Approaches for Evaluating the NRC Resident Research Associateship Program at NIST (2007) / Chapter Skim
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2 Recruitment and Selection
2 Recruitment and Selection
Pages 23-60
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From page 23... ...
This figure dropped steadily from 1975 to 1999. In the period 1995 1999, it stood at 66.8 percent.30 • A growing percentage of S&E doctorates were awarded to foreign nationals: 38.6 percent by the 1990s.31 • Underrepresented minorities receive few Ph.D.s relative to whites and Asians: 7.4 percent of S&E doctorates awarded in the second half of the 1990s went to underrepresented minorities.32 But the number and percentage of underrepresented minorities receiving S&E Ph.D.s has grown from the 1970s to the 1990s.
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From page 24... ...
As a result the same percent -- about 10 -- of S&E Ph.D.s went to underrepresented minorities. Trends in Postdoctoral Appointments Postdoctoral appointments date back over 100 years; however the hiring of postdocs did not grow significantly until the second half of the twentieth century.
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From page 25... ...
TABLE 2-2 Percent of Doctoral Recipients with Definite Commitments Who Plan Postdoctoral Study or Research, by Broad Field of Study, 1982 and 2002 Field of Study 1982 2002 Biological sciences 72.1 74.4 Physics/astronomy 48.8 66.7 Chemistry 39.8 52.9 Earth, atmospheric, ocean sciences 25.9 51.6 Mathematics 15.8 42.5 Agricultural sciences 15.9 38.3 Engineering 11.4 24.8 Health sciences 15.4 21.1 Computer sciences 9.1 19.7 Source: NSF/NIH/USED/NEH/USDA/NASA, Survey of Earned Doctorates, in Hill et al., 2004: Figure 1. As there are differences by field, so too do postdocs vary by demographic characteristics.
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From page 26... ...
• The Fellowships Office forwards ranked (highest to lowest rated) applicants on to NIST • Partly on the basis of those rankings, NIST offers selected applicants postdoctoral positions • Most of those who receive offers accept and become research associates There are a number of ways to publicize postdoctoral positions.
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From page 27... ...
The Laboratory/Center Review form includes comments of the prospective Advisor and the disposition of the Laboratory/Center's program committee or representative concerning the suitability of the applicant's proposed research. This information aids reviewers in determining the value of the proposed research to the sponsoring agency.
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From page 28... ...
As a consequence of the personal connections between NIST employees and potential applicants, NIST employees formed opinions about who they thought top candidates were, and then registered their surprise when those people did not end up ranked at the top. In a related comment, former research associates commented that they would like to have a much better idea of how the research project that the applicant intends to work on (as described in the application)
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From page 29... ...
The application for postdoctoral programs includes a question on how the applicant heard about the position.37 Applicants were requested to select one of the following: colleague or fellow graduate student; Ph.D. thesis advisor or other professor; university placement office; former or current NRC Research Associate; research advisor or other scientific staff at the federal Laboratory; RAP's staff member at professional scientific meeting; Advertisement in professional publication; or other.
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From page 30... ...
Surprisingly, they were less likely to hear about the program from a research advisor or other scientific staff at the federal laboratory, compared with applicants to other federal RAPs. TABLE 2-3 How Applicants First Heard About the Research Associateship Program, 1989-2007 Source of Information NIST/NRC RAP (%)
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From page 31... ...
Although the committee did not have prior expectations, it was still a bit surprising that the proportion of applicants hearing about the program from former or current RAs was not that great. We next examined some characteristics of applicants to the NIST/NRC RAP to see if different types of applicants differed on how they first heard about the program.
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From page 32... ...
TABLE 2-6 How Applicants to the NIST/NRC Research Associateship Program First Heard about the Program, by Race/Ethnicity, 1989-2007 Source of Information White (%) All Other (%)
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From page 33... ...
