Professor Ni Naru I

How to become a professor (in Engineering)? General talk.

This is the digest of several seminars I attended recently. These are the info. provided by several professors from university, and filtered by my notes. I am not responsible for any biases.

Before any discussion in the details, one thing that I think should be kept in mind throughout the academic career is to form the research identity verbally

"I, Professor X, would like to be known for ..."

How does faculty search happen?

Before diving into the applicants’ perspective, let’s examine the perspective of the department. Bascially, the dept. would look for a candidate that fits into the departmental culture. The following are the typical steps:

1. Apply to the univ. for slots of new faculty positions. The slots may be prescribed special purposes, e.g. an AP in computer science specializing in machine learning.
2. Set up the search committee (which is common place for the AP to do service).
3. Solicit applications via advertisement, faculty network, and direct scouting.
4. Review applications.
5. Remote interview and evaluate (with rubrics).
6. On-site interview for finalists.
7. Discuss and decide on the final choice(s) and submit to college or univ. for approval.
8. Send out the offer and negotiate with the candidate.

Next, from the applicants’ perspective, the faculty search happens as follows,

1. Step zero is to develop a good research record and reputation.
2. Prepare for application: CV, reference letters (RL), teaching and research statements (TS & RS), cover letter (CL), set up the personal website for showcase. For TS and RS, it is important to have outsider review and emphasis on the mutual institutional fit.
3. Wait: from application deadline to interview.
4. Develop job talk and/or chalk talk. Two things to cover: “What is done” and “What to be done”. Make sure to balance the depth and breadth and maintain accessibility for people outside the field. When there is “chalk talk”, it may be also used to check the teaching capability of the candidate and how one would run a lab.
5. Interview: Several things to keep in mind: Explain to the diverse audience about the accomplishment and goals. Study the background of the people in department. Enjoy and learn - the interview is not necessarily the last one.
6. Wait: from interview to decision notification.
7. Negotiate if given an offer.

Like the dept., it is advisable that the applicant check if departmental culture fits himself/herself. Or put in this way, the job of faculty is a long-term endeavor that involves the person and the dept. As a result, the faculty search is essentially a process of mutual fitting.

Before faculty

A rough time line

Before getting a faculty position:

1. Explore - 2 years prior: Search job listing and conduct informal interviews.
2. Prepare - 1 year prior: Prepare the documents CV, RL, TS/RS, CL and have them reviewed, esp. if the univ. provides such resources.
3. Execute - 6 months prior: Prepare for the interview and review the offer with faculty and specialists from the univ.

As for the background in PostDoc, the institutional reputation does matter. However, getting experience in mentoring and proposal writing (in a maybe lower level of univ.) is more important than joining in famous labs.

National labs

Chances are that one goes for national labs (NL) before becoming a faculty member. There are pros and cons.

Pros:

1. NL provides funded postdocs and intership with generous benefits.
2. World-class equipments for experimentalist and computational scientists.
3. Work with reputed scientists, which forms the network beneficial for future research, funding, collaboration, and recognition.
4. Chances for publication.

Cons:

1. Limitations in immigration status.
2. Publication could be delayed due to bureacratic process or clearance issues.
3. Lesser feeling of contribution as the research project is usually done collectively.
4. Limited freedom to select the research topic.
5. Limited chance for teaching, although possible if there are nearby univs.

To initialize the connection with NL, networking is important. Less than 50% of NL positions are publicly advertised and more are filled by recommendation of univ. faculties, or through networking during conferences.

During tenure-track

A rough time line

1. Year 1: R and T are the focus. S should be minimum. Especially extra time is needed to develop a course.
2. Year 2-3: R goes up and T goes down. Esp. R weighs in due to the mid-term review. S slightly increases and the AP becomes more experienced.
3. Year 4-6: R continues to increase for the final tenure review. S stays more or less the same level.

Proposals

Writing proposals will be the major task of the new faculty. Practically, he/she needs to pay for students, lab expenses, faculty salary, and travel/logistic costs.

Before application, one needs to understand the mission of the funding agency. One basic way is to watch out for the solicitation of the agency, e.g. request for information (RFI), request for proposal (RFP), and broad agency anouncement (BAA). However, more importantly, talk to the manager directly. The manager is indeed the key person associated with the proposal. He/she creates the program, picks the proposal winners, and reports the progress to his/her boss. The general procedure/loop would be (1) present the idea to the manager, (2) let manager criticize or express his/her needs, (3) correct the proposal. One tip is to expect rejections but learn about the feedback.

Check out the Heilmeier Catechism when working on the proposal.

1. What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.
2. How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
3. What’s new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?
4. Who cares? If you’re successful, what difference will it make?
5. What are the risks and the payoffs?
6. How much will it cost?
7. How long will it take?
8. What are the midterm and final “exams” to check for success?

The proposal requires some initial input data obtained based on the start-up funding. A suggested writing order is as follows: Summary of the ideas, deliverables and timeline, budget, background, introduction & conlusion, abstract (most important and thus the last). Make sure to write about the broader impact.

A rule is suggested: Seek advice from people who are busy. They are busy because their advices are so valuable that people keep him/her occupied.

Service responsibilities

Service occurs in two aspects. First, within the campus, there are opportunities in the college/univ., dept., and outreach levels. Second, externally, the service includes professional committees, editorial work, proposal review, and journal review.

A few things to think about for the choice of service: High-visibility, networking opportunities, potential impact on R & T. Some good examples are graduate student search committee and proposal review committee. The caveats in service include non-measurable time cost and distraction from R & T, e.g. travelling for external services. Finally, it is better to actively seek and choose the service, instead of passively getting assigned the job.

Miscellaneous

About growing research team: Be careful about the structure and size, hire the excellent ones and double-think about postdocs and undergrads. Be aware of the common practices in the dept.

About whether to continue work of PhD/postdoc: A first question to ask is that whether the area is saturated? Continuted work provides potential early wins, but one eventually needs to branch to new areas.

About time management: A few things to consider - (1) When and how to collaborate. (2) Whether to outsource. (3) Respect other’s time. (4) Identify the deadline and the key time nodes. (5) Try not to reinvent the wheels.

About branding of research: Note the Pygmalion effect, i.e. expectation enhances performance. Sustaining the brand gives positive feedback on publication, citation and impact, students, and sustainable funding.