SCIENTISTS AT MAJOR AND MINOR UNIVERSITIES - MOBILITY ALONG THE PRESTIGE CONTINUUM

This paper investigates the career progress of scientists at 'major an d minor universities' once they have chosen to participate in the deve lopment of an emerging field, posing three fundamental questions: (1) are scientists who are involved in the early stages of a field's devel opment and who persist more likely to graduate from more prestigious u niversities? (2) fn an emerging field, do graduates from prestigious u niversities pursue career paths that differ from the ones pursued by t heir peers from less prestigious institutions? (3) Are graduates from prestigious universities who choose academic careers more likely to fi nd employment at prestigious universities? Empirical evidence is provi ded on the career progress of 373 scientists working in the field of n eural networks, graduating from US universities. The prestige of a sci entist's graduate school is found to be a significant indicator of the prestige of his or her academic appointment in the initial five years after graduation. Beyond five years, the effect of graduate school pr estige becomes non-significant. Whether one entered the field before o r after it gained widespread legitimacy in the scientific community ap parently does not affect subsequent career progress in terms of instit utional prestige.