The evolution of PhD research training

During my senior year in college, I did an independent research project in a lab that had several PhD students. This was my first personal immersion in graduate school culture. After that was five years of my own grad student career in a lab with several PhD students, four and a half years as a postdoc in a lab with several PhD students, and then a 37 year faculty career in which I mentored seven PhD theses, one masters, and served on committees of 38 PhD students. During this time, academic standards for training PhD students have evolved.

In an email exchange with a colleague back in St. Louis, I wrote: "In our funding-driven culture, the luxury of having our students work out their own projects . . . is beyond the resources of most faculty. Faculty end up doing the concept and planning and use the students for execution. The result is that too many students are passive actors in their careers. A good fit for industry, but not for innovative start-ups or for academic PIs."
There are certainly exceptions, but the training process doesn't incent independent thinking and creativity.

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