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Rethinking the master's degree

An industry–university partnership provides laboratory-intensive M.S. training in chemistry.

The pharmaceutical industry in America is in a growth phase. It occupies a preeminent position in the world in several advanced and high-tech areas of medicine. The pace of drug discovery has accelerated, thanks to advances in genomics research, combinatorial chemistry, structure-based drug design, and high-throughput assays. Libraries of thousands of compounds, suitable for sensitive tests against enzymes and as receptors for detecting specific biological activity, are available. As a result, companies are uncovering leads to many compounds that could become life-saving drugs. All of these factors have created a growing need for chemists who are well trained in new high-tech procedures and interested in research-oriented careers in the pharmaceutical industry.

The bulk of the research and related laboratory work in the pharmaceutical industry is done by B.S.- and M.S.-level chemists under the supervision of Ph.D.-level scientists. An urgent task today, therefore, is to find pre-Ph.D.-level chemists with broad training in the basics and strong hands-on laboratory experience who qualify for these key positions.

Most major pharmaceutical companies are already trying to recruit large numbers of chemists at the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. levels—in some cases by offering bonuses and other financial inducements. The American economy is in an upsurge, and unemployment is at the lowest level in decades. Unless special steps are taken now to produce highly skilled chemists at the pre-Ph.D. level, there will be a serious shortage of high-caliber research workers in the American pharmaceutical industry.

A long-term solution to this staffing problem has been developed and field-tested in New Jersey, a state that is home to numerous well-established drug companies and many new biotech enterprises. Key to this solution was a close partnership developed between Schering-Plough Corp. and Merck and Co. (both have headquarters in New Jersey) and Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. The two companies are global leaders in many areas of drug development; Stevens is a 130-year-old institution of higher education with a long record of collaboration with various industries (see box, “Stevens Institute of Technology”).

Industry-ready M.S. chemists

This partnership instituted a laboratory-intensive M.S. program in chemistry in 1996 that has attracted a diverse body of talented students (see box, “Chemistry and chemical biology”). The program requires no more than two years to convert a well-qualified undergraduate into a high-caliber M.S. chemist with extensive hands-on experience and close familiarity with a leading pharmaceutical laboratory. This program is cost-effective, equitable to all the partners, and easy to manage, and it has no academic shortcuts. Innovations have been incorporated to emphasize hands-on laboratory expertise and to enhance benefits for the students. From the outset, this program promised to be a win–win situation for everyone.

Thirty graduate credits in an approved plan of study are required for the M.S. degree. These credits include specific chemistry core courses in physical, inorganic, and organic chemistry, as well as chemical thermodynamics and instrumental analysis. Chemical biology core courses include physical and organic chemistry, an instrumental analysis laboratory course, chemical thermodynamics, and physiology. Areas of concentration include analytical chemistry, chemical biology, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry; and other areas of concentration can be designed by the student and faculty. Research may be incorporated into master’s degree programs, either as a special research problem or a thesis, and counts toward the 30 credits required for the degree. All fellows and teaching and research assistants must complete a thesis.

Students can earn an M.S. degree in chemistry and a Graduate Certificate of Special Study by selecting appropriate courses to satisfy the need for specialization. Electives can be chosen in other departments: management, computer science, chemical engineering, physics, or even humanities. All graduate courses carry three credits.

Other degree programs

In addition to the traditional degree programs, the department has an innovative Graduate Certificate Program. Each program is a self-contained, highly focused collection of courses in a specialty area with emphasis on laboratory work and research. The courses carrying 10 or more graduate credits may be used toward a master’s degree. Currently, seven graduate certificate programs are offered: analytical chemistry, biomedical chemistry, bioinformatics, chemical biology, chemical physiology, laboratory methods in chemical biology, and polymer chemistry.

Admission to the doctoral program is based on reasonable evidence that an individual will prove capable of scholarly specialization on a broad intellectual foundation of chemistry or chemical biology. The doctoral degree requires 90 credits of graduate work in an approved program of study beyond the bachelor’s degree; this may include up to 30 credits obtained in a master’s program if the area of the degree is relevant to the doctoral program.

