What can be expected of a Ph.D.? In the interest of full disclosure: I hold a Ph.D. degree.

Therefore, if you think this tract is intended to buttress my qualifications and demand an exalted status, I can honestly tell you that I cannot disabuse you of that notion. Yet I will share with you what I think a Ph.D. degree means to me, what I would demand of myself, what can be expected of me. 1. Though Ph.Ds like to be addressed as Doctors, they can only make you feel worse. 2. A Ph.D. degree is no more than a certificate. 3. The holder of this degree has shown certain level of competence for successfully analyzing a situation (after deep and long training which saner people avoid going through) that is of a higher level of complexity than is generally associated with the problems posed to people without this certificate. That is a pretty long sentence and quite inelegantly constructed. Would I like to say it in simpler words? 4. No. Why? Because Ph.D. holders do not know how to think in simple terms. They can only complicate things and take pride in solving complicated problems! 5. Ph.Ds should NOT be asked to solve problems. 6. The most one can demand of a Ph.D. is to show the way to solve problems. It is for the nonPh.Ds to solve the problems, after slaying the dragons they meet along the path paved by Ph.Ds! 7. Ph.Ds are NOT experts, but they like others to think they are! 8. Ph.Ds cannot do anything; therefore, they do Ph.Ds! These are the thoughts of a Ph.D. degree holder, who spent a lot of time gaining the competence to analyze in the most convoluted way the contributions a Ph.D. can make, where the simple answer to the title question is NOTHING! Raghuram Ekambaram