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This reminds me, I have had an idea for advancing science through investing in graduate students and I would love to get some feedback on it. How about creatin

This reminds me, I have had an idea for advancing science through investing in graduate students and I would love to get some feedback on it. How about creating a foundation that gives grants to students to support them while they get a Masters or PhD in two branches of science? My assumption is that encouraging people to get high degrees in two or three branches of science will help bridge the 'specialization gap' that now exists between the branches. People on this program will be able to apply one area of science to another, which may create amazing applications. How many people are there who have a PhD in biology _and_ a PhD in computer science? What about PhD's in mathematics and robotics? I would apply immediately to anything resembling this.

tentonwire 15y ago
There are interdisciplinary PhD programs that are now gaining popularity. For example, I work on protein structure prediction in my graduate program, which involves lots of programming, robotics algorithms, machine learning, HPC, etc. as well as biochemistry, statistical thermodynamics, and molecular biology. If I were to drop out right now, I could find employment as anything from a software developer to DNA sequencing technician.
- Hawramani 15y ago
  These are a pretty good start. What I had in mind is an organization that gives long-term grants for many areas of study. Of course, any returns on this kind of investment would be ten to fifteen years away, which would make it hard to find anyone to support it. And worse, we do not know if a we can have a good return on this kind of investment.
juiceandjuice 15y ago
I was going to talk about this, but I think part of higher education's problem is the lack of mobility between studies. I think it's hard to switch to a different area of study unless you studied at least 4-5 courses of it as an undergrad, or familiarity from research.
yummyfajitas 15y ago
How many people are there who have a PhD in biology _and_ a PhD in computer science? 2 of the 3 colleges I attended have exactly this program: http://cob.as.nyu.edu/page/home http://cob.as.nyu.edu/page/home http://www.biomaps.rutgers.edu/index.php http://www.biomaps.rutgers.edu/index.php

tentonwire 15y ago

There are interdisciplinary PhD programs that are now gaining popularity. For example, I work on protein structure prediction in my graduate program, which involves lots of programming, robotics algorithms, machine learning, HPC, etc. as well as biochemistry, statistical thermodynamics, and molecular biology. If I were to drop out right now, I could find employment as anything from a software developer to DNA sequencing technician.

Hawramani 15y ago
These are a pretty good start. What I had in mind is an organization that gives long-term grants for many areas of study. Of course, any returns on this kind of investment would be ten to fifteen years away, which would make it hard to find anyone to support it. And worse, we do not know if a we can have a good return on this kind of investment.

juiceandjuice 15y ago

I was going to talk about this, but I think part of higher education's problem is the lack of mobility between studies. I think it's hard to switch to a different area of study unless you studied at least 4-5 courses of it as an undergrad, or familiarity from research.

yummyfajitas 15y ago

How many people are there who have a PhD in biology _and_ a PhD in computer science? 2 of the 3 colleges I attended have exactly this program: http://cob.as.nyu.edu/page/home http://cob.as.nyu.edu/page/home http://www.biomaps.rutgers.edu/index.php http://www.biomaps.rutgers.edu/index.php