Six years ago, would-be lawyer Kira Diaz-Tushman heard a National Public Radio program about the impending retirement of senior U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologists. "I thought, 'That sounds fun. I want to do what they're doing and play around in the field.'" So she double-majored in geology and political science at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and did a summer internship at USGS.
Diaz-Tushman, now an operations geologist for BP, is part of a fast-growing global cadre of scientists and engineers building careers around unlocking more of Earth's energy reserves. Those in the field repeat the mantra that the "easy oil is gone"; this new generation faces the challenge of finding oil in remote locations and of pioneering new ways to tap into unconventional reserves in existing oil fields. [html] [pdf]
Tony Kouzarides tells the story of his early career as a comedy of errors. He started his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. in 1981 studying the cancer-inducing potential of human cytomegalovirus. After a year of inserting virus DNA into target cells, the cells showed almost no signs of cancer. He couldn't rule out that other parts of the virus might do it, but he also couldn't publish his early results. On the strength of that record, he deadpans, he unsuccessfully applied to lead his own research group. [html] [pdf]
Originally started by physicists of various obscure stripes, job-rumor Web sites now cover more than a dozen disciplines from anthropology to zoology. Some of these Web sites have a Webmaster who (sometimes) vets and posts rumors about postdoc and faculty jobs, whereas other sites take the form of wikis, which individual users can update. The sites offer varying levels of information, but all of them make water-cooler job rumors available to the world. [html] [pdf]
Thomas Helleday was precocious long before he started supervising Ph.D. students as he finished his own doctorate. His mother, a banker, bought him his first stock at age 7. At age 16, the Swedish native volunteered in a cancer ward with his older brother and "was terrified" by the harsh side effects of radiation therapy he saw there. Vowing to do something about it, potentially in the pharmaceutical industry, Helleday studied business and molecular biology as an undergraduate. [html] [pdf]
When a tenured professor admitted in a panel discussion that she had felt like a fraud as a graduate student, Abigail knew exactly what she meant. "She said that she realised much later that this was completely ridiculous thinking and that obviously she was smart enough," says Abigail, a Ph.D. student in cell biology. "What she said really spoke to me." [html] [pdf]
Dalya Soond couldn't quite picture herself in the buttoned-down world of industry research. But her 3-year Ph.D. program at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, U.K., was funded in part by an industrial partner, and the terms included a 3-month private-sector internship--also known as a work placement. She wasn't sure how she would fit into corporate culture or how well she would manage to juggle a new project with her ongoing Ph.D. research. "I was a little bit hesitant," she says. [html] [pdf]
Wondering what to do when you finally finish your Ph.D.? You're not alone. One source suggests that a mere 20% of British Ph.D. students have a clear idea of what to do next.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency has been trying to shed light on the places U.K. post-graduates end up by surveying them the January after they graduate. In September, the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) published a report analyzing trends from 2004 to 2006. [html] [pdf]
Mohammed Homman is in no hurry to defend his dissertation. It's not because the Karolinska Institute doctoral candidate needs more time to write or perform a few more experiments. Homman is taking his time to finish his degree because he's busy wooing investors, hiring researchers--some of them with their own doctorates--and establishing business partnerships. Finishing his degree just isn't his highest priority right now. [html] [pdf]
Content under copyright. For reproduction rights, please get in touch
Site design
