Academia
drorzel | July 24, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Pam Korda, a physicist working for a medical device company.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I am a "Lead Scientist" at an R&D subsidiary of a medical
devices company. In practice, this means I oversee a…
drorzel | July 24, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Denise Hills, a government geologist)
1) What is your non-academic job?
My job title is the very descriptive "Geologist II" which really tells you nothing about what I actually DO, now does it? I work for the…
drorzel | July 24, 2009Over at Dot Physics, Rhett wonders about the role of homework in a world that includes cramster:
Then what is the problem? The problem is with my jobs. Yes, jobs. I have two jobs. My first job is to help students learn. I am a learning-faciliator if you like. I do this in many different ways. One way is to assign homework. Oh, my other job is to evaluate how well students understand the material. I have to give them some grade at the end of the semester. One obvious way to do this is with an exam or feats of strength.
Here is the question: Do you grade homework? Oh, I know what everyone says…
neurotopia | July 24, 2009You attended 5 classes of your Brain and Behavior course out of an 8 week summer session that meets daily, and stop going after the first exam. Which you failed. Repeating the exact same pattern from the previous semester when you were in my class.
And then.... your MOM shows up at my class to fight your grade battles for you, without you even being aware of it.
Yesterday, I had a student's mom show up at my classroom right before class. Apparently Precious Daughter was going to fail out while on academic probation. Mom just couldn't let that happen, and wanted to know if there was any…
terrasig | July 24, 2009
Well, a week has passed since I first issued a call for posts for the August Scientiae Carnival with the theme "Summer Days, Driftin' Away."
Consider how you balance the demands and pleasures of this season. Have you found ways to make progress on your must-dos while also taking time for your family, friends - and yourself - and being in the moment of this time of year? Or are July and August just another month for you?
And so as not to exclude our colleagues in the Southern Hemisphere (where I am fortunate to draw 5-7% of my blog visitors), why don't you take this time from your winter and…
khannula | July 23, 2009I'm going to take a vacation tomorrow. I'm going to get up early in the morning, ride my bike to my office, and hunker down in front of my computer, putting some of my collaborators' contributions into a grant proposal.
What? That doesn't sound like your idea of a vacation?
What about last week, when I spent a glorious two days in my office while my husband and six-year-old went camping and swimming in a hot spring? No?
They actually do feel like vacations to me. See, I'm spending this summer at home with my six-year-old. There are a few options in town for summer childcare, but I decided not…
jdupuis | July 23, 2009Scott Delman, Group Publisher of the ACM, has responded to my post earlier this month on society publishers and open access. That post generated some very good discussion in the post comments that are well worth checking out.
Delman's article is in the most recent Communications of the ACM (v52i8): Responding to the Blogosphere.
Here are some excerpts, although Delman's article is so interesting that I wish I could quote the whole thing.
The fact that ACM charges both for access to the published information in its Digital Library and also extends the courtesy of "Green OA" to its authors is…
khannula | July 23, 2009Jim Lehane at Dino Jim's Musings has posted the call for the August Accretionary Wedge: Time to think OUT of the box:
So your mission is this: "What out of the box ideas do you use to teach people about geology or geological concepts?" No need to limit yourself on ideas you have actively used. If you have used it and you think it is good, great. Is it an idea you have worked up on and gotten ready but haven't had the chance to use it yet, also great (this is pretty much my scenario). What if it is just a theory that you think would be something different and cool, even better. Anything works…
drorzel | July 23, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Mike Sperry, who works for a planetarium company.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I am a Research Specialist/Scientist for Sky-Skan, a planetarium company. The company focus on everything from the software…
drorzel | July 23, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, who works as a scientist in the food industry.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I am an assistant scientist for an enzyme company. I work in the R&D department; I focus on finding…
catdynamics | July 23, 2009Prof Henry Gates' account of his arrest
the police report
hm, lose a few billion from the endowment and all of a sudden there is no respect
the accounts are surprisingly consistent, but Prof Gates made one major mistake:
Skip, dood, you were in China and didn't stay for the eclipse!?!
what were you thinking...
oh, and sorry about the way the police treated you, bit of an overreaction there by the sound of it
PS: just in case anyone is confused by who I think overreacted:
Nightmare on Ware Street
drorzel | July 23, 2009I've had a few conversations with other small-college folks about how there ought to be some sort of group within DAMOP for people at small colleges, given how many of us there are who do AMO physics. Nothing has ever come of it, because nobody wants to take on the administrative hassle of organizing such a thing.
Fortunately for small-college theorists, they have some people who are more willing to step up, and have formed the Anacapa Society:
The Anacapa Society promotes research in all areas of theoretical and computational physics at primarily undergraduate institutions. The Society…
drorzel | July 22, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of David Warman, a computer game system designer.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
Title: Game System Designer. Function: Computer Systems Generalist. I did not know such a job existed until it found me last…
drorzel | July 22, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Mark Hoddinott, a RF circuit designer.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I design radio frequency (RF) circuitry in wireless modems for a mid-sized company. The modem designs I work on use UMTS/HSPA/GPRS/EDGE…
drorzel | July 22, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Rod Charlton, a retired chemical engineer.)
I've been retired for about 5 yrs; perhaps my responses can
reflect some of my overall experiences during my career.... see below:
Also... in my last decade, my…
drorzel | July 21, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Nicole Leuke, a science teacher in Alberta.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I am a High School Science and math teacher. I teach primarily physics and general sciences (grades 10,11,12). I have been teaching…
drorzel | July 21, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of an Australian who prefers to remain nameless.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I'm the manager of a small company that makes high-tech measuring equipment. Most of this is used for monitoring and control in…
drorzel | July 21, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Dr. Hazel Phillips, a communications specialist for a UK government agency.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I work for a UK government agency which operates in a scientific
field. My job involves…
jstemwedel | July 21, 2009The other day, it occurred to me that I have a goodly number of friends who have been in Ph.D. programs (and may still be "in" the program in some more or less official way), and who have more or less finished their graduate research, but who haven't managed to get their dissertations written. (I'm not going to name names; you know who you are.)
In this post, I want to offer these friends (and others in this situation) encouragement to get that dissertation written!
Yes, I know, you have your reasons for not finishing. Yes, I know writing a dissertation can feel like the hardest thing ever…
drorzel | July 20, 2009(On July 16, 2009, I asked for volunteers with science degrees and non-academic jobs who would be willing to be interviewed about their careers paths, with the goal of providing young scientists with more information about career options beyond the pursuit of a tenure-track faculty job that is too often assumed as a default. This post is one of those interviews, giving the responses of Dr. Richard Edgar of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory project at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.)
1) What is your non-academic job?
I work for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which operates…