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PhD Program

Wharton’s PhD program in Management is flexible and interdisciplinary, applying social science disciplines and research methods to management problems. It offers specializations in strategy, international business, organizational behavior and theory, and human resource management.

The faculty has a broad range of interests ranging from the behavior of individuals and groups to organizational strategy. Major areas of faculty research currently include: human resources and competitiveness; foreign strategic investments and international cooperative relationships; organizational learning and adaptation; technology adoption, diffusion, and transfer within and across organizations; and new venture formation, growth, and corporate entrepreneurship.

Each student draws on the faculty’s diverse expertise and varied interests to develop a program uniquely suited to his or her interests. The program encourages students to gain research experience by working closely with faculty on a variety of projects. Recent placements include the Harvard Business School, INSEAD, New York University, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, University of Michigan and the University of Texas.

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PhD Program Overview

Wharton’s program in Operations, Information and Decisions emphasizes research on real management problems and maintains a balance between theory and practice. The faculty trains scholars in decision making, information systems, and operations management.

Our faculty leads in the development and application of an innovative blend of analytical and empirical approaches to important problems facing the private and public sectors, including the design, development, and evaluation of:

• behavioral approaches to individual and managerial decision making;
• information systems as a means of commerce and of decision making; and
• operations for the fulfillment of demand and broader economic and social needs.

Our PhD program provides a unique mix of behavioral, economic, statistical and analytical training to its students, and its strength is reflected in our students’ record of placement and achievement.

Three Areas of Specialization

Decision processes (dp).

What factors influence human judgment and decision-making? Why and when are people prone to judgement errors and biases? What kinds of interventions will help people make better decisions or improve human welfare? Our interdisciplinary Decision-Making PhD program focuses on training students to conduct and publish academic research that helps to answer these important questions. Along the way, students receive rigorous quantitative/statistical training and acquire a deep understanding of the literature on judgment and decision-making, significant exposure to the fields of psychology, economics, organizational behavior, and marketing.

Information Systems (IS)

The Information Systems PhD Program covers a broad range of research interests, from the development of detailed analytical and information-technology-based methods for managing complex organizations to the broader economic evaluation of the impact of organizational and market-based use of information systems and information-based strategies.

Operations Management (OM)

The Operations Management PhD Program focuses on the processes that define an organization’s outputs, as well as the methods commonly used to analyze these processes. Students specializing in OM are interested in a wide range of functions, including operations strategy, product and process design, technology management, capacity planning, and supply chain management.  Their work similarly covers a wide range of organizations and industries, including education, health care, hospitality, manufacturing, distribution, and retailing.

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University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

Graduate School (Business) • Philadelphia, PA •  

Graduate School (Business) • Philadelphia, PA

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University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) Business School Overview

The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) offers these departments and concentrations: accounting, business analytics, e-commerce, economics, entrepreneurship, ethics, finance, general management, health care administration, human resources management, insurance, international business, leadership, marketing, production/operations management, organizational behavior, public policy, real estate, sports business, supply chain management/logistics, quantitative analysis/statistics and operations research, tax, and technology. Its tuition is full-time: $79,800 per year and executive: $223,500 total program. At graduation, 83.90 percent of graduates of the full-time program are employed.

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At-a-Glance

School Type

Enrollment (ALL Programs)

Programs Offered:

Full-time MBA, Specialty Masters, Executive MBA

University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 2024 Rankings

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Full-time graduates employed at graduation (2 year average)

Full time graduates employed three months after graduation (2 year average)

MBA Program Rankings

• # 1 in Best Business Schools  (tie)

Business School Specialty Rankings

• # 2 in Accounting
• # 3 in Business Analytics
• # 8 in Entrepreneurship  (tie)
• # 1 in Executive MBA
• # 1 in Finance
• # 3 in International  (tie)
• # 5 in Management  (tie)
• # 2 in Marketing
• # 6 in Production / Operations
• # 1 in Real Estate
• in Supply Chain / Logistics

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Pacific Islander

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Department Concentrations

• accounting business analytics
• e-commerce economics
• entrepreneurship ethics
• finance general management
• health care administration human resources management
• insurance international business
• leadership marketing
• production/operations management organizational behavior
• public policy real estate
• sports business supply chain management/logistics
• quantitative analysis/statistics and operations research tax
• technology other

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AVERAGE BASE SALARY

Number reporting operations/production jobs

Number reporting general management jobs

Number reporting finance/accounting jobs

Number reporting management information systems (MIS) jobs

Number reporting consulting jobs

Number reporting human resources jobs

Number reporting having jobs in other areas

University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) Career and Salary

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PhD Program

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Wharton’s PhD program in Finance provides students with a solid foundation in the theoretical and empirical tools of modern finance, drawing heavily on the discipline of economics.

The department prepares students for careers in research and teaching at the world’s leading academic institutions, focusing on Asset Pricing and Portfolio Management, Corporate Finance, International Finance, Financial Institutions and Macroeconomics.

Wharton’s Finance faculty, widely recognized as the finest in the world, has been at the forefront of several areas of research. For example, members of the faculty have led modern innovations in theories of portfolio choice and savings behavior, which have significantly impacted the asset pricing techniques used by researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. Another example is the contribution by faculty members to the analysis of financial institutions and markets, which is fundamental to our understanding of the trade-offs between economic systems and their implications for financial fragility and crises.

Faculty research, both empirical and theoretical, includes such areas as:

• Structure of financial markets
• Formation and behavior of financial asset prices
• Banking and monetary systems
• Corporate control and capital structure
• Saving and capital formation
• International financial markets

Candidates with undergraduate training in economics, mathematics, engineering, statistics, and other quantitative disciplines have an ideal background for doctoral studies in this field.

Effective 2023, The Wharton Finance PhD Program is now STEM certified.

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Ethics & Legal Studies Doctoral Program

The Ethics & Legal Studies Doctoral Program at Wharton focuses on the study of ethics and law in business. It is designed to prepare graduates for tenure-track careers in university teaching and research at leading business schools, and law schools.

The Ethics & Legal Studies Doctoral Program at Wharton trains students in the fields of ethics and law in business. Students are encouraged to combine this work with investigation of related fields, including Philosophy, Law, Psychology, Management, Finance, and Marketing. Students take a core set of courses in the area of ethics and law in business, together with courses in an additional disciplinary concentration such as management, philosophy/ethical theory, finance, marketing, or accounting. Our program size and flexibility allow students to tailor their program to their individualized research interests and to pursue joint degrees with other departments across Wharton and Penn. Resources for current Ph.D. students can be found at http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/doctoral-inside/ .

Our world-class faculty take seriously the responsibility of training graduate students for the academic profession. Faculty work closely with students to help them develop their own distinctive academic interests. Our curriculum crosses many disciplinary boundaries. Faculty and student intellectual interests include a range of topics such as:

• Philosophy & Ethics : • philosophical business ethics • normative political philosophy • rights theory • theory of the firm •  philosophy of law • philosophy of punishment & coercion • philosophy of deception and fraud • philosophy of blame and complicity • climate change ethics • effective altruism • integrative social contracts theory • corporate moral agency
• Law & Legal Studies : • law and economics • corporate penal theory • constitutional law • bankruptcy • corporate governance • corporate law • financial regulation • administrative law • empirical legal studies • blockchain and law • antitrust law • environmental law and policy • corporate criminal law • corruption • negotiations.
• Behavioral Ethics : • neuroscience and business ethics • moral psychology • moral beliefs and identity • moral deliberation • perceptions of corporate identity.

