Doctor of Science
D.Sc., Sc.D., S.D., or Dr.Sc. are common abbreviations for the Latin Scientiae Doctor, meaning Doctor of Science.
Europe
In the United Kingdom and Ireland and certain other European countries, 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 introduction of the Ph.D. in the twentieth century of course devalued the title Doctor, and this practice is now defunct.
North America
In the United States, the D.Sc. is a doctoral degree on par with 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 The George Washington University, Harvard University's and Johns Hopkins University's Schools of Public Health, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Queen's University.
Categories
Doctoral degrees | Academic degrees