Quote:
Originally Posted by Weltevreden SA
. You'll also find how windy and proceduralized papers have become since the flood of aspiring Ph.Ds came onto the market looking for jobs starting in the early 2000s. There are now roughly 20,000 professional astronomers (i.e., getting paid) in the world. A
|
In my opinion, the average PhD thesis in astronomy is not very impressive. After all, what is the point of adding 0.00001 percent to the existing knowledge of an astronomical subject?
I have read a lot of PhD theses in extragalactic astronomy, and I think that you or I could have just about written some of them ourselves, despite our more 'humble' status of doing astronomy just for fun and enjoyment.
Added in edit:
I note that Carollo got her PhD in 2011 at ANU, but she has published rather a lot of papers since
2002
This sounds like a person who already
proved that they could do research, even had they not submitted to the ordeal of doing a PhD.
Just getting a PhD does not prove that a person can do research; indeed there were plenty of astronomy PhDs who were unable to go on and do the work of a researcher.
However, I am sure that Carollo would be employable even
without her PhD, as she is obviously able to do the work.
As you remarked, there seem to be an awful lot of Australian PhD theses coming off the production line. Another institution which is producing them is Swinburne University.