Contact & Resources

Brian Berkey, Faculty Coordinator

Tamara English, Academic & Business Administrator [email protected]

Prospective Students View the Legal Studies Ph.D. FAQ or Visit Wharton

Current Ph.D. Students

Ethics & Legal Studies Career Placements

All Wharton PhD Placements

Our program prepares graduates for tenure-track careers in university teaching and research at leading business schools and law schools. We have an excellent record of tenure-track placements, including Carnegie Mellon University, Notre Dame University, and George Washington University.  Click here to see our placements .

Students enter the program from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds, including undergraduate degrees in business, philosophy, pre-law, psychology, and sociology. Some students have earned master degrees or law degrees prior to admission. Prior coursework in ethics, law, social sciences, or philosophy is considered a plus, although no formal credentials in any one of these areas is a prerequisite.

Course of Study

The course of study for the Ph.D. requires the completion of sixteen graduate course units, including two core doctoral seminars as well as two core courses in statistics. Some graduate-level credit from courses at other universities may transfer to Wharton. The expected time required to complete the degree is five years. Students receive tuition waivers, health insurance, and an annual living stipend. Students are expected to play an active and engaged role in the department’s and the University of Pennsylvania’s scholarly community while pursuing their degree, and as such, they are expected to be resident in the local area as they progress through the program.

Academic Enrichment

The Department regularly hosts junior and senior scholars from around the world for talks, lunches, and seminars. Doctoral students are encouraged to take full advantage of these opportunities.

The Legal Studies & Business Ethics Seminar Series features speakers from various areas of law and business ethics.  A wide range of recent topics includes Coin-Operated Capitalism, Paying People to Take Health Risks, The Curious Case of Social Enterprise Law, and Assigning Blame in the Wake of the Financial Crisis.

The Zicklin Center Normative Business Ethics Workshop Series provides a regular forum for scholars working on business ethics from a normative perspective.  A wide range of recent topics includes the Ethics of Big Data in Genomics, Boycotting the Boycott, a Reflection on the Duty of Charity Within Shareholder Theory, and Workplace Sexual Harassment as Sex Discrimination.

Current PhD Students

Chris Hughes 1st year Ph.D. Student

Chris Hughes is a Senior Fellow at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at The New School and the co-founder and chair of the Economic Security Project. His research focuses on contemporary issues in progressive political economy, including the history of central banking, antimonopoly policy, guaranteed income studies, and tax policy. Hughes is currently writing a book on the history of American economic governance entitled  Marketcrafting: How the Visible Hand Shapes the Economy  to be published in 2025 by Simon and Schuster. His first book,  Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn , was published by St Martin’s Press in 2018.

Hughes has a masters in Economics from The New School of Social Research and graduated from Harvard  magna cum laude  with a bachelors in History and Literature. He was a co-founder of Facebook and directed Barack’s Obama’s digital organizing efforts in 2008. A former member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Hughes chairs the board of the Brooklyn-based Foundation for Community Psychoanalysis, and serves on the boards of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Washington Square Park Conservancy.

Michaela Lobo 3rd year Ph.D. Student

I majored in business administration during my undergraduate degree, following which I was involved in brand marketing and corporate responsibility for the Estée Lauder Companies. During my bachelor’s degree and my time in the corporate world, I had a growing interest in morality and, more specifically, how ethics should apply within the context of business. This led me to pursue an MLitt in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews and, currently, the Ethics and Legal Studies PhD at Wharton.

During my search for doctoral programs, I was looking for something very specific: a program that would allow me to ask philosophical questions about business organisations, how they should be operated, how their members should behave, and so on. Unlike traditional programs at philosophy or business departments, Wharton’s LGST PhD is unique in that the aim is to prepare students to become academics in business ethics itself. I valued the opportunity to build foundations in business, economics, philosophy, and law. Additionally, I appreciated that we would simultaneously hone skills in our preferred methodology and dive deeper into areas of research we find most interesting. I was fortunate to interact with some of the faculty members and current students one-on-one and via the Zicklin Center’s workshops (enabled by the shift from in-person to the Zoom room). These interactions allowed me to discover first-hand the fantastic academic culture of the department and its members’ passion for normative business ethics.

I would advise prospective students to first focus on themselves: What ideas are you constantly thinking about? What types of questions are you eager to explore and have answered? And, in what ways do you like solving these puzzles? Next, find the department and set of faculty that can best support you in asking these questions, finding ways to solve them, and, eventually, discovering answers to them!

Alessio Salviato 1st year Ph.D. Student

Alessio Salviato joined the PhD program in Legal Studies and Business Ethics in 2023, after having completed his BA in Management at University of Padua (UniPd) and a two-years MPhil in Philisophy at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (UniSr), where he is currently finishing his PhD in Ethics. Before the PhD, he worked as a corporate social responsibility strategist in a multinational company. He is a member of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) and the International Society of Business, Economics and Ethics (ISBEE).

He is interested in corporate moral responsibility; corporations and politics; and philosophical arguments for and against capitalism.

Guilherme Siqueira de Carvalho 4th year Ph.D. Student

I was drawn to studying and researching the vicious cycle of systemic corruption since 2014 with a particular and growing interest in the nuances of the relationship between businesses and corruption. The interdisciplinary approach, the world-class faculty, and the overall academic design of the Ethics & Legal Studies Doctoral Program at Wharton provide the ideal setting for pursuing that interest and will enable me to approach his subject of study from multiple angles.

Yifan Wang 1st year Ph.D. Student

My main research interests lie in moral psychology and applied political philosophy in the context of free markets.

I studied political philosophy and double majored in statistics in college. After graduation, I worked in the industry of economic consulting and served as a staff to expert witnesses who testified in court about economic issues related to antitrust and class action lawsuits. My interest in corporations and market phenomena sprung during that period. Later, I pursued an MA in philosophy at Georgia State, where I studied market phenomena related to emergent technologies such as sustainable brands and state surveillance embedded in markets. In the future, I hope to hone into some of these topics.

Meanwhile, I am drawn to moral psychology, especially emotion-based approaches to moral motivations and moral decision-making. At the LGST Ph.D. program, I plan to further study corporate organization so that I can apply theories in moral psychology to better understand how people make decisions of moral significance in their everyday practice inside corporations.

Olamide Williams 3rd year Ph.D. Student

Since the 2008 financial crisis, there has been a public emphasis on the ethical responsibility of the economic and financial policy-making agencies that oversee the financial system. I hope to explore methodological approaches to ethics and critically apply that to economic and financial policymaking, particularly during crisis time. Wharton not only offers the ethical foundation for my research on what responsibility, if any, such agencies have towards economic participants, but a faculty who will engage and are well versed in the economic, legal, and policy questions that arise along the way. I am confident that as my research evolves, Wharton’s interdisciplinary nature and faculty will offer expert guidance in whatever direction I go.

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Business Economics

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Curriculum & Coursework

Research dissertation, areas of specialization.

