The problem is that Computer Science has not been able to mature enough to split programming/Software Engineering into another, separate degree. You do not need a PhD to become a Computer Scientist. If you want to do research and development for a company, it helps but is not necessary. Academia does require it, but that still is not a restriction. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitfield_Diffie one of the co-developers of the Diffie-Hellman key exchange. He never achieved a PhD, yet helped break ground in crypto.