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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Which graduate students gain patents? Gender holds an answer

PhD students with supervisors who are prolific inventors have an edge, as do male students.
A smartly dressed man and a young woman in a lab coat, looking at data on a whiteboard in a laboratory.

Female graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are less likely than their male counterparts to have an advisor who has racked up many patents. Credit: Getty

Doctoral students at top US universities are increasingly likely to become inventors. But a student’s gender and faculty advisor play a large part in determining who goes on to file patents, data show1.

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Nature 621, 11 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02680-9

References

  1. Delgado, M. & Murray, F. E. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 120, e2200684120 (2023).

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