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“ HBS is the ideal environment because I get to think about the world like an economist, but I have the freedom and resources to draw on methods from other disciplines as I study market design and industrial organization. ”

Current Harvard Economics Faculty

• Pol Antràs
• Robert Barro
• Emily Breza
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• Gabriel Chodorow-Reich
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• Xavier Gabaix
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Current HBS Faculty

• Laura Alfaro
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• Shawn A. Cole
• Joshua D. Coval
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• Jerry R. Green
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• Robin Greenwood
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• Robert S. Kaplan
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• Michael Luca
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• Edward McFowland III
• David A. Moss
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• Ariel D. Stern
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• Boris Vallee
• Luis M. Viceira
• Matthew C. Weinzierl
• Dennis A. Yao

Current Business Economics Students

• Maxim Alekseev
• Martin Aragoneses
• Sage Belz
• Michael Blank
• Fiona Chen
• Jiafeng (Kevin) Chen
• Cameron Cohen
• Jorge Colmenares
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• Songyuan Ding
• Jo Ellery
• Simon Essig Aberg
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• Shira Li
• Angela Ma
• Alex Magnuson
• Fanele Mashwama
• Marcela Mello
• Laura Nicolae
• Lauren Rice
• Maya Roy
• Dominic Russel
• Kunal Sangani
• Claire Shi
• Wilbur Townsend
• Jennifer Walsh
• Andi Wang
• Alex Wu
• Hanbin Yang
• Jeffrey Yang
• Jennifer Zou

Current HBS Faculty & Students by Interest

Recent placement, john conlon, 2023, erica moszkowski, 2023, ran zhuo, 2023, matthew lilley, 2022, david zhang, 2022, karen shen, 2021, ravi jagadeesan, 2020, vitaly bord, 2019, weiling liu, 2019, anastassia fedyk, 2018, spencer yongwook kwon, 2023, daniel ramos, 2023, francesca bastianello, 2022, frank pinter, 2022, andreas schaab, 2021, edoardo maria acabbi, 2020, michael thaler, 2020, oren danieli, 2019, janelle schlossberger, 2019, yueran ma, 2018, robert minton, 2023, sagar saxena, 2023, talia b. gillis, 2022, ron yang, 2022, gregor schubert, 2021, xiang ding, 2020, christopher anderson, 2019, yizhou jin, 2019, william diamond, 2018, neil thakral, 2018.

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PhD Program

Wharton’s PhD program in Statistics provides the foundational education that allows students to engage both cutting-edge theory and applied problems. These include problems from a wide variety of fields within Wharton, such as finance, marketing, and public policy, as well as fields across the rest of the University such as biostatistics within the Medical School and computer science within the Engineering School.

Major areas of departmental research include: analysis of observational studies; Bayesian inference, bioinformatics; decision theory; game theory; high dimensional inference; information theory; machine learning; model selection; nonparametric function estimation; and time series analysis.

Students typically have a strong undergraduate background in mathematics. Knowledge of linear algebra and advanced calculus is required, and experience with real analysis is helpful. Although some exposure to undergraduate probability and statistics is expected, skills in mathematics and computer science are more important. Graduates of the department typically take positions in academia, government, financial services, and bio-pharmaceutical industries.

Apply online here .

Department of Statistics and Data Science

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Academic Research Building 265 South 37th Street, 3rd & 4th Floors Philadelphia, PA 19104-1686

Phone: (215) 898-8222

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Wharton Business Economics and Public Policy

Bepp’s 40th anniversary.

Public policy considerations occupy an increasing portion of managers’ time, especially in the global arena. The leaders of tomorrow must be able to perform policy analysis as well as integrate policy issues into their general management thinking. Bringing a wealth of theoretical tools and practical experience to bear on the relationship among business, government, and society, Wharton’s Business Economics and Public Policy Department has been an innovative force in research, teaching, and public service. Areas of faculty expertise include deregulation and privatization, technology, public and urban finance, and international industrial policy.

Members of the Business Economics and Public Policy faculty have held presidential appointments on federal regulatory commissions, been managers in large corporations, held research appointments and fellowships in government and not-for-profit think tanks, serve on the boards of many corporations, and provide consulting services to international and U.S. government agencies.

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Benjamin B. Lockwood

research interests: public finance, optimal taxation, inequality, behavioral economics

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PhD Program

Wharton’s PhD program in Health Care Management and Economics provides rigorous training in applied economics and management coupled with advanced training in health care systems and health services research.

Faculty members engage in a broad range of research related to health care management, economics, and policy. Major areas of research currently include: the impact of insurance status on medical expenditure and reported health status; potential sources of disparities in cardiovascular care; effects of Medicare Part D; adoption and diffusion of medical innovations; effects of pharmaceutical safety events on stock prices; programs for reducing losses from natural disasters and providing funds for recovery following catastrophic events; and issues of biopharmaceutical product variety and innovation.

Doctoral students have opportunities to work closely with faculty at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, the Wharton Center for Health Management and Economics, and the world-leading University of Pennsylvania Health Care System.

Health Care Management doctoral students predominantly come from a business, math, or social science background, and also include physicians, future physicians, and clinically trained professionals.

Course Information View the Health Care Management course information, descriptions, and schedule with links to syllabi. Program Information Find out more about the Health Care Management requirements, students, dissertations, admission policies, and financial aid and fellowships. Students

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6 best business schools in the us promoting diversity and inclusion.

Choosing a business school that promotes diversity and inclusion can make all the difference in your b-school experience @ The Wharton School - Facebook

Diversity, equity and inclusion are core business practices. Find out the top six US business schools promoting DEI principles

Fri May 3 2024

With recent studies finding a positive correlation between profitability and diversity in the workplace , selecting a business school that equips graduates to lead with a focus on DEI is crucial.

Prospective student priorities are evolving in line with this. A recent survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) outlined that more than half of business school applicants wouldn’t consider a school that lacked sustainability, equity, and inclusion practices. 

So, what are the best business schools in the US that promote diversity and inclusion? Here we summarize the top six:

1) The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Wharton, boasting the world’s leading MBA program , offers a specialized MBA major in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Beyond core MBA classes, students tackle the challenges involved in creating and sustaining organizations rooted in DEI practices.

To foster a more inclusive environment and provide students with career guidance, leadership training, and financial aid where needed, Wharton hosts various financial support programs and student-led organizations such as the African American MBA Association (AAMBA) and the Wharton Women in Business (WWIB) club.

The Center for Leadership and Change Management is also launching an initiative to support research on under-represented minorities in the workplace, with a particular focus on women of color. 

Read the  Wharton MBA Jobs and Salary Review

2) Columbia Business School

Close collaboration between Columbia Business School and nonprofit organizations such as the Forté Foundation and the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management ( CGSM ) aims to support students from underrepresented groups pursuing their MBA degrees.

This is reflected in the 2023 entering MBA class, which had a significant representation of women (44%), international students (47%), and minority students of US origin (43%).

Student-led groups such as Cluster Q, the school’s LGBT business association, offer support and networking opportunities for minority students, collaborating with the Office of Admissions to host social and professional events.

Read the  Columbia MBA Jobs and Salary Review

3) MIT Sloan School of Management

MIT Sloan School of Management extends its DEI approach to faculty members and academics, releasing annual progress reports to track their progress.

Just under two-thirds of staff members across the school have completed training to challenge unconscious bias, known as the Open + Inclusive initiative. Many faculty members have also integrated a DEI-focused approach into their coursework to equip future business leaders to build inclusive workplaces.

For students, the DEI office organizes a series of events and career workshops dedicated to addressing the needs of underrepresented students and alumni. This includes “RealTalk” sessions which provide students and faculty members with a safe space for open dialogue about their experiences at MIT Sloan.

Read more about  MIT Sloan’s MBA Class profile

4) Stanford Graduate School of Business

Stanford Graduate School of Business prioritizes diversity with initiatives such as the IDEAL dashboard, a university-wide tool tracking diversity trends across students, faculty, and staff.

Data on the MBA class of 2025 demonstrates a significant representation of international students (36%), women (46%), and US students of color, which account for half of the class. The school’s commitment to diversifying the curriculum has also proved effective in recent student surveys, where approximately 90 % of MBA, Master of Science and PhD students agree that their course encourages various viewpoints in class discussions.

