The phrase "working at the frontier" is correct and usable in written English.
It is generally used to refer to people who are pioneering or exploring a new field or area, either literally or figuratively. For example: "He is a medical doctor working at the frontier of cancer research."
Only when he is teaching graduate students who themselves are being trained for scholarship does the university professor find himself working at the frontier of knowledge, with his students as apprentices.
A similar point could be made about the educational value of working at the frontier of discovery in one of the research centers that Mr. Hacker and Ms. Dreifus decry.
Start-up companies may also be fulfilling to those who value high-risk activities and working at the frontier of both scientific and business opportunity.
Biologists and physicists really do think about living systems in very different ways and it is essential to grasp this to ensure that we develop appropriate innovative strategies to support scientists from all these fields working at the frontier of the life sciences.
Many academic programs are being built, such as biomathematics, mathematical biology, or computational medicine, to help train/grow researchers with understanding of the related fields, and working at the frontier, working at the interface, thinking at the interface.
His finest pieces are often about artists working at the frontiers of perception itself.
With his beloved wife, Eileen Ludwig Greenland, an esteemed member of The Rockefeller University Council, he championed the efforts of Rockefeller scientists working at the frontiers of biomedicine.
The Intel students don't do science projects -- they do science, period, often working at the frontiers of knowledge and sometimes under intense competitive pressures.
That's real, tangible growth; growth that will continue because the industry is working at the frontiers of innovation to give customers the experiences and capabilities they demand.
It's a good quality when you're working at the frontiers of knowledge--when nobody else knows the answer either--but not when there are other people out there who can help.
Naturally we will try to make as few mistakes as possible, but it is inevitable that when we are working at the frontiers of knowledge, we will not always know which control experiments are necessary.
