Jul 28, 2026 · 25 min · 15 segments
Two very promising PhD candidates discuss their energy research, federal funding cuts and how they may affect the academic and science environments today and tomorrow, and their job prospects and…
Kelsea RichardsonGuest
Teagan ReaschGuest
Scott TinkerHost
There is a lot of concern that experts aren't being taken seriously, and while this is a huge debate in public policy about the role of experts in government and in different fields, without experts, you lack information.
Kelsea Richardson, she's pursuing her PhD in chemical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, focused on the chemical recycling of plastics.
There are so many things that we use in our everyday lives, GPS, so many different medications that would not be possible without fundamental research-
And we will feel the effect of these cuts for kind of years to come as they influence the job market as, as we have fewer workers, um, as people leave America to go do science other places.
Yeah, so from my perspective, chemical engineering, a lot of the research and development jobs in larger chemical industries, pharmaceuticals, that's a place that a lot of people from my, um, graduate program end up in.
Yeah, so there are, uh, many different areas in public policy that would hire a PhD in energy, um, like non-profits, academia, uh, industry jobs, and government sectors.
There is a lot of concern that experts aren't being taken seriously, and while this is a huge debate in public policy about the role of experts in government and in different fields, without experts, you lack information.
Kelsea Richardson, she's pursuing her PhD in chemical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, focused on the chemical recycling of plastics.
There are so many things that we use in our everyday lives, GPS, so many different medications that would not be possible without fundamental research-
And we will feel the effect of these cuts for kind of years to come as they influence the job market as, as we have fewer workers, um, as people leave America to go do science other places.
Yeah, so from my perspective, chemical engineering, a lot of the research and development jobs in larger chemical industries, pharmaceuticals, that's a place that a lot of people from my, um, graduate program end up in.
Yeah, so there are, uh, many different areas in public policy that would hire a PhD in energy, um, like non-profits, academia, uh, industry jobs, and government sectors.
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