This article is dedicated to Lowell's Ph.D.s, whose scholarship has enriched their lives and advanced the fund of human knowledge.

College degrees date from the 1200's when schools in Europe won the right to examine and license their graduates. The system of degrees, which took form in the 1300's, was modeled on the guild system. Receiving the bachelor's degree resembled becoming a journeyman in a craft. The master's degree represented the status of a master craftsman, and served as a license to teach. The student's thesis was his "masterpiece," just as a journeyman submitted an example of his work to become a master craftsman. If the student continued to study and teach in law, medicine, or theology, he might earn the title of doctor.

The Doctor's Degree is the highest earned degree in the United States, France, Germany, and many other countries. There are two distinct types of doctor's degrees. One is a professional degree required to practice in certain professions, such as medicine. The other is a research degree that indicates the candidate has acquired mastery of a broad field of knowledge and the technique of scholarly research.

In the United States, the research doctorate required at least two or three additional years of study beyond the master's degree. Most doctoral students were expected to have a reading knowledge of a foreign language but this requirement has undergone change, depending upon the academic discipline. Candidates must also complete oral and written examinations and present a written thesis or dissertation. The doctoral thesis represents an original contribution to knowledge, and is a more detailed study of a research problem than that required of a master's degree.

Yale University was the first American college to grant a Ph.D. Degree in 1861. Post Civil War colleges in American were centers of undergraduate studies that still followed the Colonial model with neither the vision nor the funding for graduate programs. The lack of graduate study opportunities in America caused young scholars interested in creative study and research to look elsewhere. They found what they were looking for in German universities, causing a late-19th Century pilgrimage of American scholars to Berlin, Leipzig, Gottingen and other universities.

American academics who had undergone the German experience returned convinced that if scientific research and productive scholarship were to be realized, graduate studies had to be separated from the undergraduate. In 1876, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore was established to do this. It was an instant university (just as Stanford was an instant college), hiring professors who developed graduate programs that attracted highly intelligent, creative people who wanted to do research more than anything else. For the next quarter century, Johns Hopkins (and to a lesser extent the university of Chicago and Clark University in Worcester, MA) were seedbeds for doctoral candidates. IN its first dozen years, Hopkins produced 69 Ph.D.'s of whom 56 became professors in 32 different colleges and universities. Today, two great Bay Area universities, U.C. Berkeley and Stanford, rank among the nation's leaders in graduate studies.

By the early 1900's the Ph.D. degree had become the basic criterion for college teaching that included teaching/research/publication. By the turn of the century, 25 American colleges could properly be called universities. This trend continued during the first half of the 20th century as increasing numbers of traditional undergraduate colleges devoted resources to graduate programs.

Professor Sanford Elberg '30, Ph.D. Microbiology U.C. Berkeley, and former Dean of Graduate Studies graciously offered to describe the Doctor of Philosophy program. Dr. Elberg wrote, "Universities traditionally offer programs of study leading to academic degrees such as the Master of Arts, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy.

The academic programs may lead to careers in teaching, professional activities in may subjects, and most importantly, to careers in research in the students' area of interest. The Doctor of Philosophy degree is the highest academic degree offered by the universities and is intended to prepare students for the most advanced types of research activities, although today it is customary to be followed by one or more years of post-doctoral training in either university laboratories or distinguished departments of study (History, Literature, Languages, etc.)

The Ph.D. course of study requires the student first to pass several examinations in specific subject areas and in foreign languages (typically French and German, although this requirement has in later years undergone great change, depending upon the discipline). Upon the successful completion of examinations the student is judged worth to continue to research phase of the program where under the guidance of a faculty member the student chooses a research problem that has not been worked on by others and will represent an original investigation that will be reported to graduate body of the faculty in the form of a doctoral thesis. A special committee of the faculty is chosen to read and approve (or disapprove) the dissertation defense, and if approved, to recommend the award of the degree to the student.

The entire process form admission to the graduate school or division to the award of the degree takes from five to may years based upon factors not always under the control of the student. The attainment of the Ph.D. degree is often fraught with uncertainty by the basic nature of research itself on an original theme or idea. Its accomplishment is indeed a noble achievement for which the student may be proud.

World War II and the subsequent Cold War were the seminal events that brought the federal government into the advance degree game in a major way. Sputnik crossing the nighttime sky in 1958 jolted Uncle Same into reviewing the nation's scientific education. President Kennedy's "Man on the Moon" speech gave further federal government impetus to the need for scientific education and mission oriented research.

Today, like the rest of America, higher education and its graduate programs are riding the crest of an economic boom. Government grants, both federal and state, are now major funding sources. And notwithstanding occasional bumps in the road, the American taxpayer is supporting a massive program of government spending for post-graduate study.

A look at the sampling of doctorates printed in the spring '99 newsletter (pages 8-11) reveals an amazing diversity of intellectual endeavors. Lowell Ph.D.'s are exploring the heavens, restructuring our cities, advancing knowledge of the human mind and body, studying music and the arts, and teaching young minds.

Lowell teachers, active and retired, read this web site and newsletter. On their behalf, I congratulate former students on their scholarly accomplishments. It is very satisfying to read of your professional success and know that we high school teachers played a part in your progress toward academic distinction. We applaud your search for knowledge across the sweep of human endeavors that define our lives. What a magnificent legacy!