Source of Information NIST/NRC RAP Other RAP Colleague 23.9 19.4 Professor 32.2 17.0 Placement office 0.6 1.3 NRC associate 9.3 10.4 Laboratory staff 18.3 32.7 Journal 1.9 5.9 NRC staff 0.2 0.3 Professional meeting 5.1 5.0 Other 8.4 7.9 N 825 4022 Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff. Table 2-8 shows that about one-third of awardees to the NIST/NRC RAP first heard about the program via a professor; whereas about one-third of awardees to the other RAPs first heard about the program from lab staff.
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From page 34... ...
advisor or other professor and somewhat more likely to hear about the program from colleagues or fellow graduate students, but less likely to hear about the program from a research advisor or other scientific staff at the federal laboratory; • The most common sources of information for applicants to the NIST/NRC RAP were professors or colleagues; • Male and female applicants heard about the NIST/NRC RAP similarly, except via presentations at professional meetings, which women cited twice as often as men; and • There were no differences by race/ethnicity in how applicants to the NIST/NRC RAP heard about it.
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From page 35... ...
(See Appendix E for underlying data.) For those with S&E degrees, from 1965 through February 2007, NIST awardees totaled 1,383 -- or 22 percent of applicants for NIST/NRC Research Associate positions; while other RAP awardees totaled 9,810 -- or 29 percent of applicants for 39 There were an additional 35 applications by individuals with Ph.D.s outside S&E, and 58 cases where applicants did not identify their major or the major could not be classified.
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From page 36... ...
100 90 80 70 60 Percent 50 Other 40 30 20 NIST 10 0 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 Year FIGURE 2-2 Percent of awards among applications, by Research Associateship Program, 19652007. Note: No awards were made in the NIST/NRC Program in 1986.
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From page 37... ...
Thus, for NIST postdocs, 72 percent of applications are from doctorates in the physical sciences, and 69 percent of the awards of NIST postdocs are to doctorates in the physical sciences. TABLE 2-10 Awards, by Research Associateship Program and Major Field of Applicants, 19652007.
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From page 38... ...
30 25 Other 20 Percent 15 10 NIST 5 0 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 Year FIGURE 2-3 Percent of applications from women, by Research Associateship Program, 19652007. Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff.
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From page 39... ...
In 2007, not all application cycles have been completed and recorded in the database. Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff.
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From page 40... ...
In 2007, not all application cycles have been completed and recorded in the database. Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff.
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From page 41... ...
Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff. Race/Ethnicity This section examines whether there are differences in the proportion of applicants and accepted applicants by race/ethnicity comparing applicants to the NIST/NRC RAP to applicants to the other RAPs and to the overall pool.
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From page 42... ...
However, the percentage of underrepresented minorities applying or receiving an award is generally lower than the percentage of underrepresented minorities receiving Ph.D.s or intending to pursue a postdoc (see Appendix E for comparison data)
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From page 43... ...
In both figures, the trend line shows more volatility for the NIST/NRC RAP, perhaps in part because one program is being compared to several collectively. However, given data limitations, it appears that the NIST/NRC RAP is often more diverse proportionally in terms of awarding Research Associateships to underrepresented minorities than the other RAPs (taken collectively)
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From page 44... ...
90 80 Minority 70 Other 60 50 Percent 40 30 20 10 0 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 Year FIGURE 2-9 Success rate of applications to NIST/NRC Research Associateship Program, by race/ethnicity, 1965-2007. Note: No awards were made in the NIST program in 1986.
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From page 45... ...
citizenship requirement for the NIST/NRC RAP. Concerning acceptances, all of those awarded an NIST/NRC RAP identified their doctoral-granting institutions; but 14 of those awarded another Research Associateship did not.
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From page 46... ...
Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff. In the next two tables, data are presented on the top 20 doctoral-granting institutions for applicants and awardees for the NIST/NRC RAP and for the other RAPs.
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From page 47... ...
