The Doctor of Chemistry program at the University of Texas, Dallas, offers a novel approach to graduate education by focusing on problem-solving skills and providing real-world experience that prepares students for careers as industrial chemists.

David E. Hyatt
John P. Ferraris

Bob Dylan wrote "The Times They Are A-Changin'" in the context of social protest, but the theme rings true today in many areas of our professional and personal lives. Certainly, industrial chemists at all degree levels can expect it to continue into the next millennium.

The University of Texas, Dallas (UTD), in its approach to educating students who are focusing on a career in industrial chemistry, is responding to these changing times. Our unique Doctor of Chemistry (D.Chem.) program provides graduate students with the skills and experience they need to become proficient problem solvers; it prepares them to hit the ground running when they enter industrial chemistry positions. We have developed a program that is novel in several respects compared with traditional programs for Ph.D. chemists in the United States. Various aspects of our program have been described previously (1, 2).

Planting the seeds of change
Established in 1969, UTD is a relatively young institution. It grew out of the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies, a private research institute that had been established to meet the needs of local industry. From the beginning, UTD has grown in reverse order compared with most universities: First it was a graduate school, then it was a university that accepted juniors and seniors, and now it is a full-fledged four-year university and graduate school.

The UTD chemistry program began in 1971. Two years later, the American Chemical Society issued a report that called for reconsidering the most appropriate elements of a chemist's education (3). Interestingly, a 1995 report from the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine came to many of the same conclusions as the ACS report did two decades earlier (4). Recent articles in Chemical & Engineering News, CHEMTECH, and other publications as well as the Re-envisioning the Ph.D. Project (funded by a Pew Charitable Grant and located at the University of Washington, Seattle) have also focused on the match or mismatch between traditional doctoral education and the current needs of the chemical industry (5-8).

The ACS report (3) included a chapter titled "Correlating Education with Industry Needs", in which the responses of industry research directors to the then-current trends in the education of Ph.D. chemists were catalogued. These researchers expressed several needs, or areas of concern, that would become central to the focus of our doctorate program in chemistry:

• modification of the traditional Ph.D. program structure;
• decreased narrow specialization and emphasis on theory;
• increased proficiency in laboratory skills, including the proper design of experiments;
• awareness of and respect for applied aspects of chemical technology, including economic constraints, commercial applicability, and social needs or implications; and
• substantial improvement in oral and written communication skills.

These seeds of an educational program that would better prepare graduate chemists for a career in industrial chemistry germinated in the young UTD chemistry department. By 1982, the faculty's vision culminated in the approval of the D.Chem. program. The name of the degree was chosen to reflect the emphasis on problem solving by the skilled and innovative application of prior knowledge (similar to the focus of the Doctor of Medicine degree), in contrast to the traditional Ph.D. education, which is more focused on the development of new knowledge.

The D.Chem. in brief
The D.Chem. curriculum is designed to provide in-depth instruction in the traditional chemical disciplines, and the emphasis is on building problem-solving skills in the applied fields of these disciplines. Many elements of the courses and research practicums in the D.Chem. program are unique.

In general, the program requirements include two years of classroom instruction, three research practicums, one year of industrial research experience, and a novel problem-solving examination. The typical D.Chem. student completes the requirements in five years.

All components of the D.Chem. program emphasize the applied aspects of chemistry that graduates will encounter as industrial chemists. Although we use many of the best textbooks and other materials that conventional Ph.D. programs use, we strive to introduce a problem-solving, applied perspective to the material. Together, the course work, the research practicums, and the problem-solving examination provide an effective framework on which to construct a chemistry education for tomorrow's professional industrial chemists.

In addition to the traditional teaching methods used in presenting graduate-level chemistry courses, teamwork and communication skills are an integral part of the course offerings. By preparing written reports and oral presentations, students learn skills that are critical for chemists in industry.

In most classes, a substantial amount of the lecture material is taken from journals, trade publications, and electronic resources as well as textbooks. Since the inception of the program, our experience in choosing textbooks is that few texts focus on the applied aspects of industrial chemistry with the depth and breadth that we wish to present in our classes.

