George Ban-Weiss Assistant Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering banweiss@usc.edu KAP230C My path • PhD, UC Berkeley, 2003-2008 • Postdoc, Carnegie Institution, Dept of Global Ecology, Stanford, 2008-2010 • Postdoc, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 2010-2012 • Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 2012-2013 • Assistant Professor, USC, 2013 - current When did I decide to pursue an academic career? • Nearing the end of grad school • My first postdoc position strongly reaffirmed my goal to become a Professor A day in the life at a government lab A day in the life at a government lab • Take home points: • Spending a few (or more) years in a research position at a government lab can provide excellent preparation for a faculty job. • Based on empirical evidence, spending an entire career at a government lab seemed like a difficult existence to me • Your results may vary depending on the particular lab and/or research group A day in the life at a government lab • Heavy emphasis on research and proposal writing • Can be an amazing scholarly environment for learning • Often have many colleagues that do research that is closely aligned • Can be good or bad! • Soft money • Post-doc positions at government labs can turn into careerlevel jobs • Might be less common these days • Advice that I got was: • Government labs are a great place to be while you wait for the perfect faculty job to open up • Need to keep publishing • Your results may vary, widely depending on lab and group • Both overall level of funding and group culture Why I love my job (a day in the life of a Professor) Enjoyable mix of: • Research • Teaching • Mentoring graduate students • Interacting with undergrads Compared to my experience at LBNL: • I lead my own group at USC • Graduate students in my group do a lot of the “heavy lifting” in research • More academic freedom • Teaching and interaction with students • Much lower overhead How can you succeed? Government lab: • Innovative research ideas • Team player • High impact publications • Talented fundraiser University: • Innovative research ideas • Good mentor to graduate students • High impact publications • Talented fundraiser • Effective instructor Which should you pick? • Industry vs. Research Lab vs. Academia comparison varies by field • Tough to know which to pick without experiencing each • Follow your passions and try not to make decisions based on fear • If you love research and teaching, academia is a great choice