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In Thor: Ragnarok, Bruce Banner mentions to Thor that he has several Ph.Ds. Later, Thor jokingly tells him, mid-fight, to

"do something, use one of your Ph.Ds".

This was hilarious to me, but it got me thinking, What are Bruce Banner's Ph.Ds?

5-7 Ph.Ds seems very excessive to me, but knowing that Banner has genius-level intellect, it would be interesting to know exactly what he specialises in.

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    Just to add more detail: while escaping Skaar, Thor hands off his piloting of the alien ship to Bruce to take care of attackers, and tells him to use one of his (six?) PhDs to fly the ship. Bruce responds that none of his PhDs are in flying an alien spacecraft. Spoiler alert: they escape the planet anyway.
    – Sam
    Commented Dec 20, 2017 at 2:21
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    Multiple PhDs aren't really useful anyway, you only need one to show you can do independent research regardless of the field (though it does tend to guide what you end up doing after your [first] PhD).
    – JAB
    Commented Dec 20, 2017 at 4:15
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    A bigger question is who would want to subject themselves to grad school for that long? Having done it once, I certainly would never want to again.
    – Broklynite
    Commented Apr 1, 2018 at 11:28
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    @Möoz you saying I’m stupid? ;)
    – Broklynite
    Commented Apr 2, 2018 at 1:04
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    Ph.D is a title suggesting that you are good enough to carry out your own research. If you have one, there is no need to get another. I am actually not impressed even slightest by 7 Ph.Ds.
    – user65648
    Commented Aug 1, 2018 at 16:55

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As far as I am aware, we don't know. He has claimed to have 7 Ph.D's, and we have no reason to doubt him, but he's never explicitly rattled off what they were. Given how many he has, we can probably assume he has degrees in all the fields of science where he's an acknowledged expert. These would include:

  • Radiophysics: Fury claims he recruited Banner for his knowledge of gamma radiation
  • Biochemistry (or bioorganic chemistry, or organic chemistry, or something similar -- maybe all 3): Stark needed Banner's help to merge JARVIS into an organic host.
  • Nuclear Physics: In Avengers, Stark commented on Banner's research work in "anti-electron collisions"

The first two are, I think, the classes he taught at Culver, which makes those two almost a lock.

Also, while it probably wouldn't be included in his list of Ph.Ds, while in India he demonstrated pretty significant medical knowledge, so he may have an M.D. as well.

What the remaining 3 or 4 degrees are is unknown, but maybe we'll see him use more of them in future Avengers movies.

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    It would not surprise me if he acquired a DO or MD as part of a dual degree plan with biochemistry or biomedical. There is a real-life PhD/DO program at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences; so of course, this definitely makes it possible to acquire dual degrees. I do also believe PhD is very specific choice of description, opposed to saying, "6 PhDs and one medical degree" but he could be saying "PhD" to sum-up how many doctorate's he has.
    – A A Ron
    Commented Aug 1, 2018 at 15:05

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