TABLE 2-12 Top 20 Institutions from Which Applications Originated, by Research Associateship Program, 1965-2007 Institutions NIST/NRC RAP % Institutions Other RAP % University of California- University of CaliforniaBerkeley 222 3.6 Berkeley 773 2.2 University of Maryland College University of Maryland Park 206 3.4 College Park 587 1.7 University of IllinoisUniversity of Colorado 197 3.2 Urbana-Champaign 572 1.7 Massachusetts Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology 192 3.1 Technology 565 1.6 Cornell University 189 3.1 Stanford University 552 1.6 University of WisconsinMadison 165 2.7 Cornell University 551 1.6 University of Illinois-UrbanaChampaign 160 2.6 University of Colorado 456 1.3 University of WisconsinHarvard University 141 2.3 Madison 455 1.3 University of California-Los University of Michigan 140 2.3 Angeles 435 1.3 Stanford University 134 2.2 University of Michigan 428 1.2 Pennsylvania State University Park 130 2.1 Indian Institute of Science 413 1.2 Pennsylvania State University of Texas-Austin 107 1.8 University Park 396 1.1 Johns Hopkins University 100 1.6 University of Washington 381 1.1 California Institute of University of Virginia 97 1.6 Technology 364 1.1 University of Chicago 96 1.6 University of Arizona 351 1.0 Yale University 92 1.5 University of Texas-Austin 321 0.9 University of California-Santa Barbara 90 1.5 Purdue University 309 0.9 Northwestern University 87 1.4 Johns Hopkins University 302 0.9 Iowa State University 86 1.4 Columbia University 297 0.9 Princeton University 82 1.3 Harvard University 296 0.9 Total 2713 44.3 Total 8804 25.5 Note: In 2007, not all application cycles have been completed and recorded in the database. Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff.
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From page 48... ...
As Table 2-14 shows, excepting agricultural sciences and natural resources, the applicants come from a large number of institutions. Even in the biological sciences, which produce few applications, there were a relatively high number of universities represented.
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From page 49... ...
In Tables 2-15 and 2-16, those universities are explored more deeply. TABLE 2-15 Most Common Doctoral-Granting Institutions of Applicants to the NIST/NRC Research Associateship Program, by Major Field, 1965-2007 Agriculture Number of Applications from Institution % University of California-Berkeley 1 50.0 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 1 50.0 Total 2 100.0 Bio/Biomed/Health Number of Applications from Institution % Johns Hopkins University 6 7.6 University of Maryland College Park 5 6.3 State University of New York-Stony Brook 4 5.1 University of Virginia 4 5.1 Georgetown University 3 3.8 University of Illinois-Chicago 3 3.8 University of Wisconsin-Madison 3 3.8 University of California-Berkeley 2 2.5 Johns Hopkins University-Medical Insts.
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From page 50... ...
Pennsylvania State University Park 40 2.9 Johns Hopkins University 37 2.7 Princeton University 34 2.4 University of Maryland College Park 33 2.4 Carnegie Mellon University 30 2.2 University of Florida 28 2.0 Cornell University 27 1.9 University of Virginia 25 1.8 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 24 1.7 University of Massachusetts-Amherst 24 1.7 University of Texas-Austin 23 1.7 Total 718 51.7 Mathematics/CS Number of Applications from Institution % University of Wisconsin-Madison 15 5.8 University of Maryland College Park 13 5.0 Northwestern University 11 4.3 Cornell University 11 4.3 Johns Hopkins University 9 3.5 Purdue University 8 3.1 University of California-Berkeley 7 2.7 New York University 7 2.7 University of California-Santa Barbara 6 2.3 State University of New York-Stony Brook 6 2.3 Brown University/RI 6 2.3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5 1.9 University of Michigan 5 1.9 University of Colorado 5 1.9 Ohio State University 5 1.9 University of Southern California 5 1.9 Total 124 48.1 Physical sciences Number of Applications from Institution % University of California-Berkeley 172 3.9 Cornell University 155 3.5 University of Colorado 155 3.5 University of Maryland College Park 150 3.4 Harvard University 129 2.9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 122 2.8 University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign 109 2.5 University of Wisconsin-Madison 106 2.4 University of Chicago 95 2.2 Stanford University 88 2.0 Pennsylvania State University Park 84 1.9 University of Michigan 81 1.8 University of Texas-Austin 81 1.8 Yale University 71 1.6 University of Virginia 69 1.6 University of California-Santa Barbara 66 1.5 50
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From page 51... ...