Outside the classroom, organizations such as the Black Business Students Association, the Pride Club, and the Women in Management Club provide networking opportunities and career resources for underrepresented students.

Read all about  Stanford’s MBA Class profile

5) University of Virginia Darden School of Business

At Darden, a public diversity dashboard reveals the school’s progress in diversity initiatives, put in place for students and staff members alike.

One such school-wide female-led initiative is Women@Darden, which brings together a supportive network of women across admissions, faculty, alumni, and current students, with an emphasis on women’s issues in business and enhancing the classroom experience for women.

Student-led groups such as Graduate Women in Business, the Black Business Student Association (BBSA), and the Asia Business Club foster community engagement and career mobility for underrepresented groups in business through events like career workshops and gala nights.

For faculty and staff, the “Inclusive Darden” training program aims to promote a lasting culture of inclusivity throughout the school.

Check out the  Darden MBA Class Profile  

6) Dartmouth Tuck School of Business

DEI initiatives at Tuck School of Business range from on-campus Black hair care services, dedicated events for LGBTQIA+ Heritage month, and a Diversity Entrepreneurship Program.

This program, run in collaboration with the Tuck Center of Entrepreneurship, pairs MBA students with participants from the Diversity Business Program to tackle entrepreneurial challenges with a DEI approach.

Tuck also addresses real-world inclusion through the Workplace Inclusion Initiative, where students, researchers, staff, and alumni convene to discuss challenges and solutions to creating diverse workplaces.

As the business world increasingly prioritizes DEI, choosing a business school that promotes diversity and inclusion in the curriculum and the broader community can make all the difference in your b-school experience and career success.

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• 01 May 2024

I fell out of love with the lab, and in love with business

• Jacqui Thornton 0

Jacqui Thornton is a freelance writer based in Winchester, UK.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Karolina Makovskytė is head of business development at the firm Caszyme, which specializes in CRISPR-based molecular tools. Credit: Caszyme, LLC archive

Voices from Lithuania

In May, Lithuania marks 20 years of European Union membership. The Baltic country is keen to develop its global presence in the life sciences and biotechnology sectors by retaining home-grown talent, persuading scientists working abroad to return to the country, and attracting researchers from other nations. Nature spoke to three researchers who have chosen to develop their careers in Lithuania. Here, Nature speaks to Karolina Makovskytė, head of business development at Caszyme, a biotechnology firm that specializes in CRISPR-based molecular tools.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, when I was an undergraduate molecular-biology student at Vilnius University in Lithuania, I loved laboratory work. But when labs closed during the pandemic, I lost my motivation and it never returned.

In 2021, during the fourth and final year of my degree, a recruiter contacted me about a part-time junior product-manager post at the Vilnius site of biotechnology firm Thermo Fisher Scientific. The company was manufacturing reagents for messenger RNA vaccines, and it had built a whole new facility and was producing them on a large scale.

Thermo arrived in the country in 2010, when it acquired Lithuanian biotech company Fermentas for US$260 million. Its Vilnius site manufactures products for the life-science market, specifically molecular, protein and cellular-biology products. It also has a research and development centre.

It’s common for science students to work during their studies and for me it provided a chance to see what working in the biotech field was like, and to find out what options I had with a life-sciences degree, other than working in the laboratory.

I was working on a portfolio of nucleic-acid therapeutics, helping senior product managers with requests from companies for different nucleotides and enzymes, mainly for mRNA vaccine development and production. I carried on working at Thermo, during my master’s degree in molecular biotechnology, also at Vilnius University. Even on the administrative and business side, many people had a master’s or PhD.

As part of my master’s, I attended lectures on the genome-editing tool CRISPR, led by Giedrius Gasiūnas, co-founder and chief scientific officer at biotech company Caszyme in Vilnius.

Virginijus Šikšnys, another co-founder and chair of the management board, is a department head at Vilnius University’s Institute of Biotechnology. This demonstrates the blended nature of academia and the world of biotech start-up companies in Lithuania.

I applied for a business-development manager role there and started work in March 2022, while doing my master’s degree, which I completed last year. My job involves relationship building and representing the company abroad.

The company discovers and develops CRISPR-based molecular tools for diverse applications. It has 17 scientists and is growing all the time. In January, we moved premises to a larger building opposite the Vilnius site of the firm Northway Biotech, and close to Vilnius University Hospital.

Currently, Caszyme focuses on three elements. The first is research: finding new CRISPR–Cas nucleases for companies that are looking for specific characteristics. Second is licences: the company has a platform of nucleases that it has already identified, and it offers licences for further development. And third is analysis: Caszyme helps companies with expression, purification and biochemical analysis of Cas nucleases.

Currently, the firm has a handful of active collaborations in the therapeutics and diagnostics fields, including in infectious diseases and agriculture.

A friendly and close community

I think there are many aspects of academia and industry that set Lithuania apart from other countries. First, we have great universities that prepare scientists very well for the future. Scientists leave with not only theoretical knowledge, but also research experience working in a lab.

Karolina Makovskytė moved into industry after discovering the lab was not for her. Credit: Caszyme, LLC archive

Second is that the ecosystem is not a big one. It’s very easy to get to know most people and that’s an advantage because it makes collaborations easier.

Third, industry scientists have close contact with government institutions that ask us what businesses want and how they can help. I don’t want to say it’s easy to build a biotechnology company, but Lithuania has all the right tools to do high-quality research.

My proudest achievement is probably my personal growth. I can really see a difference between now and when I started working — I’ve gained knowledge and experience, and matured as a person. Last June, aged 25, I was promoted to head of business development.

I work remotely in Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania, which has a beautiful old town and is known for its art deco architecture. We have three international airports and Vilnius is only an hour and a half by road, so it’s easy to get to the office when I need to. Some of my time is spent abroad — I’ve just come back from a technology summit in San Francisco, California, and now I’m in Rome.

I don’t want to work abroad permanently. Lithuania has wonderful countryside and is full of culture, too. Every year, in March we have an international film festival, which I have worked for as a volunteer in the past.

If you find you don’t like working in a lab, like me, my advice would be to find a job outside the lab and see if it fits. If it doesn’t, try something else and talk to people who have different positions in life sciences. Explore the opportunities.

I talk to lots of people at events and many of them have PhDs or have worked as postdocs but have decided that they don’t want to be scientists. There’s nothing shameful in that. People who work in business development or operations and who have a scientific degree are essential, too.

My advice for young scientists who are considering a research position in Lithuania is to just do it. We have a friendly and close research community so it’s very easy to collaborate. Also, scientists here have a wide network all over the world. It’s very easy to join projects that Lithuanian scientists are doing with global institutes and companies. We Lithuanians talk to each other a lot!

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01140-2

Jacqui Thornton’s travel and accommodation were provided by Go Vilnius, a development agency.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

This article is part of Nature Spotlight: Lithuania , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

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A business journal from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Five Myths About Generative AI That Leaders Should Know

April 30, 2024 • 9 min read.

Experts from Wharton and the “Magnificent Seven” tech companies debunk five misconceptions about gen AI that could stand in the way of implementation.

The following article was written by  Scott A. Snyder , a senior fellow at Wharton, adjunct professor at Penn Engineering, and chief digital officer at EVERSANA; and Sophia Velastegui, AI business leader and AI advisor at the National Science Foundation, as well as former general manager and chief AI technology officer at Microsoft. Editor’s Note: Velastegui has worked at multiple companies in the “Magnificent Seven” — Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla — a group of high-performing, influential stocks nicknamed for their leadership in AI and the tech sector.  

