What’s Expected of Industrial Scientists After a phd?

I’ll be attending a university-industry workshop next year to give a keynote talk. One of the topics I’ll be covering is what’s expected of industrial scientists after earning a Ph.D.—a question I often pondered during my time in school.

A good starting point might be to explain how business projects are typically initiated and completed. Projects vary depending on the goals of the business group, but the ultimate objective is to develop prototypes and commercialize products that generate revenue with a satisfactory margin. When entering a new market or replacing incumbent technologies, uncertainties about the market or technology often require de-risking many factors. Successful business projects typically address both market and technical risks while ensuring expected earnings growth. To de-risk these factors, we use specific tools and projects. For market risks, you’ll often collaborate with marketers and customer-facing technical service teams to analyze data, as they understand customer needs and market trends. For technical risks, you work with colleagues to quickly test hypotheses and concepts, much like in academic labs. At this stage, risks still persist before a final business decision can be made. Once a promising business case is identified and initial prototyping succeeds, larger-scale projects are undertaken to further de-risk the venture before full commercialization. This includes activities like customer sampling, pilot work with beta customers, financial modeling, toxicity studies, selecting scale-up processes and locations, and more. Along the way, you’ll collaborate with various teams, including marketing, finance, environmental health and safety (EH&S), technical service, procurement, and production. From this process, it’s clear that two critical skill sets stand out: strong communication skills and the patience and perseverance to overcome the inevitable obstacles before commercialization.

When developing a new technology, I believe there’s not much difference between how industry labs and academic labs operate, at least initially. Both rely on journal articles and, especially in industry, patents to study prior art, brainstorm ideas, and screen potential concepts. However, industry research tends to be more customer-centric. We think ahead about how products will ultimately be used and consider factors like cost early in the process. Performance-cost trade-offs are a constant challenge. While many innovative academic concepts may not seem feasible in an industrial setting due to cost constraints, we often still test risky ideas quickly because even failures teach us valuable lessons. Interestingly, some ideas that academics consider unlikely to move beyond the lab and into the market can become viable in the industry, thanks to economies of scale. One critical distinction between academia and industry is the emphasis on reliability. In industry, unreliable products result in financial losses and penalties, making reliability essential. In academia, the focus is often on novelty, which can lead to skepticism among industrial scientists, particularly those with domain expertise. Academic papers that benchmark solely against academic prototypes without addressing practical considerations or incumbent industrial technologies may risk being perceived as overselling their potential. That said, academics work to push intellectual boundaries, not create market-ready solutions, and they lack access to customer inputs or market analysis. While this can lead to disconnects with industry needs, both academia and industry have unique roles that complement one another. I particularly enjoy journal articles that explore the fundamentals of elusive phenomena, as they provide insights I can apply to solve real-world problems, rather than those focused solely on performance-driven technologies targeting mature application fields with exaggerated claims.

I’ll not be attending the workshop to sell an industry career. I’ve always wanted to work on mission-driven projects that make sense to me and solve real-world problems, so I love my current role in the industry. That said, perspectives evolve over time and are often shaped by one’s environment. I feel very fortunate for my job, my projects, and the people I work with.