In 2018, C&EN invited graduate students to submit essays about some aspect of their graduate experience for inclusion in the cover story “The Chemistry Graduate School Experience.” Now, C&EN continues to share diverse graduate student experiences.
The following perspective is provided by Ph.D. candidate Jessica Martin.
“I may not get a Ph.D. in chemistry. After passing my qualifying exam and winning a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, I was able to plunge into my thesis project. That was when I discovered that I found my project uninspiring and began seeking out distractions. One distraction was analyzing safety and hazard assessment within the work of chemists. I have struggled with the dissonance between industry calls for strong safety cultures and the revelations of disastrous industry misconduct. This prompted questions about how academia prepares Ph.D. chemists, what skills are emphasized, and how hazard assessment of the chemicals we create should be included.
As I have pursued these ideas, I have had enthusiastic discussions with people throughout the chemical world who believe this work is necessary. I have gained fantastic mentors eager to engage in ways I never experienced with my previous project. This work became my focus, leaving no time for my official project.
My department has been remarkably supportive as I have changed my thesis to hazard assessment and peer-to-peer education within a graduate program. However, there is a debate brewing over what my thesis will look like come judgment day. There is the distinct possibility that it will be determined that this work does not add up to a Ph.D. in chemistry. Even if it does not, I will walk out with a body of work of which I am immensely proud and connected to a community that is doing work that inspires me.”
Read more about other graduate student experiences.
Excerpt courtesy of “Grad school, in students’ own words,” C&EN, Volume 96, Issue 36.