Graduate Journal: Learning from teaching

© 2005 Nature Publishing Group

CAREER VIEW NATURE|Vol 438|17 November 2005

392

RECRUITERS & ACADEMIA

GRADUATE JOURNAL

Learning from teachingI used to teach ballroom dancing as a way to earn some pocket money duringmy master’s studies. It was an interesting experience, but I never thought of itas serious professional training, because it was so different from my real job asa scientist. But now that experience has become useful to me in the lab.

I never thought there would be a day when I would be teaching students atmy university. The prospect seemed distant and unreal. But now it is a task I must undertake: I am helping to supervise a master’s student. This is not aclassroom full of children, but one person sitting next to me.

I suddenly realized that I bear a great deal of responsibility for the quality ofhis work, and that I must do my best to encourage him and to help him improvehis skills. Although this scared me at first, I began to teach and to learn fromteaching. I finally understood the importance of the management, psychologyand philosophy classes that I had to take earlier in my education. These classesshowed me a different way of looking at the world — and at people.

I now see that my experience as a dance teacher was not a waste of timeeither. It showed me how different people react to different situations. I’ve beenable to transfer the knowledge gained in dance classes to laboratory teaching,and this has also helped my everyday relations with people in general. ■

Karolina Tkaczuk is a graduate student at the Technical University of Lodz, Poland.

Scientists spend a lot of time in theuniversity system, but few know what itmeans to actually work in academia aswhat, in North America, is described asa ‘professor’. Where do you learn how tobe a professor? What exactly is tenuretrack and how does one ‘get on it’? Howdo you negotiate for what you need?

FORWARD to Professorship is aworkshop spread over two and a halfdays that helps faculty-to-be and newtenure-track faculty members explorethe above questions and much more.About a quarter of the workshop isdevoted to issues specific to womenand other under-represented groups inscience, engineering and mathematics.We aim to equip participants with apersonal plan for their path to tenureand to a balanced life. With fundingfrom the US National ScienceFoundation, we have held the workshopfor the past three years at GallaudetUniversity in Washington DC, with 40to 50 participants from across theUnited States. We took it on the roadfor the first time this year, to theMassachusetts Institute of Technology.

We address the three components ofprofessorship: teaching, research andservice. For teaching, we demonstrate avariety of styles. For research, the focusis on securing funding; guest speakersfrom various funding agencies discussrequirements and expectations for

proposals. For service, we address theneed for university service, whilecautioning against over-commitment.

We also give participants time to dosome writing — typically on research orteaching statements — and to receivefeedback. Experts in negotiation discusswhy women often do not negotiate wellor much, and review strategies. Familyissues such as your options if you wantchildren and if your partner is in thesame field are addressed by professorswho have successfully handled thesesituations. Participants sit withdepartment chairs and deans in smallgroups to ask questions about howadministrators view certain situations.

Follow-up surveys have shown thatnetworks and mentoring begun at theworkshop continue long after it ends.One participant arrived at the workshopthree years ago having decided to quither PhD programme. While there, shefound mentors and support. We arepleased to report that she has nowcompleted her doctorate.

For more information aboutattending the workshop or bringing it toyour institution, please contact us atForward.office@gallaudet.edu. ■

Charlene Sorensen is a professor atGallaudet University in Washington DCand a co-organizer of the FORWARD to Professorship workshop.➧ www.seas.gwu.edu/~forward/advance

Melissa Hines has no idea what set her on a career path towards materials science. But her desire to be achemist has not wavered since she was seven years old.This drive has helped to propel her to leadership at aninterdisciplinary research centre comprising some 100 faculty members from Cornell University in Ithaca,New York.

As a chemistry undergraduate at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, she followedprudent advice: work for a young faculty member who willhave more time to devote to his or her students. Her choicewas Sylvia Ceyer, who was not only the youngest memberof MIT’s chemistry department at the time, but one of thefew women. Ceyer inspired Hines to work hard and to focuson surface chemistry. Ceyer also highlighted theimportance of communicating science to the public.

“She convinced me that if you can’t explain what you aredoing to someone outside the field, you probably don’tunderstand it yourself,” says Hines.

After a PhD in chemistry at Stanford University, Hineswent on to a postdoc at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey— a career-altering experience. There, she learned howmaterials science could be used to solve problems in fieldsthat she never would have encountered otherwise, such asthe engineering and design of microprocessors.

She has combined that appreciation for applied researchwith her zeal for basic science in her current position asdirector of the Center for Materials Research at Cornell,which emphasizes collaborations between ten differentdepartments at the university.

In this job, Hines finds herself revisiting the advice shegot at MIT about communicating with the public. “Peoplethink of chemicals as something bad, to be avoided, andthat’s a real challenge that the scientific community needsto address,” she says. To meet that challenge, she givesseminars on public speaking for scientists to help themcommunicate with students, politicians and others.

Hines counsels students to keep an open mind aboutwhat kind of scientist they are and want to be. It seems oddadvice from someone with such a focused career path, butshe says that she has become much more open-mindedabout different research fields over the years.

“Life throws you a lot of opportunities and if youautomatically shut these out, you could miss somethingwonderful,” she says. ■

Virginia Gewin

MOVERS Melissa Hines, director, Cornell Center forMaterials Research, Ithaca, New York

1994–present: Assistantprofessor, associate professorand, since 2004, professor,Department of Chemistry andChemical Biology, CornellUniversity, Ithaca, New York1992–94: Postdoctoralmember of technical staff,Optical Physics, AT&T BellLaboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey

Lessons in professorship

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