Conventional Researchers

The most typical and common experimental works of our times, are the works of

• Research scientists and technologists employed in a career in private or government-supported institutions and orga­nizations, including the military
• Thousands of scientists and engineers in the making, namely registered graduate students working toward uni­versity degrees, such as an M.S. or Ph.D.
• Thousands of inventors, some affiliated with organizations and some private, working for patent rights on materials, processes, and devices.

State governments in which a ministry (or department) of sci­ence and technology does not exist are exceptions. Most coun­tries spend a considerable part of their revenue on research work. Almost all countries have military establishments, a considerable part of whose resources are directed to defense research.

The following are some common features among researchers in such a wide variety of research fields:

• Most of them work either individually or in groups, under the supervision of a guide or a director.
• They work for a short or long term or for promotion in the form of a degree or other enhancement of profes­sional status.
• They have the intellectual support, the library, and a field of work, the laboratory.
• Last, but by no means least, they have “the problems.” Their efforts are directed toward finding answers to ques­tions posed by individuals or organizations.

This last aspect, namely, the existence of questions and the efforts toward answers, is to us the significant part of experimen­tal research.

I have had the unpleasant experience of having registered in a prestigious institution to do research for my Ph.D. without hav­ing identified a research problem. And this, as I now under­stand, is not a rare incident, particularly in developing countries. That institution, at that time, was devoted to research, as well as to teaching engineering at the graduate level, but it was devoted to research only in the physical and biological sciences. Students were registered for research positions, mostly for Ph.D’s, the main attraction being the availability of federal funds for schol­arships and research assistantships. The institution requisitioned a yearly grant and was awarded a certain percentage of requested, based on the prestige and politics exercised by the people involved.

I cite this example to illustrate the situation of putting the “Ph.D. before the problem,” the cart before the horse, in that the student, the would-be Ph.D., knows that he is working for a doctorate, but he doesn’t know what his topic of investigation, his “problem,” will be. In my case, the situation continued for more than a year and was likely to continue indefinitely. Luckily for me, I came up with a problem for myself after a year or so. That situation is far from ideal. I invented a problem through literature search not because the solution to that problem was a pressing need, but solely for the purpose of getting a Ph.D.

In an ideal situation, on the other hand, the “problem,” at least in outline, should be available, and a certain amount of funding should be earmarked in the budget for the effort of find­ing the solution. That effort should be assigned to a suitable stu­dent, with compensation coming from the funds. A healthy and desirable situation exists when the problem(s), along with the funds come from those who face the problem, whether it is an agency of the local or federal government or a manufacturing (or service) company. This is what, in principle, is happening in developed countries, for example, in the United States. In devel­oping countries, in view of the limited availability of funds, it is even more desirable that this model should prevail.

This brings us to the last and most idealistic kind of research: research done in the same spirit as playing a game, creating a piece of music, or painting a picture, not for gain of any kind, but simply out of exuberance and energy, just for enjoyment, for its own sake. Certainly such a situation is very desirable to the cause of science, as well as to the enjoyment of the people involved. There have been many such people in earlier times whose contributions to science have been significant, but they are now a vanishing species, if not endangered as well.

Source: Srinagesh K (2005), The Principles of Experimental Research, Butterworth-Heinemann; 1st edition.