With over 180 million users for ChatGPT  alone, generative AI (gen AI) has already garnered a massive user base utilizing its capabilities for everything from personal productivity to content creation to launching new ventures — all accomplished at a fraction of the time and cost. Every week, studies show gen AI models excelling at tasks that were previously deemed exclusive to human intellect and ingenuity, such as medical and legal exams, innovation tournaments, financial advice, and business case analyses. The advent of multimodal models like GPT-4 and Gemini Advanced further elevates these capabilities, enabling more human-like interactions than ever before.

As this technological bullet train speeds down the tracks, consider the five myths outlined below. These myths are not intended to halt progress but rather serve as cautionary flags along the path to integrating gen AI into your organization. Proactively addressing these misconceptions will enable you to mitigate the challenges you’ll encounter as you harness this transformative technology.

Myth #1: Gen AI Tools Are Available for Free or Minimal Cost

Developing your own proprietary gen AI model can enable you to more precisely meet your company’s needs and align with your business processes and workflows, but this solution is cost-prohibitive for most organizations. The development process requires significant investments in talent, resources, and infrastructure. Additionally, ongoing maintenance and updates can further add to the total cost of ownership. For many organizations, leveraging third-party AI solutions or partnering with specialized providers may offer a more cost-effective approach to achieving their goals.

Even so, third-party AI solutions require investment. Older iterations of OpenAI’s ChatGPT are available at minimal cost, whereas the latest and most advanced version, GPT-4, incurs a $20/month subscription fee. When integrated into Microsoft’s suite via Copilot, the cost rises to $30/month per employee for companies. For enterprises with thousands of employees, this can result in an annual expenditure exceeding millions of dollars for a platform still in its pilot stage, with limited demonstration of wide-scale impact. These fees are not unexpected considering OpenAI’s substantial investment of  over $100 million to train GPT-4, alongside Microsoft’s $13 billion investment in OpenAI plus the additional expenses incurred to integrate into Microsoft platforms, but they will certainly put pressure on enterprises to show a near term return on their investment.

Google’s new Gemini Advanced follows a comparable pricing structure, at  $29 per month  after a two-month free trial. On the other hand, open-source models like Llama and Mistral are available for free download but require companies to set up their own infrastructure, security protections, and model development environments. In contrast, enterprise gen AI platforms from cloud vendors like Google’s VertexAI, Microsoft’s Azure AI, or AWS’s Bedrock already include these features. Once you factor in additional expenses such as API and model usage fees, as well as the additional cloud infrastructure required to facilitate new gen AI deployments — including tuning, optimization, and support — total investments can escalate to millions of dollars per model, depending on the level of customization required.

Myth #2: AI Always Improves Human Performance

A recent  BCG study  revealed that 90% of consultants utilizing GPT-4 for creative product innovation experienced a remarkable 40% improvement in performance compared to those not leveraging the technology. However, consultants using GPT-4 for business problem-solving showed a 23% decrease in performance compared to the control group, with less-experienced workers performing even worse. This serves as a reminder that while gen AI holds immense potential, its accuracy may vary, particularly in domains where there are insufficient training data and less-experienced workers.

The key factor for success when working with gen AI lies in training employees in essential soft skills such as critical thinking, judgment, empathy, and bias detection to effectively task models and evaluate their results. It’s important to recognize that gen AI operates based on the most likely arrangement of words or pixels derived from its training data and prompts. It doesn’t possess intrinsic understanding or intent. As AI assumes more responsibilities, the human-in-the-loop becomes a mission-critical step, focused on diminishing the window of time needed for human interaction to still ensure reliable, fair, and useful outcomes.

“As much as 50% of the effort in successfully deploying new AI models goes beyond technical implementation.”

Myth #3: Building the Gen AI Model Is the Hardest Part of Implementation

Customizing pre-trained models — such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Llama — to specific company use cases and datasets requires significant effort, utilizing techniques such as fine-tuning or Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). In addition, preparing datasets for gen AI model consumption, implementing privacy and security safeguards, and productizing the deployment and support of these models are time and resource-intensive tasks. Risks such as jailbreaking (malicious actors getting access to the underlying system), prompt injection (harmful instructions leading AI to generated unwanted content), and poisoning (manipulating training data to introduce biases or distort behavior of the AI model) pose significant threats, highlighting the importance of robust data protection measures, especially in light of regulations such as the  EU’s AI Act .

However, as much as 50% of the effort in successfully deploying new AI models goes beyond technical implementation — it involves transforming the way people work. This requires significant effort in changing management to ensure that employees are prepared for and receptive to the adoption of AI solutions. For example, in customer service automation, employees may need to adapt their workflows to incorporate AI assistance, including identifying and addressing any potential ‘hallucinations’ or inaccuracies in the AI-generated responses. This involves rethinking how tasks are performed, understanding how to effectively delegate tasks to AI systems, and interpreting and acting upon AI-generated outputs. It is these significant activities beyond the model itself that cause typical AI deployments to take as long as 6-18 months.

Myth #4: You Can Wait and See How Gen AI Plays Out Before Making a Move

With the rapid emergence of gen AI and the uncertainty surrounding its adoption and impact, companies might be tempted to run a few pilots and adopt a wait-and-see approach before making broader investments. However, history offers lessons from successful companies that have been blindsided by breakthrough technological waves, rendering their existing business and operating models obsolete within just a few decades.

Companies frequently find themselves caught off guard by disruption, as seen with JCPenney and Circuit City being crushed by Amazon and e-commerce during the retail apocalypse, or Nokia and RIM/BlackBerry faltering against the iPhone and app store model. Gen AI’s exponential growth potential suggests it could be the next “iPhone moment,” fundamentally altering customer expectations and how companies deliver value in the future. The critical question shouldn’t be whether we can afford to invest in pursuing new gen AI opportunities, but rather, can we afford not to?

Myth #5: Investing in Gen AI Will Automatically Give You a Competitive Advantage

As organizations adopt gen AI to improve their operations and gain a competitive edge, they often enjoy initial benefits from being early adopters and implementing innovative strategies. However, as gen AI technologies become more widely accessible, competitors can quickly catch up by using similar tools and approaches. This highlights the temporary nature of the advantages gained from deploying gen AI.

To maintain a sustainable advantage in the market, organizations must realize that merely deploying gen AI technology is not enough. They must continuously innovate, differentiate, and evolve their gen AI strategies to outpace competitors. Additionally, organizations need to recognize the value of proprietary data as a strategic asset. While gen AI platforms offer access to pre-built models and tools, the real value lies in the data used to train and customize these models. Even Google, a tech giant known for innovation, isn’t immune to losing its competitive edge, as evidenced by recent news around Microsoft. Despite Google’s longstanding dominance in the search market, Google missed opportunities by not capitalizing on gen AI–driven search features. While Google focused on preserving its stronghold in traditional search, competitors such as OpenAI seized the chance to invest in gen AI–powered interfaces, recognizing their potential to revolutionize search experiences.

“The critical question shouldn’t be whether we can afford to invest in pursuing new gen AI opportunities, but rather, can we afford not to?”

How to Navigate the Myths and Bring Gen AI Solutions to Life

1. utilize scenario planning to anticipate and prepare for various potential outcomes or applications of gen ai.

A scenario lens can help companies set the right strategic direction while also placing the right bets that allow them to position for a range of AI futures in their industry. This could involve a combination of “no regret” capabilities coupled with internal and external “experiments” to learn and adapt quickly. By employing this approach, organizations can mitigate risks, allocate resources effectively, and ensure that the overall AI strategy and portfolio align with the organization’s goals and mission.

