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…
Kelsey RichardsonGuest
Teagan ReaschGuest
Scott TinkerHost
Yes, 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 nonprofits, academia, uh, industry jobs, and government sectors.
I mean, I'm, I would say there's a number of them, and I'm sure we'll get into them.
But the big ones that I can think of are funding, as well as just kind of the politicization of, of science.
You know, there's a lot of hot button issues that are hard to touch right now and, um, a lot of mistrust in scientists these days where it's hard to walk that line.
I would agree that funding has been a large concern for a lot of PhD students and, uh, people in academia right now.
I would also say that there is a lot of fear about jobs in the future, job security within-
... uh, especially public policy and the social sciences, uh, and being taken legitimately as a field within-
Yes, 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 nonprofits, academia, uh, industry jobs, and government sectors.
I mean, I'm, I would say there's a number of them, and I'm sure we'll get into them.
But the big ones that I can think of are funding, as well as just kind of the politicization of, of science.
You know, there's a lot of hot button issues that are hard to touch right now and, um, a lot of mistrust in scientists these days where it's hard to walk that line.
I would agree that funding has been a large concern for a lot of PhD students and, uh, people in academia right now.
I would also say that there is a lot of fear about jobs in the future, job security within-
... uh, especially public policy and the social sciences, uh, and being taken legitimately as a field within-
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