Episode 2: Ensure scientific quality through an appropriately diverse community

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Our first guest on Science in the Wild was Fred Diedrich, Ph.D., President of Aptima Inc., an R&D firm primarily serving the U.S. Department of Defense in problems for which technological shortcomings and human needs overlap and for which the capabilities of technology and people can combine for highly innovative and efficacious solutions. We are proud to note that we were the first to interview Fred after his promotion to President.

Fred and Gary started at Exponent in 1999, as their first post-doctoral experience in the commercial sector. They shared experiences about the pivot from academe at that time and ever since. The customers of Exponent expected first-tier scientific and technical expertise. In general, Exponent bills hourly for these services, thus Fred and Gary had to adjust to a professional environment in which there was inescapable accountability for everything they did, not just outcomes. They continuously had to be mindful of the value of their work to customers who generally where not scientists and with whom they were expected to interact on a regular basis. This was extraordinarily difficult and transformational.

When Fred left Exponent to join Aptima, he utilized the sensibilities of a consulting environment to influence the continuous development of Aptima’s culture and climate that are among its most important differentiators in the DoD marketspace. As Chief Operating Officer, Fred’s influence was significant in developing scientific talent for close collaboration with customers and stakeholders who often are men and women in uniform and not scientists. In our conversation with Fred, he was quick to point out that he gained as at least as much from his sponsorship of young scientists as they did. Here are some of the topics we discussed in what we hope is just the first of many conversations with Fred and his colleagues.

In today’s education landscape, going to grad school is the norm. Many Ph.D. candidates in particular look to find a position in academia after they complete their programs. But, with the sector saturated with highly qualified candidates, and it is not a guarantee for even some of the most accomplished graduates. Another option is to transition into business. Surprisingly, this may be an excellent opportunity for continuing development as a scholar.

During his first year in a doctoral program in Cognitive Science, Fred received a wake up call that hard work in graduate school often doesn’t lead to a career in academe. He and 14 fellow graduate students were told, “Out of the 15 of you, you’ll be lucky if two of you will become professors. You have to compete hard.” It was a significant emotional event that remains a strong memory for them. Fred talked with us about how, through circuitous routes, he was able to find other areas to utilize his talents and skills, but it begs the question: if universities know most of their students will not be going on to academic positions, why are there so few programs that train them for alternatives?

Fred offers some great insight for anyone who is in graduate school and is thinking of veering off into business. He learned that strong technical skills are not enough. To be successful you need to know how to (1) manage, (2) develop business and relationships, and (3) be comfortable and effective under less-than-ideal conditions for scientific investigations. There are extraordinarily difficult tradeoffs between methodological reliability and validity or relevance to a nonscientist. This is uncomfortable at first, but eventually you realize that there can be benefits to struggling with this tradeoff in ambiguous and uncertain environments. Innovation emerging from the field complements laboratory research, and it can be quite useful to the laboratory research of other scientists.

One lesson Fred emphasized was that messy conditions that one encounters in the field expedite an appreciation for converging evidence over time, across experiments in a variety of settings and utilizing a variety of methodologies. The relative large number of alternative explanations in field research can be winnowed down systematically by replications of the most important findings under diverse conditions. Fred also emphasized the importance of “ethnographic sensibilities” that educate the attention of the field researcher to nuances of meaning and relevance of an investigation to the participants and stakeholders.

Toward the end of their conversation with Fred, Nathan and Gary explored some considerations for the evolution of graduate education to prepare students for diverse paths of impact as scientists. Nathan and Gary will explore this topic in future programs because they believe it can be important in drawing more young students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and in making STEM education more effective in business and more valuable in the U.S. economy.

Fred earned his PhD in cognitive science and M.S. in experimental psychology from Brown, and a B.A. in psychology from Hamilton College. Fred works out of Aptima’s office in Woburn MA.

Key Terms and Concepts

value to consumers
collaboration with customers and stakeholders
sponsorship
scholar
technical skills
reliability and validity
ethnographic sensibilities
STEM education