2. Prioritize your gen AI opportunities using the “Three Rs”

Responsibility:  Ensure your company has established clear guidelines for developing AI solutions that are fair, transparent, ethical, and safe. This foundational step sets the groundwork for responsible AI deployment.

Reliability:  Select use cases that can tolerate the potential risk of errors introduced by AI. Starting with non-mission-critical use cases allows you to build momentum and gain confidence in the technology’s reliability over time.

ROI:  Evaluate the financial benefits of the gen AI solution, along with non-financial advantages such as improved customer satisfaction, speed to market, and retention. Consider the full life cycle costs to make informed decisions about the overall value proposition of gen AI integration.

3. Evaluate your organization’s readiness for AI across multiple dimensions

This includes strategy, execution, innovation, and agility, using tools like the  AI Readiness Quotient . This will help identify both strengths you can build on as well as gaps that need to be addressed in order to shift to an AI-first organization and operating model. Establishing this baseline allows for periodic measurement of progress throughout your AI journey.

Misconceptions surrounding gen AI can cloud perceptions and hinder clear decision-making. Organizations that effectively dispel the five myths and embrace the reality of gen AI gain a competitive advantage. By leveraging accurate insights and understanding of gen AI, organizations can capitalize on opportunities, drive innovation, and stay ahead of competitors in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI technologies.

More From Knowledge at Wharton

From Amazon to Uber: Why Platform Accountability Requires a Holistic Approach

The Impact of AI on Financial Literacy | Michael Roberts

How Will AI Impact the Supply Chain?

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Publications, school of business administration programs soar in latest u.s. news grad-school rankings.

Gonzaga University’s MBA program in its School of Business Administration jumped up 10 spots in this year’s U.S. News and World Report Graduate School Rankings, landing at No. 53 in the 2024 list. In addition to the MBA program, which is offered both in-person and online, several other graduate programs in the business school made impressive showings in this year’s rankings, including Accounting (No. 41), Entrepreneurship (No. 11), Finance (No. 21), Management (No. 21) and Project Management (No. 4). Ken Anderson, dean of Gonzaga’s School of Business Administration, says the new rankings “speak to the high quality of our graduate business programs and to the regard in which they’re held. We have an outstanding brand.” With the MBA ranking in particular, Anderson credits his colleagues in the school – administrators, faculty and staff – as well as the students who join Gonzaga to pursue their graduate studies for continuously raising the bar of what graduate studies in the business school can be. Gonzaga MBA Programs Director and Associate Professor of Management Rebecca Bull Schaefer says it’s “delightful” to see a program of Gonzaga’s size move up in the rankings. She attributes that success to “our students and our community.”

“That's something that makes us really unique compared to other MBA programs that might, say, partner with large, publicly traded institutions. We have a lot of relationships with smaller mid-size or national organizations that have headquarters here in Spokane. And with nonprofits as well. [Students] are looking to us because of our holistic way of teaching. They love our emphasis on ethics and social justice. We’re attracting a special group of professionals.” Contemplating the strength of the business graduate programs, Anderson says it comes from a combination of three things: “a high-quality business education, grounded in Jesuit values, and strengthened by our focus on the individual student.” Given the dynamic nature of higher education in 2024, the School of Business Administration is always working to meet the needs of students who find themselves competing in a volatile, fast-moving employment environment. New programs have come online recently that are just starting to get notice. “Our two newest programs, the Virtual MBA and Master’s of Science in Business Analytics, are still being learned about,” Anderson notes. “Both are great programs in the Gonzaga graduate business tradition.” Bull Schaefer emphasizes the flexibility within the graduate programs — some of which evolved out of necessary changes during the early days of the pandemic, and some which have been adopted to embrace the needs of modern students and businesses — as attractive aspects of a GU business graduate education. While core MBA classes are offered every semester, the electives change regularly and reflect changes in the workforce. “Our electives are mostly taught by professionals in the local community, experts in the field,” Bull Schaefer says. “We have cybersecurity for nontechnical managers. We have some social media applications for realtors. We’re offering an employment law class for managers to understand the employee lifecycle. The electives change with what the students need and what’s going on in the economy.” Among other program features proving appealing to students are a partnership with the Gonzaga Career Center in a “professional development championship program” that complements academic classroom work with lessons on social media, interview preparation and information tours of local businesses. “That way, people feel a lot more comfortable on the job market, and know how to use online tools to find their next opportunity,” Bull Schaefer says. There’s also a two-week trip to Italy each summer for both working professionals and more junior graduate students that’s evolving into a fall course in partnership with Gonzaga’s campus in Florence. “That’s definitely a partnership we’re building, it’s good to build cross-cultural competencies and be able to see the world,” Bull Schaefer says.

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College protests across the US

April jobs report

April 30, 2024 - US university protests

By Rachel Ramirez, Chandelis Duster, Samantha Delouya, Tori B. Powell, Aditi Sangal, Amir Vera, Deva Lee, Kathleen Magramo, Dalia Faheid and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

Our live coverage of the protests rocking US campuses has moved here

Over 100 protesters arrested across 2 New York college campuses, law enforcement official says

From CNN’s Mark Morales

Over 100 protesters were arrested Tuesday at Columbia University and City College of New York, according to a law enforcement official.

Most of the arrests were made at Columbia, including about two dozen protesters who police say tried to prevent officers from entering the campus, the official said.

Tactical teams at Columbia first set up a perimeter around the campus to hold back protesters and prevent further arrests, according to the official. Offers then entered the campus through multiple entry points.

"It's still a student-fueled movement," Columbia student magazine editor says

From CNN's Kathleen Magramo

Jonas Du, editor-in-chief of a Columbia student magazine, told CNN that the protests on campus are student-fueled regardless of any outsider involvement.

It’s “hard to say” whether those arrested from Columbia's Hamilton Hall were students or from outside the institution, the Columbia Sundial editor said.

“Even though campus has been locked down to Columbia ID holders, now there has been ways of getting in, getting non-affiliated into campus. But for the most part you need Columbia IDs, you need students to provide you with IDs that can get you into campus," said Du, who is a junior student at the university.

Du said he believes there is “evidence” of outside organizations behind the occupation's planning, but he also says numerous Columbia students were inside Hamilton Hall. 

He said he recognized “many, many Columbia students in the crowd” that formed human chains around the entrances to Hamilton Hall while reporting on the protests. 

“At the end of the day, it's still a student-fueled movement. It wouldn’t have gotten to (this) extent without the of the student organizations here.” 

Du said students received a text message and email alert from the school stating that a shelter-in-place order had been issued, asking them to remain in their dorms and not to go on campus.

"But all of us knew that that was sort of a signal that the NYPD was going to raid campus," he added.

Video shows Arizona State University police officer removing protester’s hijab during arrest

From CNN’s Cindy Von Quednow

Video taken over the weekend at Arizona State University shows a campus police officer removing a hijab from a protester’s head during her arrest.

The blurred video, obtained by Mass Liberation AZ and provided to CNN by attorney Zayed Al-Sayyed, who represents the women, shows several ASU Police Department officers surrounding a woman whose hands are held behind her back as one of the officers removes her hijab.

People nearby can be heard yelling, “You’re violating her privacy,” and “Give it back.”

The officers then pull the woman’s sweatshirt hood over her head and a bystander yells, “So she can wear a hood but not her hijab?” At one point one of the officers blocks the woman from the view of those taking the video, as a person yells, “let her go!”

A lawyer representing her and three other women who said it also happened to them is demanding accountability.

Al-Sayyed, who said the arrests took place early Saturday, did not identify the women but indicated that three of them are students at the university and all four are Phoenix-area residents. They are facing criminal trespass charges.

