph. D. graduates 

 should throw considerable light on our research i)er- 

 sonnel. While only about one-third of this group con- 

 tinue active in research, almost all the abler research 

 men are included in the group. 



The College as a Source of Research Personnel 



It is first worthy of note that a surprising niunher 

 of research personnel in the United States are of for- 

 eign birth and training. This country will probably 

 continue to attract a certain number of able men from 

 abroad. 



A studj' of recent Ph. D. graduates of nine of the 

 great universities shows that their undergraduate work 

 was completed as follows: 



Place Percentagr, 



Institutions conferring the Ph. D. degree 26 



Other universities of equol rank 16 



Secondary universities or other large Institutions of com- 

 plex organization 2!^ 



Colleges 33 



Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Chicago receive, respec- 

 tively, 45, 41, and 39 percent of their Ph. D. graduates 

 from colleges, but the University of California only 

 14 percent. Our colleges remain a very important 

 source of research personnel and the enthusiasm and 

 vitality of college teachers is of crucial importance to 

 the universities and to research. In the large institu- 

 tions, engineering colleges on the one hand and busi- 

 ness schools on the other tend to attract many of the 

 ablest youth who in small colleges would have majored 

 in the physical and social sciences. As a result, many 

 of the ablest graduates of our large institutions are 

 quickly absorbed by industry and business. To the 

 student of high ability in our smaller colleges the 

 graduate school remains attractive. 



Place of Initial Training in Research 



While industry and the Government will comiiiue 

 to develop and train within their departments a 

 few notable research men who have not been trained 

 in the graduate schools, the great majority of their 

 research personnel and all recruits to the university 

 staffs receive their initial training in research in the 

 universities and colleges. 



Table I lists the total number of Ph. D. degrees 

 conferred by each of the 86 institutions conferring the 



doctorate in each of the 44 fields in which Ph. D. de- 

 grees are listed for the 3 years 1934-35, 1935-6, and 

 1936-37.' During this jjeriod the 86 institutions con- 

 ferred 8,041 Ph. D. degrees as follows : 



11 institutions conferred 50 percent of the doctorates. 

 14 institutions conferred 25 percent of the doctorates. 

 18 inslituiions conferred 15 percent of the doctorates. 

 43 institutions conferred 10 percent of the doctorates. 

 86 institutions conferred lUO percent of the doctorates. 



It is worthy of remark that a number of the institu- 

 tions, hitherto less notable, are advancing rapidly in 

 importance as research centers. 



A study of Table I raises numerous questions relative 

 to the future training of Ph. D. candidates. Wliere 

 will 2,700 and later 3,500 Ph. D. graduates be employed 

 each year? Should there be more differentiation in 

 the types of training offered within each discipline, as 

 for pure research, for applied research, or for teach- 

 ing? Are we admitting and graduating too many 

 with the doctorate? Are the institutions conferring 

 these degrees all sufficiently concerned to see that every 

 graduate secures suitable employment? Are many 

 institutions thinking more of numbers than of quality ? 

 In wliat disciplines have we an oversupply and in 

 what an undersupply of men with the doctofate? 

 Conferences of heads of departments in each discipline 

 from institutions conferring the doctorate in their re- 

 spective fields might consider the facts involved and 

 the problems confronting them as a group to great 

 advantage. No one wants the Ph. D. degree cheapened 

 or hundreds of men with this degree out of employ- 

 ment in Ihe field for which they have been trained at 

 great cost. 



Research Men Training Research Workers 



The only generally accepted list of most distin- 

 guished research men is that of the starred men in 

 Am£rican Men of ScieTwe, edited by Dr. J. McKeen 

 Cattell. This list includes only men in the natural 

 sciences and no similar list is available for the social 

 sciences or for the humanities. We were generously 

 given access to the proof sheets of the 6th edition 

 (1938) of American Men of Science. This edition lists 

 28,000 names, of which 1,556, or 5.6 percent, are starred. 

 These stai-red men are employed as follows: 



1 The figures are taken from Doctoral Dissertations Accepted t>y 

 American Universities, by Donald B. Gilchrist. 



