Integrating science and engineering training and public policy studies in graduate education: some observations on the development of 'boundary spanners'

摘要

One of the great challenges for academic disciplines is the training of Ph.D. students who have not only have expertise in their area of specialization, but also have the ability to translate their science into "usable knowledge." In 2009, WashingtonState University was awarded a National Science Foundation graduate training grant through the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program (IGERT). The purpose of this project—titled Nitrogen Systems: Policy-oriented Integrated Researchand Education, or NSPIRE—was to create a novel graduate program that featured in-depth disciplinary training in the student's individual fields and integrated training across the range of disciplines inherent in the nitrogen cycle. In turn, thisinterdisciplinary experience was coupled with both classroom-based and experiential-ly-based learning in the study of public policy (http://igert.nspire. wsu.edu/).