Abstract:
Academic training played a distinctly different role in the careers of Ed Ricketts, Rachel Carson and Dr. Jane Goodall. A study of their three case histories raises fundamental questions about how academic institutions prepare independent researchers to conduct important work. Their stories are instructive because each individual broke away from traditional protocols of research and lacked the credibility that an advanced degree typically provides. Despite these challenges, these three researchers achieved groundbreaking success that forever changed the fields they explored. I make the case that their lack of traditional training was in fact an asset rather than a liability because it freed them to pursue their own interests in their own unique way – and to seek funding sources that would support this intellectual freedom for many years. A significant conclusion of this paper is that institutions of higher learning should encourage future researchers to think outside the box as they explore those areas that they are mostly passionately interested in. Extraordinary results – in research, as elsewhere – require extraordinary ways of thinking, which academic institutions must strive to encourage.