Grad scientists - a little light hearted philosophy

John McManus J.MCMANUS at CGIAR.ORG
Wed Dec 1 00:01:42 EST 1999


Just an aside on behalf of encouraging wide participation...

A grad student wrote:

"Although I am not a scientist (working on it)..."

All scientists are students. We just stop paying tuition after a while,
perhaps after getting a degree or two. 

When we stop being students, we stop being scientists. 

Lots of students are scientists. The degree doesn't make someone a
scientist, though it often helps with credibility and funding.

The value of a contribution does not depend on the degree of the person
behind it, but rather on how much closer it brings us to understanding
reality. Coral_list is a great opportunity to help keep as much reality as
possible in our work. Wide participation is crucial to that task. Degreed
scientists, non-degreed scientists, nonscientists and lots of people
in-between have been very helpful in our attempts to figure out what's
happening to reefs and what should be done about it. 


John McManus


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