Writing a doctoral thesis is a years-long effort that may make you question the sense of the whole process.
Is it useful at all? Does a doctoral thesis help in finding a job? Do companies have any use for in-depth experts?
Samu Kurki, PhD (Physics), has a clear opinion on the matter.
Unbroken stretch
Graduating at 18 from Lohja Upper Secondary School, Kurki was admitted to the University of Helsinki to study theoretical physics. Physics had answers to fundamental questions that interested Kurki.
“How does everything work? Theoretical physics explains it at the particle level, and everything ultimately stems from particles,” Kurki says.
Kurki studied for a solid unbroken stretch, attaining his doctorate in seven years. Of those, three were spent on a doctoral thesis funded by the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation.
“It was really great to have the chance to concentrate fully on studies.”
In his doctoral thesis, Kurki investigated the shape and structure of particles: what comes out of the collisions conducted in particle accelerators? Thanks to his thesis, he visited the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland for three weeks.
In 2011 the recent 25-year-old doctoral graduate realised that he still had to complete his military service. Kurki thought that he would benefit society more in civil service. He had heard about open vacancies at Turku University Hospital and called there.
The hospital had a perfect position for a physics doctoral graduate. Kurki was appointed to complete his civil service in a team that was establishing the first biobank in Finland.
After the service, his career continued, by way of the pharmaceutical company Oriola, at Bayer, the drug and pesticide enterprise. Time and again, Kurki has noticed that a doctoral degree is a big asset in jobhunting.
“It’s evidence of being able to independently carry through a large and demanding project, which is clearly appreciated in professional life.”
For three years now, Kurki has worked as a strategic project lead at Bayer. With the help of data and AI, he helps drug developers distinguish the essential from the inessential. Even though Kurki completed his doctoral thesis on theoretical physics, it has been enormously useful in medicine too.
“Writing the thesis gave me a certain mindset. Switching from physics to medicine doesn’t really matter, it’s just a different language.”
Doctoral research also teaches critical scholarly thinking: if something appears too good to be true, you learn to doubt things and check what the data actually say.
More doctoral graduates needed
In addition to business life, Kurki wishes to be closely involved in academic circles to keep himself up to date. This goal is supported by a docentship recently granted to Kurki by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki.
Kurki believes dialogue between scholarship and business to be important, as expert work is continually becoming more challenging.
“The world is certainly not getting any simpler, which is why we should train even more doctoral degree holders.”