We involve students as active participants in their education, avoiding the classical lecturer-learner scenario. In several courses, one successful approach has been to assign independent reading and analysis followed by a presentation to the class (as individuals or as teams).

Speakers from the chemical industry are invited to present various topics at departmental seminars, and we encourage students to suggest speakers and participate in contacting them. Plant or laboratory visits are another important aspect of the D.Chem. program; students visit facilities in the Dallas –Fort Worth area and elsewhere.

Research practicums
The unifying goal of the three research practicums—Apprenticeship Practicum (AP), Industrial Practicum (IP), and Fundamental Practicum (FP)—is to refine and extend the students' problem-solving skills. Each practicum is relatively short (12-18 months); in fact, the IP has a clearly defined one-year maximum duration.

At the conclusion of each practicum, each student prepares and presents a final report and defends it before the supervisory committee. For the IP, a representative of the industry at which the practicum took place is included on the committee.

Apprenticeship Practicum. In the AP, students work on a research project under the close supervision of their faculty advisers. The work is done in department laboratories at UTD and, in some cases, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. D.Chem. students pursue a variety of topics, which reflect the diverse research interests of the 11 faculty members in the UTD Department of Chemistry.

At the conclusion of the AP, students prepare a final report on the project in the format of a master's thesis. The students then present and defend the report, and if their defenses are successful, they are awarded M.S. degrees in chemistry.

Only students who have successfully defended their AP work are eligible for placement in the Industrial Practicum.

Industrial Practicum. During the IP, students work full time at a chemical or chemical-related industrial site on a project defined by the sponsoring company. This on-site research rotation permits the students not only to perform technical work in the industrial environment but also to be exposed to the macroculture of the company and the microculture of the project.

Although external internships are a common feature of traditional educational programs, the IP rotation in the UTD D.Chem. program differs in detail and duration. During the IP, faculty liaisons and industrial technical managers or mentors oversee the students' progress. The contents of the IP research projects must contribute meaningfully to the scientific maturity and problem-solving skills of the students.

A single project serves as the focus during the IP; however, students usually address or solve more than one problem during their stints in industry. The 9- to 12-month duration of the IP gives students the opportunity to research topics in sufficient detail to provide thoughtful, yet timely, solutions.

When the IP concludes, students return to the UTD campus and prepare final reports in formats specific to the sponsoring companies. The companies review the contents of the report to verify compliance with disclosure policies for proprietary information. (Results of the research conducted during the IP are the property of the sponsoring company, and the protection of proprietary information is carefully detailed in our IP contract with each company.)

The final reports of the IP work are presented and defended at UTD in formats similar to those of the AP defense. Along with the faculty members on the students' Supervisory Committees, representatives from the sponsoring industries (typically project technical managers or student mentors) sit on the committees for these presentations.

During the approximately 15 years of

Some companies participating in the Industrial Practicum

Anderson Clayton Foods ARCO Exploration and Development Carrington Laboratories Dow Chemical Johnson & Johnson Mallinkrodt Baker Mannatech Merck Mobil Oil Oryx Energy Shell Development Syntex Texas Instruments United Technologies

the D.Chem. program, we have been fortunate to have many industrial partners participate in the IP. Several companies have taken more than one student, and many have hired our graduates permanently. Topic areas for the IP placements have been as varied as the businesses that these companies represent.

Our primary criterion for selecting companies and agreeing to IP projects is that the setting and work provide an opportunity for the students to grow as chemical problem solvers and contribute to meeting the company-defined project objectives. The students' UTD faculty advisers visit the IP placement sites at least once during the course of the placement and maintain regular contact with the students and company personnel to monitor the students' progress.

Students have undertaken IP projects in a variety of interesting research areas during this phase of their D.Chem. studies. The applied research focuses of the projects that the students tackle during their IP placements are evident from the project titles.