Upon being taken into custody, Al-Sayyed said, the women explained the significance of a hijab and “begged” to keep their hijabs, but he said they were told that their hijabs had to be removed for safety reasons.

“They never expected that an officer … who’s sworn to protect and serve is going to violate their most basic protected right under the United States Constitution, which is the right to practice their religion. So they're hurt,” Al-Sayyed said.

After being detained and bused to jail, the women were not given their hijabs back, Al-Sayyed said.

Around 15 hours later, when he was finally given access to his clients, Al-Sayyed said he was able to bring them new hijabs.

The Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ),  condemned  the university police for the recorded incident and others like it and called for a full investigation.

“This act represents a blatant infringement upon the religious liberties of peaceful protesters. It is profoundly distressing for the affected women, and ASU Police must conduct a thorough investigation into this matter,” Azza Abuseif, executive director of CAIR-AZ, said in an email to CNN.

In a statement to CNN, the university said, “This matter is under review.” CNN has reached out to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for comment.

Protests will continue despite police presence at Columbia, student negotiator says

A lead student negotiator for protesters at Columbia University has told CNN that protests will continue on the campus despite the school's request for a police presence.

The university has asked NYPD to maintain its presence on campus until May 17.

"I’m very confident that students will continue this movement even after all this brutality against them," negotiator Mahmoud Khalil said, adding that students still have the right to protest despite increased security.

Since negotiations between student protesters and the Columbia University administration began two weeks ago, the university has not viewed them as an anti-war movement, he said. 

"Instead, they dealt with it as an internal student discipline matter. They negotiated with us about bringing food and blankets to the encampment. They refused to acknowledge that this actually is more than that, this is a nationwide movement.

"This is a movement that asks Columbia to divest its investments from the companies that are fuelling the war in Gaza right now,” said Khalil, who is a second-year graduate student at Columbia.

Tensions escalated on campus when officers entered Columbia's Hamilton Hall , which had been occupied by protesters since the early hours of Tuesday, and dozens were seen being arrested.

Khalil said that "the autonomous group decided to take that building when they felt the university is not answering their demands" and was "alienating" them.

Police presence at Columbia may dampen graduation celebrations, CNN journalist and student says

From CNN's Elizabeth Wolfe

Julia Vargas Jones, a CNN journalist and Columbia Journalism School graduate student, said the university's request for an on-campus police presence through May 17 will only "dampen the mood even more" as students and their families prepare for graduation.

NYPD swarmed the university Tuesday night after the university authorized them to go into the campus to clear out a building being occupied by protesters. CNN has witnessed dozens of arrests.

"Graduation is May 15. That is my graduation as well. I have family coming from Brazil to come watch me walk across the stage and get my diploma. I hope of course, as everyone does, that this (graduation) can happen," Jones said.

"But at the same time, is there a climate for celebration, for graduation?" Jones said.

Jones said she's unsure the climate on campus will be celebratory as graduation nears.

"I spoke to a lot of students on campus today and students were just feeling caught in between. I don't really see celebration being something we flock to in the coming weeks," she said. "I'm interested to see who will actually attend graduation."

Jones said she has not witnessed any violent altercations as she reported from inside Columbia’s campus Tuesday night. After the campus was cleared by NYPD, Jones described the atmosphere as quiet enough to “hear a pin drop.”

NYPD used flash bangs to breach Columbia building where doors were barricaded

From CNN’s Matthew Friedman and Miguel Marquez

NYPD officers used flash-bang grenades to breach Columbia's Hamilton Hall, which protesters had barricaded themselves inside Tuesday, the police department told CNN.

The building's doors had been barricaded with chairs, tables and vending machines, and windows had been covered with newspaper, the NYPD said.

When a flash-bang grenade is deployed , it emits a bright flash and a very loud bang, often used to shock and disorient. 

Video posted by NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry shows officers searching a bookshelf-lined office after busting the door's lock with a hammer.

Another video shows officers packing a stairwell and passing chairs to one another.

At least 50 officers had earlier used an elevated ramp to climb into the building through a window. 

Columbia University property has been cleared, NYPD says

From CNN’s Matthew Friedman and Miguel Marquez at Columbia

Columbia University’s property has been cleared, the New York Police Department told CNN, less than two hours after officers entered the school’s campus in Morningside Heights.

Hamilton Hall has also been cleared, the NYPD says, and nobody was wounded during the operation. 

The NYPD is still monitoring different locations for protesters across the city, they said.

Photos show NYPD action at Columbia University

From CNN Digital’s Photo Team

The New York Police Department entered the Columbia University campus late Tuesday evening after receiving a letter from the university authorizing them to go into the campus, a law enforcement source familiar with the situation told CNN. 

Officers entered Hamilton Hall , which had been occupied by protesters since the early morning hours Tuesday.

Dozens of people have been arrested.

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Applied Economics

Wharton’s highly selective phd program in applied economics offers students many resources not available at other institutions, such as 1:1 faculty to student ratio, five years of funding, and minimal teaching requirements..

Combining the faculties of the departments of Real Estate and Business Economics & Public Policy, Wharton’s Applied Economics program leverages the breadth and depth of its faculty to prepare students for careers doing frontier theoretical and empirical research. Students can focus on a variety of research areas, including Behavioral Economics, Development and International Economics, Energy and Environmental Economics, Health Economics, Industrial Organization and Regulation, Labor Economics, Law and Economics, Market Design, Public Economics, Risk and Insurance, Urban Economics and Real Estate. You can find the list of Applied Economics Faculty here.  Students may also develop an inter-disciplinary focus by taking courses and working with faculty in some of the other departments at Wharton such as Finance, Health Care Management, Management, and Marketing.

For more information on courses, please visit the University Graduate Catalog .

Sample Schedule

The course of study for the Ph.D. in Applied Economics requires the completion of 15 graduate course units. The common core consists of 3 theory courses and 3 statistics/econometrics courses. Students are also expected to master two field areas by passing two courses in each (total of 4 courses units). The remaining course units necessary to achieve 15 are split between the mandatory graduate student research seminars and other electives.

ADMISSIONS AND FINANCIAL AID

Students will apply for admission to the Wharton Program in Applied Economics, and may, if they wish, indicate a preferred field of study in their application. All else equal, the admissions committee may consider field choice in determining admission. Fellowship support will be in accordance with usual Wharton and University guidelines.

CORE REQUIREMENTS

Students will be required to master core materials in economic theory covering the topics of household decision-making, production theory, theory of markets and market failure, game theory, decision-making under uncertainty, and resource allocation in dynamic economies. The following courses will satisfy the three-course economic theory requirement:

Microeconomic Theory I: ECON 7010 Microeconomic Theory II: ECON 7110 Macroeconomic Theory: ECON 7200 or 7210 or FNCE 9240

Students will be required to master core materials in applied econometrics covering the topics of statistical inference, linear regression analysis, panel regression analysis, and estimation of models using discrete dependent variables. The following courses will satisfy the three-course econometric/statistics requirement:

Econometrics: ECON 7300, FNCE 9260, ECON 8310 or ECON 7310, BEPP 9110 and BEPP 9310

FIELD REQUIREMENTS

In addition to the core theory and econometrics materials, students will be required to master two applied fields by passing two courses in each field. Students will be free to offer their own field as a substitute with approval of the graduate group chair and (when relevant) an appropriate advisor from another Wharton graduate group.

