Conventional wisdom is that everyone interested in research should have a Ph.D. But a few scientists have managed to excel in research without a doctorate. Their stories offer inspiration to those for whom a Ph.D. is impossible for financial or personal reasons. But they also suggest that young scientists think hard before opting out of continuing with graduate school.
A Nobelist's Story Take the case of Gertrude B. Elion, 74, scientist emeritus with Burroughs Wellcome Co., now located in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Elion got her M.S. in chemistry and, in 1941, after three years of anxious searching, found a research job at Burroughs Wellcome, which was then located in the town of Tuckahoe, N.Y., near New York City. With her heart set on a research career, she went to school at night at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now Polytechnic University) to get her Ph.D. After work, she would take the ...
