A PhD Is - USU

1 A G u i d e t o S u r v i v a l i n S c i e n c eR e v i s e d ed i t i o n It took me over forty years to learn from experience what can be learned in one hour from this guide. C a r l D j e ra s s iP e t e r J. F eIb e l m a n A PhD I s Not ENo u g h !5-1/2 x 8-1/4 B: 1/2 BASICPBBLACK+PMS 877 metallic+PMS 380 FINISH:Scuff Resistant Matte Polya member of the Perseus books design by alyssa StepienS c i e nc e / C a r e e r sA P h D I s Not ENou g h ! Breezily written, irreverent, and filled with useful information. i wish something like it had been available when i was starting out. mICHael Weber, Cancer Center Director, University of Virginia, Charlottesville i loved A PhD Is Not Enough!

2 I couldn t put it down. His writing is delightful, and he is on target with virtually all of his advice. SteVen H. StrOGatZ, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of applied mathematics, Cornell University; author of N o n l i n e a r D y n a m i c s a n d C h a o sA senior scientist at sandia national Laboratories, Peter J. FeIbelman received a Phd in Physics from the University of California at san diego, did postdoctoral research at the saclay (France) and the University of illinois (Urbana), and taught for three years at stony Brook University. Feibelman lives in Albuquerque, new your graduate education, brainpower, and technical prowess, your career in scientific research is far from assured.

3 Permanent positions are scarce, science career prep is rarely part of formal graduate training, and a good mentor is hard to find. in A PhD Is Not Enough!, physicist Peter J. Feibelman lays out a rational path to a fulfilling long-term research career. He offers sound advice on selecting a thesis or postdoctoral adviser; choosing among research jobs in academia, government laboratories, and industry; preparing for an employment interview; and defining a research program. the guidance offered in A PhD Is Not Enough! will help you make your oral presentations more effective, your journal articles more compelling, and your grant proposals more successful. A classic guide for recent and soon-to-be graduates, A PhD Is Not Enough! remains required reading for anyone on the threshold of a career in science.

4 This new edition includes two new chapters and is revised and updated throughout to reflect how the revolution in electronic communication has transformed the 978-0-465-02222-9978046502222951495$ US / $ CANF eIbe l m a nA PhD Is Not Enough!0465022229-Feibelman_Layout 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page i0465022229-Feibelman_Layout 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page iia member of the perseus books groupNew YorkA PhD IS NOT ENOUGH!A Guide to Survival in ScienceREVISED EDITION peter j. feibelman 0465022229-Feibelman_Layout 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page iiiCopyright 2011 by Peter J. FeibelmanPublished by Basic Books,A Member of the Perseus Books GroupAll rights reserved. Printed in the United States ofAmerica. No part of this book may be reproduced in anymanner whatsoever without written permission exceptin the case of brief quotations embodied in criticalarticles and reviews.

5 For information, address BasicBooks, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016 published by Basic Books are available at specialdiscounts for bulk purchases in the United States bycorporations, institutions, and other organizations. Formore information, please contact the Special MarketsDepartment at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 ChestnutStreet, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800)810 4145, ext. 5000, or by Timm BrysonLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataFeibelman, Peter PhD is not enough! : a guide to survival in science /Peter J. Feibelman. Rev. published: Reading, Mass. : Addisson-Wesley, bibliographical 978-0-465-02222-9 (alk. paper)1. Science Vocational guidance Handbooks,manuals, etc. 2. Scientists Training of Handbooks,manuals, etc. 3. Mentoring in the professions Handbooks, manuals, etc.

6 I. Title. dc222010035289 Ebook ISBN: 978-0-465-02533-610 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10465022229-Feibelman_Layout 1 11/11/10 9:18 AM Page ivTo Lori, Camilla, and Adam0465022229-Feibelman_Layout 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page v0465022229-Feibelman_Layout 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page vicontentsPreface: What This Book Is About, xiAcknowledgements, xixCHAPTER 1Do You See Yourself in This Picture?1A set of nonfiction vignettes illustrating some ofthe ways that young scientists make their livesmore unpleasant than necessary or fail entirelyto establish themselves in a research 2 Advice from a Dinosaur?19 Can you expect someone to be an effectivementor who emerged into the scientificmarketplace in a world that looked verydifferent?vii0465022229-Feibelman_La yout 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page viiCHAPTER 3 Important Choices: A Thesis Adviser, a Postdoctoral Job27A discussion of what to consider: young adviserversus an older one, a superstar versus ajourneyman, a small group versus a factory.

7 Understanding and attending to your interestsas a 4 Giving Talks39 Preparing talks that will make people want tohire and keep you and that will make theinformation you present easy to 5 Writing Papers: Publishing Without Perishing53 Why it is important to write good papers. Whento write up your work, how to draw the readerin, how to draw attention to your 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page viiiCHAPTER 6 From Here to Tenure: Choosing a Career Path69An unsentimental comparison of the merits ofjobs in academia, industry, and in 7 Job Interviews91 What will happen on your interview trip; thequestions you had better be prepared to 8 Getting Funded107 What goes into an effective grant proposal; how and when to start writing 9 Establishing a Research Program121 Tuning your research efforts to your owncapabilities and your situation in life.

8 Forexample, why not to start a five-year projectwhen you have a two-year 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page ixCHAPTER 10A Survival Checklist135Do not attempt a takeoff before being sure theflaps are behaviorist approach to professional 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page xpreface: what this book is aboutMy scientific career almost never happened. I emergedfrom graduate school with a PhD and excellent tech-nical skills but with little understanding of how to sur-vive in science. In this, I was not unusual. Survival skillsare rarely part of the graduate curriculum. Many pro-fessional scientists believe that good students findtheir way on their own, while the remainder cannot behelped. This justifies neglect and, perhaps not inciden-tally, reduces work load. There may be some sense tothe Darwinian selection process implicit in benign ne-glect, but on the whole, failing to teach science sur-vival results in wasting a great deal of student talentand time, and not infrequently makes a mess of stu-dents science survival skills are rarely taught in adirect way, most young scientists need a mentor.

9 Somewill find one in graduate school, or as a postdoctoralresearcher, or perhaps as an assistant professor. Thosexi0465022229-Feibelman_Layout 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page xiwho do not have an excellent chance of moving fromgraduate study to scientific retirement without passingthrough a career. The unmentored can only succeedby being considerably more astute than the naive, ide-alistic, and very bright young persons who generallychoose a science thoughts have been on my mind ever since Ialmost had to tell Mom and Dad that their golden boywas not good enough to find a permanent (or any!) jobin physics, a job for which his qualifications includedeight years of higher education and four more of post-doctoral work. The agony of those days is not easilyforgotten the boy with the high IQ, who had skippeda grade, graduated from the Bronx High School of Sci-ence at and from Columbia summa cum laude at , found himself in a muddle at.

10 How do youchoose a research problem? How do you give a talk?What do you do to persuade a university or a nationalor industrial lab to hire and keep you? I hadn t a clueuntil, midway through my second postdoctoral job, Ihad the good fortune to spend some months collabo-rating with a young professor who cared whether Isurvived as a scientist. Although this mentoring rela-tionship was brief, it helped me acquire a set of skillsthat graduate education did not, skills without whichmy lengthy training in physics would have : What This Book Is About0465022229-Feibelman_Layout 1 10/28/10 10:36 AM Page xiiThis book is meant for those who will not be luckyenough to find a mentor early, for those who naivelysuppose that getting through graduate school, doing apostdoc, etc., are enough to guarantee a scientific ca-reer.