Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002

Sloan Professional Master’s Programs New for 2002 - Through the Sallyport
Winter 2002
VOL.58, NO.2
Sloan Professional Master’s Programs New for
2002
People in today’s workforce often need disciplinary and practical scientific
training that goes beyond a bachelor’s degree. And modern industry also
demands enhanced management and communication skills of its
employees. One increasingly effective solution is the professional master’s
degree, which provides a greater level of career-specific education than a
bachelor’s degree and imparts valuable expertise in other areas that
employers emphasize.
For fall 2002, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences is developing three
new professional master’s degree programs: Nanoscale Physics, Energy
Exploration, and Environmental Analysis and Decision Making. The degree
programs are part of an initiative sponsored by the Sloan Foundation, which
has helped institute numerous such programs nationwide.
Prospective students for the Sloan Professional Master’s Degrees will be
new B.S. graduates in technical disciplines and personnel working in the
industrial sector who want to expand or enhance their career opportunities.
Each program will require 21 months for completion and will combine
detailed scientific instruction and practical training with teaching of
business practices and communication skills. This combination will allow
students to move more easily into management careers in the research and
development, design, and marketing of new science-based products or into
consulting in fields where their technical training is valued. The programs
will include courses in leading-edge science and technology; management,
in cooperation with the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management;
and science policy and ethics, in conjunction with the James A. Baker III
Institute for Public Policy. Other elements of the program will include
exposure to careers, disciplines, and speakers in each focus area; an
extended internship to gain practical experience in an industrial setting;
writing and presentation coaching by Rice’s Cain Project in Engineering
and Professional Communications; and exposure to entrepreneurial
development and the business investment communities via the Rice
Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.
Thresher Honored
The Rice Thresher won
first place in the Four-
Year Newspaper (weekly
or less frequent) category
at the 2001 Associated
Collegiate Press
journalism conference,
held in Washington, D.
C., in August. A full list
of the winners can be
found at this link.
“Individuals with an educational background in these interdisciplinary areas
are very few in number,” says Ken Smith, a distinguished faculty fellow at
Rice, executive director of Rice’s Center for Nanoscale Science and
Technology and the Rice Quantum Institute, and co-founder of Carbon
Nanotechnologies, Inc. “Rice University’s idea of combining a rare and
highly demanding technical education with a modest exposure to training in
business will produce students who are truly unique, and these students will
be highly recruited by industry.”
For details on the Sloan Professional Master’s Degree programs, check out
http://sloan-pmp.rice.edu.
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