[noelwelsh]

I know a few cases of researchers who don't have PhDs, but I've never seen this before.

Probably the best known researcher in CS who doesn't hold a PhD is Simon Peyton Jones. He is very well known in the field of programming languages and one of the main implementors of the main Haskell implementation GHC. I think he might have started a PhD in the last few years, but he was appointed a professor at Glasgow without one.

[seanmcdirmid]

There are many many more than that, but we don't typically bother with those details; if the guy/gal knows their stuff, who cares what their degree level is?

[noelwelsh]

Sssh, you don't want the grad students to hear! Without grad students who's gonna do all the prof's grunt work?

[seanmcdirmid]

The PhD gives us time and resources to become a researcher; it is actually a quite useful experience. If we can get the time/resources another way, great! I personally would have been lost on my own; I met people in my program who really set my path.

If you are young and inexperienced, it is also getting more difficult to get your foot in the door of a research institution without a PhD from a TOP program. Sure, there are other ways up, but getting the PhD is probably a reasonable way to approach things.

[noelwelsh]

I agree. I have a PhD. While the process wasn't 100% sunshine and rainbows I enjoyed most of it, learned a heck of a lot, and I understand the utility of doing a PhD for most people who are interested in doing further research.

[seanmcdirmid]

Well, your name is familiar :)

[eli_gottlieb]

Help, I'm trapped in a research paper factory. If you can read this, send help to:

Taub Building Technion City Haifa, Israel 32000

[wyclif]

I met my wife in Haifa. I know where that building is...

[raverbashing]

Yes

After all, how dare someone tell the grad students they can be someone without a PhD.

They are almost forgetting how's life outside the academic circles!

Now, you're late for CS 201 room 704 on that building across the campus, go and don't forget your TA notes.

[aortega]

All credentials including PhDs are designed for getting into a job (I.E. research position, postdoc, etc.), and they are a very effective tool at it.

In scientific articles (At least from IEEE) notice there are no titles associated with authors. It's a common misconception that you need a PhD to publish an article, there are many papers with authors in high-school.

[seanmcdirmid]

> All credentials including PhDs are designed for getting into a job

I don't think PhDs are designed for getting a job actually. Sure, you can get some jobs easier with them, but the value of the PhD is really about the close apprenticeship you have with your advisers and other professors/grad students in your orbit.

When you actually finish your PhD, its like...what am I supposed to do next? Your circle can advise you, but you've hardly been preparing for this at all during the 4-8 years you've been inside.

You could be in middle school and publish an article. You are even allowed to make up an institution, the PC won't care at all. Heck, many conferences do double-blind reviewing now, and you know its possible to accept a paper from someone in prison (who might get disqualified b/c they can't present it, but still...).

[dlo]

Are there papers in top-tier journals and conferences whose primary authors are still in high school? I would be curious to read these!

EDIT: spelling

[aortega]

Nature:

http://www.english.rfi.fr/node/142835

That was a very public case. I'm sure there are other not so public.

[lkozma]

Another well known CS researcher without PhD was Robert (Bob) Floyd, of graph algorithms fame:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Floyd

[mark_h]

Robin Milner is another notable CS research without a PhD, but with a Turing award.

[mafribe]

Tony Hoare, another Turing award winner, also doesn't have a PhD.

[fijal]

you mean "the best known researcher employed by a university as a professor"? Because a lot of VM researchers don't have a PhD.

[noelwelsh]

I was simply sharing with HN what I thought might be an interesting anecdote about SPJ within the context of this post. Feel free to split whichever hairs are of interest to you.