PhD recipients acquire discipline-specific knowledge and a range of relevant skills during their training in the life sciences, physical sciences, computational sciences, social sciences, and engineering. Empirically testing the applicability of these skills to various careers held by graduates will help assess the value of current training models. This report details results of an Internet survey of science PhDs (n = 8099) who provided ratings for fifteen transferrable skills. Indeed, analyses indicated that doctoral training develops these transferrable skills, crucial to success in a wide range of careers including research-intensive (RI) and non-research-intensive (NRI) careers. Notably, the vast majority of skills were transferrable across both RI and NRI careers, with the exception of three skills that favored RI careers (creativity/innovative thinking, career planning and awareness skills, and ability to work with people outside the organization) and three skills that favored NRI careers (time management, ability to learn quickly, ability to manage a project). High overall rankings suggested that graduate training imparted transferrable skills broadly. Nonetheless, we identified gaps between career skills needed and skills developed in PhD training that suggest potential areas for improvement in graduate training. Therefore, we suggest that a two-pronged approach is crucial to maximizing existing career opportunities for PhDs and developing a career-conscious training model: 1) encouraging trainees to recognize their existing individual skill sets, and 2) increasing resources and programmatic interventions at the institutional level to address skill gaps. Lastly, comparison of job satisfaction ratings between PhD-trained employees in both career categories indicated that those in NRI career paths were just as satisfied in their work as their RI counterparts. We conclude that PhD training prepares graduates for a broad range of satisfying careers, potentially more than trainees and program leaders currently appreciate.

The relative importance of reasons for current career choices for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics PhDs was examined. Reasons why underrepresented minority scientists chose faculty careers differed in some respects from those of well-represented scientists, with implications for graduate/postdoctoral training, formal and informal social support networks, and faculty career decisions.

Transient protein phosphorylation is a common means to accomplish signal transduction. Phosphorylation-mediated signaling in microorganisms often involves the detection of a stimulus by a sensor kinase, followed by the transfer of a phosphoryl group to a response regulator protein. In bacterial chemotaxis, one of the best-studied examples of such a twocomponent regulatory system (36, 37), extracellular stimuli control the autophosphorylation of the CheA sensor kinase with subsequent phosphotransfer to the cytoplasmic response regulator CheY. The phosphorylation state of CheY then dictates the direction or duration of flagellar rotation and thus swimming behavior.The concentration of phosphorylated CheY (CheYp) at any given time is a function of the rates of both phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. The kinetics of phosphoryl group addition and removal set an upper bound on how quickly a cell can respond to a stimulus. During chemotaxis, bacteria integrate information about their chemical environment and make split-second responses that determine whether to continue on their current course or change direction (29). Accordingly,

No abstract

No abstract