Biomedical Graduate Programs: Biology and Chemistry
Cynthia Warrick, PhD RPh
Who will be the next professors for biology and chemistry for students in colleges and universities today? If we want to advance STEM fields for students of color, we must produce more biology and chemistry professors. Today I did a search for jobs on HigherEdJobs.com of full-time faculty at 4-year universities in biology and chemistry. There were currently over 500 positions open for Chemistry professors at the Assistant, Associate, lecturer, post doc, and instructor levels. Running the same search for biology positions produced over 1,000 positions open for biology faculty at every level, and even specializations. These faculty positions have openings nationwide. How many of you want to maintain the same schedule as you did in K-12 and College? Working full-time, practically no nights and weekends, summers and holidays off, and in most public institutions, teacher pensions when you retire. I decided to get a STEM PhD after working nights, weekends, holidays, and when I opened my own pharmacy: every day. I saw the lifestyle of the professors in graduate school; they were aging gracefully, showing up to campus for office hours in advance of their classes; helping to grow the next generation of health professionals and scientists. I marvel at the accomplishments of my former students, and I am very proud of them. Some are business owners, government officials, faculty, and administrators. Many are physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, and list keeps growing, as I continue to mentor young people interested in the biomedical sciences. I have students with graduate degrees in public health, who attended law school and are not health policy experts and advocates. Producing more biomedical scientists and healthcare professionals who identify with the culture of their patient populations is critical to producing healthy communities.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) publishes the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) each year. The latest data are for 2023 and are located on the NSF NCSES website. In 2023, there were 9,575 Biological and biomedical sciences doctorates awarded. Out of that number 6,906 PhDs were US citizens or permanent residents, and the remainder, 2,669, were temporary visa holders or unknown. For the Physical sciences, under which Chemistry is classified, there were 5,460 doctorates awarded to 3,176 US citizens and the remaining 2,284 as non-US citizens. Behind Engineering, Biology & Biomedical Sciences has the largest number of doctorate recipients. Out of the 6,906 PhDs in the biological and biomedical sciences, 716 were Hispanic or Latino, and 346 were Black or African American. Both ethnic groups combined represent 15% of the 2023 PhDs in the biological/biomedical sciences. Out of the 3,176 PhDs in the Physical Sciences, 298 were Hispanic and 97 were Black representing 12% of the 2023 PhDs in the physical sciences.
The top HBCUs where African Americans received research doctorates in 2019 – 2023 were: Howard University, Jackson State University, Morgan State University, and North Carolina A&T University. The top 10 non-HBCUs awarding research doctorates to over 100 African Americans for the same period: University of Georgia, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Louisiana State University, University of Florida, the Ohio State University, University of Maryland College Park, Florida State University, Harvard University, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. These are all great institutions for graduate studies in biology and chemistry; check them out.