• Development Economics BEPP 9410: Development Economics • Industrial Economics and Business Regulation: BEPP 9870: Industrial Organization and Competition Policy HCMG 9020: Special Topics of Health Services Research: Industrial Organization of Health Care ECON 8450: Empirical Methods in Industrial Organization • Market Design BEPP 9710: Market Design • Public Economics and Political Economy: BEPP 9330: Public Economics: Social Insurance & Government Expenditures HCMG 9030: Public Policy ECON 8410: Public Economics I ECON 8411: Public Economics II • Urban Economics and Real Estate: REAL 9450: Urban and Real Estate Economics REAL 9460: Advanced Topics in Urban Economics REAL 9470: Advanced Real Estate and Urban Economics • Behavioral Economics: BEPP 9040: Experimental Economics: Methods and Applications OIDD 9000: Foundation of Decision Processes OIDD 9040: Experimental Economics

In addition, all students must take elective courses to achieve the necessary 15 Course Credits to be eligible for Dissertation Status.

During the second and third year of the program students will be required to attend and actively participate in the graduate student research seminar. Students will also be responsible for presenting a paper of original research to the seminar before entering dissertation status. All students will also be required to attend the faculty Applied Economics Workshop during the 2nd and 3rd years.

BEPP 9000: Research Seminar BEPP 9620: Applied Economics Seminar

QUALIFYING EXAM

At the end of first year (usually in last week of May or first week of June), students are expected to take and pass the qualifying exam for Microeconomic Theory and the qualifying exam for Econometrics. These exams are written and graded by the Wharton Applied Economics PhD Committee. If a student fails in one qualifying exam, another opportunity to take that exam will be given at the end of the second year.

Students can also request a waiver for one or both exams if they perform well in the courses associated with each exam. A satisfactory performance for Microeconomic Theory, for example, corresponds to having at least a B- or better in each micro course, and an average of B or better.

FACULTY ADVISORS

Students are required to select or are assigned two faculty advisors in the beginning of the second year in the program. Because the student will not have had all of the major field courses at that time, it is possible that a student will later decide to change advisors; such an eventuality will be considered a normal outcome. In addition, since students will not have had all of the major field course work by June of their first year, they should “read ahead” in their chosen fields to begin identifying a research topic for the Second Year Paper. Students are expected to initiate meetings with faculty members to discuss possible research topics, and these meetings should begin as early as possible after the student enters the program and are part of the process of getting to know the faculty and learning about the field.

CANDIDACY PAPER

The Program in Applied Economics provides students with several opportunities to conduct research. All students are required to write a candidacy paper in their second year to be submitted in the summer of the second year in the program. This paper should demonstrate the student’s ability to conduct PhD quality research. This is often used as the Master’s Thesis submission- and, as the title implies, it is one of the requirements for admission to Doctoral candidacy.

The deadline for submission of the Candidacy Paper is strictly enforced, and failure to complete and submit the paper by the deadline (July 15 of the end of the student’s second year in the program) is grounds for dismissal from the program. The paper must be submitted to the faculty members who are the student’s principal advisors for the project, as well as to the Doctoral Coordinator. A copy of the candidacy paper, together with letters from two faculty members noting approval of it, must be in each student’s file in the Program office prior to the start of the student’s fifth term (typically the start of the third year). Failure to fulfill this requirement may result in the student being dropped from the program.

The main objective of the candidacy paper is to demonstrate the student’s ability to do original research. Often the Candidacy Paper is submitted for publication, and it can also serve as the foundation for PhD research, possibly as a dissertation essay. The Candidacy Paper must be solely authored by the student, not co-authored with the faculty advisor.

Milestones on the road to the candidacy paper are as follows:

September of 2nd year in the program Fall semester, 2nd year Spring semester, 2nd year Faculty advisors selected Candidacy Paper proposal Work on Candidacy paper Submit final version of Candidacy Paper

ADMISSION TO CANDIDACY Before admission to candidacy, the student is required to:

• Complete all required coursework, including all core courses, with at least a B + or better in each course and with an average GPA of B+ or better. (For some courses, a passing grade on a qualifying exam can substitute for a grade below B.)
• Pass both qualifying exams or request exam waivers.
• Submit a satisfactory candidacy paper

THE PHD DISSERTATION The best ways to find a dissertation topic is to talk to the program faculty and read the literature. Discussions with faculty can range from “cold calls,” where the student asks the faculty member for topic suggestions, to more proactive visits where the student discusses potential topic ideas that have come up in course work or research seminars. Students should also take a close look at recent dissertations written by students in their major field as well as dissertations written by students from other Wharton departments.

There are two primary models for the organization of dissertations. The “single study” traditional dissertation, and the essay approach. In the latter approach, two or three essays are generally found acceptable by the student’s dissertation committee, depending on length and quality. Dissertation essays are more prevalent for a number of reasons, including most importantly, (a) the Candidacy Paper may be permitted to constitute a substantial part of one essay, (b) an essay can be used as an interview paper (see discussion below), and (c) if properly structured, an essay can often be converted into a paper to be submitted to a journal. Whether two or three essays are appropriate depends on the length and complexity of the research undertaken and is determined by the student’s dissertation committee.

Dissertation essays may be co-authored, although the extent to which this is appropriate will depend on each student’s topic, doctoral committee, and faculty advisor. A circumstance where a co -authored essay might be appropriate could arise from a joint research project with a faculty member. However, the student’s dissertation must include at least one essay that is solely authored by the student. The dissertation process must begin with the selection of a principal advisor or co-advisors. Each student is responsible for this selection, and then the student works with the advisor(s) to select the dissertation topic and begin exploratory research. The student and advisor then work together to select committee members. Committee members can be approached to join the committee by either the student or the principal advisor(s). The student should work with the advisor(s) to arrange a mutually agreeable procedure. The student should review the Wharton Doctoral Programs Policies and Procedures, to be sure that the committee structure satisfies the overall requirements of the Wharton Doctoral Program.

Important: the PhD Dissertation proposal must be defended before the end of the fourth year in the program. Failure to defend can result in dismissal from the program.

GOING ON THE JOB MARKET The ultimate objective of the Wharton Doctoral Program is to prepare our students for a teaching and research career, ideally at a college or university. Because the placement process for academic jobs is lengthy, students should become familiar with it well in advance of the “job market year.” The program provides full support for students going on the job market, and a series of meetings and timelines are provided to the students during the fourth and fifth years in the program.

PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION The program will be administered by the graduate group in Applied Economics. Primary appointments in the Departments of Business Economics and Public Policy and Real Estate will be automatic members of the graduate group and comprise the initial membership of the graduate group. The graduate group can extend membership to other Wharton and University faculty as they consider appropriate. The graduate group will decide on its preferred administrative structure. Currently, the chairs of the departments of Real Estate and Business Economics and Public Policy are responsible for jointly appointing a PhD Coordinator that will serve a two-year term, with the option to renew it for another two years. The PhD Coordinator is also the representative for the group to the Doctoral Executive Committee.

STUDENT INVOLVEMENT Students are expected to spend full-time on their coursework and research during the first two years of the program. In subsequent years, students are expected to work with faculty, preferably as research assistants or co-authors, thereby gaining the experience required to be successful researchers. Students are also required to TA a core course (any alternatives will need to be approved by the PhD Coordinator) each in their 3rd year and 4th year of the program as a funding requirement. Other activities that further the student’s research careers are encouraged, subject to the approval of the doctoral coordinator (this includes teaching assistant positions). Failure to communicate with the doctoral coordinator about a research assistant or teaching job may result in cancellation of your scholarship.

Get the Details.

Visit the Applied Economics site for details on program requirements and courses. Read faculty and student research and bios to see what you can do with an Applied Economics PhD.