Who are Interdisciplinary STEM Doctoral Graduates? Exploring and Assessing Antecedents and Economic Consequences

Effective Years: 2018-2023

Researchers at Cornell and Ohio State Universities will apply an economic framework to examine the risks, rewards, and benefits of the choice to pursue interdisciplinary dissertation research among early, mid- and later career Ph.D. students and degree holders. Using data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates, Survey of Doctorate Recipients, and the Institute for Research on Innovation & Science, they will compare competing definitions of interdisciplinary research and analyze and map trends regarding career outcomes. The research will generate new insights for Ph.D. students and their advisors on career-level effects faced by those who complete interdisciplinary dissertations in STEM fields. The project supports the NSF prioritization of the Convergence Research Big Idea and the need to develop a workforce that can conduct cross-disciplinary solution-oriented work on complex problems.

The objectives of the proposed project are to utilize rich data sources to improve understanding of what constitutes interdisciplinary research in STEM and how it is measured, to track changes longitudinally in the characteristics of individuals who conduct interdisciplinary dissertations in STEM, to quantify economic outcomes, and to study the career paths of those who conduct interdisciplinary dissertations in STEM. The specific research questions are (1) to what degree do differing definitions of interdisciplinarity yield variation in the measurement of interdisciplinary research frequency, and how do these measures vary over time? (2) Which demographic and socio-economic factors help explain the decision to complete interdisciplinary dissertation research in STEM, and how do these change over time? (3) Do individuals who complete interdisciplinary dissertations in STEM seek and earn tenure with greater or lesser probability? and (4) Over time, will the salary of people who complete an interdisciplinary dissertation in STEM grow at the same rate, slower, or faster than their non-disciplinary peers? The researchers will address the questions using primarily quantitative analytical techniques and equation modeling. The project will help improve future career preparation for individual students and the institutions where they study.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.