Fundamental Practicum. During the FP, students work more independently than they did in the AP but still are under the supervision of UTD faculty members. With few exceptions, the FP faculty advisers are not the persons with whom the students completed their AP work. During the course of the FP, students usually are supported as research assistants with funding from grants or industry-fund research contracts from the supervising faculty member.

During the FP, we expect the students to organize and carry out chemical research with the independence and involvement of professionals and to produce manuscripts ready for publication in reputable scientific journals. Successful defense of the manuscript in an oral examination results in the award of the D.Chem. degree. As in other graduate research universities, the research interests of the faculty define the topic areas for research (9). The titles of recent FP research projects reflect these interests.

Problem-solving examination
Another novel feature of the D.Chem. program, the problem- solving examination (PSE), is an important milestone in the students' academic experience at UTD. It is administered to all D.Chem. students at the beginning of the second semester of their second year.

Because it is based on the application of accumulated technical knowledge, the PSE provides the graduate students with an opportunity to demonstrate their problem-solving and communication skills. Assignments—selected from a pool of problems generated by department faculty to span a broad range of applied chemistry topics—reflect the often poorly defined problems encountered in real-world situations.

Each student picks up a problem statement immediately after returning from the December break and has one week to research the problem, identify solutions, and submit a written report of the proposed solution. Students then schedule a time within the next several weeks to present an oral defense of the solution before a committee of faculty members.

At the PSE defense, we examine the technical validity of the proposed solutions. Perhaps equally important, we also evaluate the students' ability to communicate the solutions clearly and defend them convincingly. Satisfactory performance indicates that the students are building skills and confidence as problem solvers and thus are on the right track. In the most successful PSE presentations, students show that they have assimilated what has been learned in the classroom and in the AP and that they are capable of applying this knowledge to real-world problems.

Students must successfully complete the PSE before being placed in the IP.

Evolution continues
Like any vital enterprise, the D.Chem. program is under constant analysis to determine how course and research offerings meet our goals. Suggestions for improvement come from our students, faculty, and industry partners, as well as the literature (we regularly review improved educational concepts). The ongoing dialogue on restructuring graduate education to better serve students—particularly those entering the industrial workplace—has provided substantial food for thought as we consider evolutionary changes in our unique program.

We have restructured our four-credit course in literature searching and technical communication skills so that students take it in their first semester at UTD. Our twofold goal in this course is to

• provide students with practical tools for finding print and electronic information sources, and
• improve their written and oral presentation skills.

During the one-semester class, we use a combination of individual and team formats in homework and presentation projects, mirroring the growing importance of teams in industry. In fact, our industrial partners often claim that team participation experience is a desirable skill that is sadly lacking in many new hires.

In Analytical Techniques II, taken in the first semester of the second year, we are increasing the emphasis on experiment design. Approaching design using Box, Plackett–Burman, Yates, and other statistical concepts, we intend to give students a basic foundation in experiment planning that allows them to seek reliable results with minimal wasted or redundant bench work. Industrial research laboratories and pilot plants increasingly rely on these design strategies to improve process design and evaluation economics. Computer software that aids in the design and analysis of experiments has become increasingly available at reasonable cost.

Recognizing the important role that small entrepreneurial businesses play in the chemical industry and the world economy, we are tailoring some of our course content to compare and contrast how small and large businesses seek similar technical goals. Our list of guest lecturers reflects a mix of both the familiar large chemical process companies and small (often start-up) companies. In our writing exercises, we may pattern assignments or presentations after funding proposals such as those used to respond to Small Business Innovation Research opportunities.

The majority of our IP placements are with large companies. However, we actively seek small business partners to participate in this critical aspect of our program and expect placements in small businesses to increase in the future.

Sweet success
Since the first students entered the UTD D.Chem. program in 1983, we have awarded the degree to 37 students. More than 90% of these graduates successfully obtained professional positions in industrial chemistry following graduation, with no intervening postgraduate "holding pattern".

Graduates of the D.Chem. program have consistently received compensation equal to that of traditional Ph.D. graduates in comparable positions. Similarly, the growth and advancement of our graduates mirror those of Ph.D. students.