% University of Maryland College Park 4 6.0 University of Wisconsin-Madison 4 6.0 Northwestern University 3 5.0 Pennsylvania State University Park 3 5.0 Cornell University 3 5.0 University of California-Santa Barbara 3 5.0 University of Colorado 2 3.0 51
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From page 52... ...
Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff. Age As noted in the start of the chapter, the average age of postdocs has been creeping upwards, in part due to longer time to complete doctorates.
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From page 53... ...
Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff. As the figure shows, awardees tend to be younger than applicants and applicants to the NIST/NRC RAP and awardees of NIST/NRC Research Associates are younger on average than those who apply for and are awarded other RAPs.
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From page 54... ...
Source: National Academies, DataRAP Database, tabulations by staff.
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From page 55... ...
Figure 2-14 shows that other RAP awardees are also more likely to be married. These figures raise a question of whether the NIST/NRC RAP is less attractive to married scientists and engineers or whether some other characteristic of applicants to the NIST/NRC RAP explains the trend that NIST/NRC Research Associates are more likely to be single.
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From page 56... ...
TABLE 2-17 Applications and Awards for the NIST/NRC Research Associateship Program, by Laboratory, 1965-2007 Laboratory Applications % Acceptances % Accept.
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From page 57... ...
(%) Building and fire research laboratory 5 0.7 4.9 1 0.5 3.2 Chemical science and technology laboratory 168 23.6 22.3 54 26.7 31.2 Electronics and electrical engineering laboratory 51 7.2 14.4 18 8.9 17.8 Information technology laboratory 28 3.9 11.2 3 1.5 7.0 Manufacturing engineering laboratory 10 1.4 10.9 1 0.5 2.9 Materials science and engineering laboratory 186 26.1 12.8 56 27.7 18.4 Multiple 176 24.7 7.4 31 15.3 6.7 Physics laboratory 89 12.5 13.2 38 18.8 18.7 Total 713 100.0 11.8 202 100.0 14.9 Note: In 2007, not all application cycles have been completed and recorded in the database.
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From page 58... ...
On average, 7 people per year decline to accept an award from NIST, compared with an average of 68 people per year for other RAPs. TABLE 2-19 Number of Individuals Offered a Research Associateship Who Decline, by Research Associateship Program, 1965-2007 NIST/NRC RAP Other RAPs Year Number % Number % 1965 0 0.0 4 3.4 1966 1 2.7 10 6.9 1967 0 0.0 8 5.2 1968 9 37.5 36 16.7 1969 8 33.3 75 35.4 1970 14 48.3 76 30.6 1971 7 30.4 89 29.2 1972 19 50.0 107 29.7 1973 9 31.0 103 33.8 1974 13 43.3 101 33.0 1975 6 26.1 88 27.8 1976 6 20.7 92 32.4 1977 12 35.3 68 32.7 1978 16 41.0 103 36.9 1979 20 45.5 85 32.1 1980 11 30.6 114 36.9 1981 23 51.1 87 28.2 1982 3 15.8 70 26.4 1983 11 31.4 79 28.7 1984 14 35.0 104 32.1 1985 14 33.3 138 36.6 1986 N/A N/A 71 20.0 1987 8 26.7 65 20.0 1988 14 38.9 71 18.6 1989 5 20.0 54 14.6 1990 5 16.7 68 19.2 1991 2 7.1 66 17.2 1992 8 20.5 64 18.0 1993 5 12.8 82 18.8 1994 11 21.6 66 15.2 1995 2 5.0 66 19.4 1996 1 1.7 55 15.8 1997 6 13.0 53 15.8 1998 1 1.7 40 15.4 1999 2 4.9 31 13.0 58
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From page 59... ...
Since 1990, underrepresented minorities are proportionately more likely to be awarded a NIST/NRC Research Associateship than a research associateship in another program. Applicants to, and awardees of, NIST research associateships are younger on average than those who apply for other research associateships.
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From page 60... ...
2. NIST should conduct an evaluation of individuals who decline offers of Research Associateships.
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