Paleo21-avocational paleontologists

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The possession of a PhD, although it signifies much work, does not indicate
a professional or a member of the scientific community.  The lack of one or
of an MA does not exclude a person from being a professional (in actions,
if not employment) or a member of the community.  Both of these latter must
be earned!  Without a product (publications, collections properly curated,
maps, or correlations, or whatever may be useful or made available to
others), no one is a professional.  If either group does not participate in
the scientific process (i.e. research and reporting the results in regular
meetings or publications), then they are not members of the community.

I know of many people with PhDs who are not professionals in any sense of
the word, and I know of many without such a degree who are professionals by
virtue of their contributions.  There are not many publications in
professional journals that list PhD after someone's name, and editors are
seldom informed that their authors have them.  Papers, like I propose we do
with all kinds of paleontologists, are judged on the value of their
contribution.

In fact, I'd suggest that you watch out for those people who stick PhD
behind their name all the time or Dr. in front of it--usually indicates a
well deserved insecruity about what they do!  Not always, but often enough
that it should be examined.  (Now I have to go and make sure that I don't
do that on my signature here).

Jere

Jere H. Lipps, Professor and Director
Department of Integrative Biology and
Museum of Paleontology
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720 USA

Voice:  510-642-9006.  Fax:  510-642-1822.
Internet:  jlipps@ucmp1.berkeley.edu
WWW:  http://ucmp1.berkeley.edu/jlipps/jlipps.html