Doctor of Science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
D.Sc., Sc.D., S.D., or Dr.Sc. are common abbreviations for the Latin Scientiae Doctor, meaning Doctor of Science.
[edit] Ireland and the Commonwealth of Nations
In Ireland and the countries of the Commonwealth, such as the United Kingdom and India, the degree of Doctor of Science is one of the Higher Doctorates, typically having precedence after Divinity, Laws or Civil Law, Medicine, and Letters, and above Music. The degree is conferred on a member of the university who has a proven record of internationally recognised scholarship. A candidate for the degree will usually be required to submit a selection of their publications to the board of the appropriate faculty, which will decide if the candidate merits this accolade. The degree will only exceptionally be awarded to a scholar under the age of forty. The status of the degree has declined because it is not widely understood, but in former times the doctorate in science was regarded as a greater distinction than a professorial chair and hence a professor who was also a DSc would be known as Doctor. The Doctor of Science may also be awarded as an honorary degree, that is, given to individuals who have made extensive contributions to a particular field and not for specific academic accomplishments.
[edit] North America
In the United States, the D.Sc. is a doctoral degree equivalent to the Ph.D. The Doctor of Science degree is earned with the approval of a committee on the basis of original research, publications, and extensive applied professional contributions, and is awarded predominantly in doctoral level science and technology programs such as engineering, information systems, and public health sciences. (A more recent use is in physical and occupational therapy.) Although much rarer than the Ph.D., the Doctor of Science degree has long been awarded by institutions such as Washington University in St. Louis, The George Washington University, Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University's Schools of Public Health, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University and Queen's University.
[edit] German language areas
In Switzerland, the Dr.Sc. is a doctoral degree awarded by the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, only. The Swiss Dr.Sc., like the D.Sc. in the US, is equivalent to the Ph.D, is earned with the approval of a committee on the basis of original research, publications, and extensive applied professional contributions and is awarded in doctoral level science and technology programs. Since 2004 the Dr.Sc. is the only doctoral degree awarded by the ETH Zurich. In the French-speaking part of Switzerland the Dr.Sc. is called Doctorat ès sciences techniques, abbreviated dr. ès. sc. and awarded by the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. Despite the somewhat different name it is considered to be the same degree since Dr.Sc. is the formal name of the degree in the German and English languages.
In Austria, Germany and the German-speaking part of Switzerland, there are some doctoral degrees with very similar names, these are the:
- Dr.sc.agr. - Doctor scientiarum agrariarum, Doctor of Agricultural science
- Dr.sc.hum. - Doctor scientiarum humanarum, Doctor of Humanities
- Dr.sc.inf.med. - Doctor scientiarum informaticarum medicæ, Doctor of Science in Medical Informatics
- Dr.sc.inf.biomed. - Doctor scientiarum informaticarum biomedicæ, Doctor of Science in Biomedical Informatics
- Dr.sc.math. - Doctor scientiarum mathematicarum, Doctor of Mathematics
- Dr.scient.med - Doctor scientiæ medicæ, Doctor of Medical Sciences
- Dr.sc.mus. - Doctor scientiae musicae, Doctor of Musicology
- Dr.sc.nat. - Doctor scientiae naturalis, Doctor of Natural Sciences
- Dr.sc.oec. - Doctor scientiarum oeconomicarum, Doctor of Economics
- Dr.sc.pol. - Doctor scientarium politicarum, Doctor of Political Sciences
- Dr.sc.soc. - Doctor scientiae socialis, Doctor of Social Sciences
All these doctoral degrees are equivalent to the Ph.D but are considered to be separate degrees and should not be confused with the actual Dr.Sc.. Until German Reunification, universities in East Germany also awarded the Dr.Sc.. However, the East German Dr.Sc. wasn't equivalent to the Ph.D since it was adopted to replace the German Habilitation and therefore was equivalent to this German qualification. After reunification the Habilitation was reintroduced at universities in eastern Germany.