Innovations and special features

In 1998, the ACS’s Committee on Professional Training issued a survey on “The Master’s Degree in Chemistry” (1). According to this report, about one-third of the master’s programs reported teacher training as one of their goals. Preparation for work in industry was the objective of most of the master’s degree programs offered by non-Ph.D.-granting schools.

In most Ph.D.-granting research universities in the United States, an M.S. degree in chemistry is of limited value. It is often perceived as a consolation prize for those who have not qualified for the Ph.D. The M.S. degree in our plan is of the same high caliber as the M.S. degree in chemical engineering, which is generally the highest graduate degree for practicing engineers (excluding those who wish to train for academic positions by earning a Ph.D.). Because the departments of chemistry and chemical engineering were once joined, M.S. students in chemistry at Stevens have always been held to the same high level of achievement as their engineering counterparts. As a result, students receiving their M.S. degree in chemistry from Stevens have no difficulty in obtaining research positions in leading pharmaceutical laboratories. Therefore, only minor changes in the existing curriculum were needed to initiate a demanding, laboratory-intensive, research-oriented M.S. program in chemistry that met with approval from industry. Graduate students in the present program are expected to spend six months in the industrial partner’s laboratory.

Research training provided by the sponsoring industrial laboratory is a novel feature of the academic requirements for this M.S. degree. This provision requires the graduate student to be mentored by industrial scientists and ensures that the laboratory work is of high caliber. This work is incorporated into the student’s M.S. thesis and may lead to scientific publications. Proprietary substances and processes can be associated with the research training to give the student a close familiarity with work in the industrial sector. Safeguards are provided for confidentiality, if needed.

Ideally, candidates to the program (Industrial Graduate Fellows) are selected in the spring term and sent to the sponsoring companies for a summer research internship. They receive a generous stipend and work closely with groups of industrial scientists. During two summers of research training, students develop ties with their sponsor companies. The industrial mentors, in turn, are able to evaluate the students as potential employees.

During the fall and spring terms, the Industrial Graduate Fellows pursue individual study plans at Stevens consisting of four mandatory core courses and at least six elective courses. The latter must include several laboratory courses that provide familiarity with newer technologies and advanced instrumental and computer methods. During the academic year, the Industrial Graduate Fellows spend half their time as teaching assistants. They learn in a team with a diverse group including professors, fellow teaching assistants, and undergraduate students. In return for their service as teaching assistants, the department pays the graduate tuition fees, but not the usual stipends. The sponsoring companies pay the stipend for the academic year (9 months) along with a modest contribution toward research expenses.

During the second summer, the students return as interns to the research laboratories of the sponsoring companies. In the second academic year, the students are expected to receive offers of research-oriented positions from the sponsoring companies or other chemical and pharmaceutical companies. After completing the M.S. program and becoming familiar with pharmaceutical research laboratory work environments, the graduates are in a position to be productive scientists from the very first day of work.

Pilot projects

The master’s degree program in chemistry, instituted as a pilot program four years ago, involved seven Industrial Graduate Fellows, representing a diverse student population. Our experience clearly established the feasibility of the program and also showed that the goals of the partnership—training students to be skilled chemists with high levels of laboratory expertise—had been achieved (see box, “Two success stories”).

The four students who have already completed their studies started work at three pharmaceutical companies. Three accepted offers from their sponsoring companies. The fourth student, a chemical biology major, joined a major pharmaceutical company in another state.

One of the students has become the co-author of a research paper on the basis of summer work. All three chemistry students completed M.S. theses, which will lead to publications in the near future. Some of their research has been presented at ACS technical sessions and at meetings of the New Jersey Academy of Sciences. These publications cover a broad scope of research areas:

• “One-Pot Solid-Phase Synthesis of Isoxazolines” (2)
• “Unusual Reaction of Cerium(IV) Ammonium Nitrate” (3)
• “Microwave Assisted Rapid Synthesis of Variously Substituted β-Lactams,” (4)
• “Microwave Enhanced Rapid Nitration Reactions” (5)
• “Rapid Phosphite Reduction of Aromatic Imine Compounds as a Route to Heterocycles Using a Conventional Microwave Oven” (6)

Special features

The pilot projects have demonstrated special strengths of our laboratory-intensive M.S. training in chemistry and chemical biology. This program has so far attracted five synthetic organic chemists, one analytical chemist, and a chemical biology major. Of the three synthetic chemistry majors who have joined companies, one has selected process research as his field of work, and the others have chosen drug discovery research.

