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CHBE 551 Lect 03Planning A Research Career

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Outline

Objective: Overview of how you build a research

career What are key skills that need to be

developed as a graduate student? What are key skills that need to be

developed as a postdoc What are the key things you need to do as

a starting professor How do research projects fit into that

plan

Big Picture

It takes planning to build a research career Need to develop the needed skills Need to develop the appropriate mentors

When you choose research projects you need to decide how the projects fit into your career It is not good enough for a project to be fun

and fundable. The project needs to also advance your

career

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Key Skills For An Academic

Research skills Plan, execute and fund research

projects Mentoring skills

People in your class Your graduate students and postdocs

Fund raising skills Salesmanship to get your ideas

noticed

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You Cannot Get Those Skills In One Fell Swope

Graduate student Research skills Classroom skills Skill to Independently carry out a research

project Communication skills

Postdoc Additional research skills Mentoring skills Independently planning and executing a

research project

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Assistant Professor

Demonstrate that you can Carry out research in your own lab Mentor graduate students Advance the field Raise money Show promise of great thingsHave mentors to write promotion

letters

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It Is Important For You To Take Charge Of Your Career

Acquire the skills to meet your career objectives including: Technical skills People skills Communication skills Mentors

It is your job to make sure that you acquire these skills in grad school

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Key Skills To Be Developed In Grad School

Honing your technical skills Develop the skills to carry out a

research project independently Learning how to communicate your

results Starting to develop mentors

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Honing Your Technical Skills In Graduate School

Objectives Learn how to do state of the art experiments

and/or calculations (Key job in your first two years of grad school)

Learn how to evaluate your own work. What is good, what are the weaknesses

Become your own worst critic Learning what you are good at and enjoy

How do your skills compare to others in the field

Learn what leaders in your field are doing and how you might contribute

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Developing Independence In Grad School

Develop the skills to carry out a research project independently Learn to carry out a research project

without close direction Reading the literature to know what

has been done before Choosing appropriate techniques Developing a research plan that can

get useful results Getting publications on your results

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Communication Skills In Graduate School

Learn how to organize and write a paper Learn the minimum publishable unit

Learn how to present your work in seminars and at technical meetings

Learn how to teach Learn how to direct research

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Key Objectives Of Postdoc

Develop capability to independently plan a research project Direct graduate students

Getting Mentors to write recomendations

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Key Concept Of Research Planning

When you are planning research, you are not just planning a research project

Instead you are also Developing skills Developing contacts/mentors Developing your reputation

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Matching A Project To Your Career path

Starting graduate student Choose a project that allows you to develop

skills: How to do experiments, write them up …

Senior graduate student Need a project that allows you to develop

independence to carry out a project Postdoc

Project needs to provide you the opportunity to plan a research project, direct graduate students, develop mentors, fans

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The Knowledge Curve

Pro

gre

ss

Time

Filling holes in existing work

Time to move on

Mining discoveries

Discovery 1-5 pubs

Knowledge Evolves With An S Shape Curve

10-20 publicatio

ns

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Planning Research

Pro

gre

ss

Time

Filling holes in existing work

Time to move on

Mining discoveries

Discovery 1-5 pubs

Knowledge Evolves With An S Shape Curve

10-20 publicatio

ns

Start hereDevelop SkillsWork Down

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When You Are Evaluating An Idea It Is Important To Know Where It Is on the Knowledge Curve

Completely new ideas/molecules Nothing like this published

before Areas/sub areas with 10-20

publications but still significant holes

Areas with 20-50 pubs Areas with 100+ publications

that need to be cleaned up

Route to fame but high risk before tenure

Usually people near scientific

retirement unless area

very important

Beginning grad students

Prime target for postdocs beginning

faculty

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Key Issue To Consider: Being At The Right Place On The

Knowledge CurvePro

gre

ss

Time

Craig Miesse

Nicholas

Shayri

Craig Jensen

UIUC Microburner Project

DARPA

ArmyNavyNIH

NSFDOE

Tenure

FirstProposal

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Best Projects Break Off The CurvesPro

gre

ss

Time

Rob

Scott

Su

Zach

Porous Silicon

Cindy

Joe

Brian Yimin

Micro Fuel Cells

ScottKuan Lin

Chang Lu

Novel Catalysts

John

Building Your Reputation

Students, Postdoocs build their reputation via papers Publication count is critical

Need a first author papers by your third year in graduate school

Try to get 8 or so total papers in grad school

Includes second author papers Pay attention to the minimum

publishable unit -

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Postdocs Build Their Reputation Via High Impact

Papers, Mentors As a postdoc you should try to get

papers in high impact journals Nature, Science, JACS…

Need mentors Well known research advisor Others at your university Others in your area

Submit an NSF or NIH proposal if possible

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Summary

You are responsible for building your career Develop needed skills Develop needed contacts, mentors Developing research ideas Getting publications

Always Need to focus on the next paper

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In Class Exercise

Last time we asked people to describe the most important question in their area

What skills do you need to develop to answer those questions?

What would you need to do get a paper on that topic within the next year?

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Questions?