We interviewed employers of our graduates to ask whether they believe the D.Chem. degree gives students adequate preparation for jobs in industrially focused R&D. The consensus was that D.Chem. graduates took less time to adjust to the paradigm of industrial R&D than their Ph.D. counterparts in similar career positions. We consider this a measure of the success of the industrial emphasis in our course work, research practicums, and experience gained in industrial placements.

Although the UTD D.Chem. program is unique in its structure and degree offering, other educational institutions have approached the challenge of preparing graduate students for careers in the chemical industry. In 1996, 10 graduate programs in the United States and several outside the United States were identified as offering various levels of industrial chemistry course work (10). In addition to specific course offerings in industrial chemistry, numerous undergraduate and graduate departments present seminars by chemical industry speakers and offer students opportunities for short-term internships in industrial settings.

In 1997, ~20 million full-time workers were employed in manufacturing and nonmanufacturing R&D in the United States (11). Of this total, ~900,000 were categorized as full-time scientists and engineers. As we move into the new millennium, this pool of essential technical talent will grow, requiring a continuous supply of prepared, confident, problem-solving professionals.

At UTD, we intend to continue to respond to the need for expert problem solvers in the chemical industry by maintaining and expanding our D.Chem. program. However, we will not be able to meet the growing demand alone. We hope that programs with similar goals will arise in response to the increasing demand for graduate chemists with well-defined skills and experiences.

For more information
To learn more about the D. Chem. program, its faculty, or facilities at UTD, please visit www.utdallas.edu/dept/chemistry/dchem.html.

References
(1) Melton, L. A. J. Chem. Educ. 1991, 68 (2), 142-144.
(2) Melton, L. A. Today's Chemist at Work, January 1995, pp 30-34.
(3) ACS Committee on Chemistry and Public Affairs. Chemistry in the Economy: An American Chemical Society Study. American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1973.
(4) Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. Reshaping the Graduate Education of Scientists and Engineers. National Academy Press: Washington, DC, 1995.
(5) Raber, L. R. Chem. Eng. News, May 31, 1999, pp 36-37.
(6) Stinson, S. C. Chem. Eng. News, June 21, 1999, pp 45-51.
(7) Reklaitis, G. V.; Bartels, K. CHEMTECH 1999, 29 (8), 7-15.
(8) Nyquist, J. (Principal Investigator). Re-envisioning the Ph.D. Project Home Page. http://depts.washington.edu/envision (accessed Oct 1, 1999).
(9) University of Texas, Dallas, Chemistry Department Home Page. http://www.utdallas.edu/dept/chemistry (accessed Oct 1, 1999).
(10) Industrial and Engineering Division Symposium on Education in Industry. Presented at the 212th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Orlando, FL, Aug 25-29, 1996.
(11) Wolfe, R. M. 1997 U.S. Industrial R&D Performers; Report NSF 99-355; Division of Science Resources Studies, National Science Foundation: Washington, DC, 1998.

David E. Hyatt is a senior lecturer in industrial chemistry and assistant dean in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Texas, Dallas (Department of Chemistry, P.O. Box 830688, Mail Stop BE26, Richardson, TX 75083-0688; 972-833-2917; drdave@utdallas.edu). Before joining the chemistry department at UTD, he spent 30 years in industrial chemical research, specializing in inorganic and organometallic chemicals and process development in the minerals processing industry. He has been an active participant in the Small Business Innovation Research program through several small business employers. He received an A.B. degree from Colgate University and an M.S. degree and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

John P. Ferraris is a professor of chemistry and physics and head of the department of chemistry at the University of Texas, Dallas (P.O. Box 830688, Richardson, TX 75083-0688; 972-883-2905; ferraris@utdallas.edu; www.utdallas.edu/ ~ferraris). His research group focuses on the design, synthesis, and characterization of novel electroactive polymers and organics for application in the areas of energy storage, electrochromics, light-emitting devices, and membrane-based separations. He received a B.A. degree in chemistry from St. Michael's College, VT, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University.

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