Supervisors of all four industrial fellows who have joined companies have made positive remarks about their academic caliber, hands-on laboratory expertise, and productivity. The employers are interested in subsidizing their future graduate work leading to a Ph.D.

Because of their summer internships, these industrial fellows who are new employees were very much at ease from the beginning and showed a sense of commitment to the company. It is important to note that three out of four fellows accepted the job offer from their own sponsoring company. At some future date, one or more of them may move to different positions or even to different companies. All of them, however, expressed confidence that they would succeed in their technical careers because of the breadth of their training at Stevens and because the basic nature of their thesis work lends itself to publication in peer-reviewed journals.

The flexibility of the program and concern for the interest of the students is shown by the fact that one of the students has decided to spend an additional summer on her M.S. thesis, which has led to some very interesting research findings (3).

Future prospects

Currently, three students are participating in this two-year program and forming ties with their sponsoring companies. One of these companies has donated a 200-MHz NMR spectrometer to Stevens to aid the Industrial Graduate Fellows and other research students.

Word about the success of this industrial partnership with academia has started to spread. Unilever, a multinational company, has joined the partnership this year; two other companies have expressed strong interest in the program. A federal funding organization has signaled the possibility of financial support.

This is indeed a win–win situation by all standards.

References

1. ACS Committee on Professional Training. The Master’s Degree in Chemistry [Online] Spring 1998, www.acs.org/education/cpt/cptsr02.htm (accessed July 31, 2000).
2. Shankar, B.; Yang, D. Y.; Girton, S.; Ganguly, A. K. Tetrahedron Lett. 1998, 39, 2447–2448.
3. Bhattacharjee, A.; Huarotte, M.; Manhas, M. S. Presented at the 219th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Francisco, CA, March 2000; Paper ORGN 449.
4. Shah, U.; Manhas, M. S.; Huarotte, M.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Rumthao, S.; Bose, A. K. Presented at the 33rd Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Newark, DE, May 2000; Abstract 201.
5. Bose, A. K.; Rumthao, S.; Manhas, M. S.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Huarotte, M.; Suayan, R. Presented at the Northeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Storrs, CT, June 2000; Abstract 209.
6. Huarotte, M.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Manhas, M. S.; Bose, A. K. Presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the New Jersey Academy of Sciences; Abstract on p 24.

Ajay K. Bose is a professor of chemistry at the Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, NJ 07030; 201-2116-5547; abose@stevens-tech.edu). He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Allahabad in India and his Sc.D. degree in organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests include synthesizing penicillin and related antibiotics, steroids, marine natural products, NMR, MS, and microwave-enhanced organic reactions for the environmentally friendly synthesis of pharmaceuticals. He is the founder and director of Undergraduate Projects in Technology and Medicine, a summer research program for students. In 1999, he received the ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.

Ashit K. Ganguly is a Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry at the Stevens Institute of Technology (201-216-5540; aganguly@stevens-tech.edu). He received his Ph.D. with Nobel Laureate Derek Barton at the Imperial College, London. Before joining Stevens Institute in 1999, he was senior vice president of chemical research at Schering-Plough Research Institute, Kenilworth, NJ. His research interests concern natural products chemistry and synthesis of biologically active molecules. He is the author of numerous papers and patents, the recipient of several awards, and an invited lecturer at national and international meetings.

Harry Silla is Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology and a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering (201-216-5527; hsilla@stevens-tech.edu). His area of interest is process engineering. He has taught process design for more than 30 years and has collaborated with Procedyne Corp. in the development of a new energy-efficient fluid-bed furnace for conducting high-temperature reactions. Previously the head of the department of chemistry and chemical engineering at Stevens, he is currently teaching process design there.

Thomas Salzmann is senior vice president for basic chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories in Rahway, NJ (732-594-7068; tom_salzmann@merck.com). A graduate of Colgate University (Hamilton, NY), he received his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He joined Merck in 1975 and is now responsible for the company’s drug discovery efforts. His initial research dealt with carbapenem antibiotics, culminating in the discovery of Primaxin. He serves on several editorial boards and has overseen research leading to the identification of more than 25 drug development candidates in various therapeutic areas.