Science at liberal arts colleges: A better education?

Daedalus

Volumn 128, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 195-216

  Cech, Thomas R ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO   (United States)

^b HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0347337652     PISSN: 00115266     EISSN: 15486192     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. David Davis-Van Atta, Sam C. Carrier, and Frank Frankfort, Educating America's Scientists: The Role of the Research Colleges (Oberlin, Ohio: Oberlin College, 1985);
2. Sam C. Carrier and David Davis-Van Atta, Maintaining America's Scientific Productivity: The Necessity of the Liberal Arts Colleges (Oberlin, Ohio: Oberlin College, 1987);
3. Sophie Wilkinson, "Liberal Arts Colleges are Good Ph.D. Incubators," Chemical & Engineering News (3 August 1998): 45-46.
4. The remainder attend research universities (the 125 leaders in federal funding), doctoral universities (e.g., Iowa State University, University of South Florida, Howard University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), master's colleges and universities (e.g., Glassboro State College, Old Dominion University, and Creighton University), or specialized institutions that focus primarily on technical or professional programs (e.g., New Jersey Institute of Technology, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Teacher's College of Columbia). These categories are taken from the 1994 Carnegie Classification as described in NSF 96-334 [National Science Foundation, Undergraduate Origins of Recent (1991-1995) Science and Engineering Doctorate Recipients, Detailed Statistical Tables, NSF 96-334 (Arlington, Va.: NSF, 1996)].
5. These data concern 1991-1995, the most recent five-year period for which data have been compiled (NSF 96-334, p. 6); data for the previous five-year period are similar.
6. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies, Academic Research and Development Expenditures: Fiscal Year 1996, NSF 98-304, ed. M. Marge Machen (Arlington, Va.: NSF, 1998).
7. Data for 114 members elected in 1997 and 1998, compiled by Judith Harrington, Membership Director, National Academy of Sciences.
8. Scientists interviewed were David Baltimore (B.A. in Chemistry, 1960, Swarthmore), President, Cal Tech, Nobel Prize in Medicine (1975); David P. Corey (B.A. in Physics, 1974, Amherst), Professor, Harvard Medical School; Jennifer A. Doudna (B.A. in Chemistry, 1985, Pomona), Assistant Professor, Yale, Markey Scholar, Searle Scholar, Packard Fellow; Katherine L. Friedman (B.A. in Biology, 1990, Carleton), Postdoctoral Fellow, HHMI Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington; Richard H. Gomer (B.A. in Physics, 1977, Pomona), Associate Professor, Rice University; John Kuriyan (B.S. in Chemistry, 1981, Juniata), Haggerty Professor, Rockefeller University; Joan A. Steitz (B.S. in Chemistry, 1963, Antioch), Henry Ford II Professor, Yale; and Harold E. Varmus (B.A. in English, 1961, Amherst), Director, National Institutes of Health, Nobel Prize in Medicine (1989). In addition to their academic appointments, Corey, Doudna, Gomer, Kuriyan, and Steitz are Investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
9. Gomer, interview.
10. Corey, interview.
11. Doudna, interview.
12. Kuriyan, interview.
13. M. Gladwell, "Do Parents Matter?" The New Yorker (17 August 1998): 54-64,
14. discusses the work of J. R. Harris, The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do (New York: Free Press, 1998)