Ideas+for+New+Faculty+Members+2013

Directions
Below are tips and ideas to aid new faculty members in beginning a successful career. These are being collected as part of the 2013 AEESP "Navigating the Academic Job Search" workshop. If you are a participant in the workshop, you need to __add at least one piece of information to each one of the eight sections__.

To be able to add information, you need to have a login name on wikispaces.com and you need to be a participant in the EnvironmentalEngineeringScience wiki. To sign up and request participation, simply click the "join" button at the top right and follow the instructions. Your request will be approved by one of the wiki moderators.

Once you are signed in as a participant, an "edit" button will be available on this page. Click that and add your tips and questions to each of the eight sections below. If you have any difficulties, please contact Stephanie C. Bolyard at Stephanie.Bolyard@ucf.edu For more advanced use of this Wiki including how to get notifications on changes, please visit this page.

1. Faculty Qualities
What kind of qualities are essential for a successful and fulfilling academic career and how do you define good teaching? Please post your ideas here. Also, please check with your advisors and faculty colleagues to find out about their thoughts and to share them with us on this page.
 * Acknowledges that teaching is a performing art, one needs to do more than just prepare a lecture, but also set the mood, find ways to engage with the students, include diverse ways of teaching/learning methods
 * should have innovative, fresh ideas, keeping dynamic research environment by showing enthusiasm,
 * knows to balance when to encourage the team members and when not to push
 * is reflexive and willing to adapt teaching practices when strategies are not as successful as desired
 * design the course to be more engaging, more up-to-date in terms of style and form, and less exam grade driven
 * inspires students and stimulates students’ interests
 * Includes project/experimental based learning in conjunction with class lectures wherever possible
 * Yields productive thought-processes, long after topical details have eluded student memories
 * Utilizes team management skills to motivate the research group and bring out the best in each individual
 * Communicates effectively and clearly with students
 * Passionate about the research and education
 * Respectful towards students
 * Have a good research foresight and global view about the research works carried out
 * A good vision about the connection between academic research and engineering application
 * Know how to say "no"
 * Values role as a mentor to students, approaches research and courses with an interest in learning along with students
 * Engineers should be looking to "optimize" teaching systematically and quantifiably. (But what exactly is the optimization criterion? This is a tough question, but worth thinking about!)
 * Require critical thinking in lectures and homework assignments.
 * Innovative and dynamic research coupled with communication skills with students

2. Retaining Students in STEM Majors
There is a concern that colleges and universities are not producing enough STEM graduates. As a faculty candidate, what are some ideas or suggestions to help retain more students in STEM majors? Why is this important?
 * by showing the future students connections of their chosen major to other disciplines and implications of the research in our daily life
 * expressing an interest in students as individuals and creating a welcoming environment for international students and students of color
 * relaxing F-1 visa and OPT regulations on international students, such more STEM students are able to stay in the United States for a longer period, most of whom are anxious to do so.
 * Inviting alumni to share their experience and stories
 * I find it hard to believe the premise that there is a lack of STEM majors considering that a lot of STEM graduates have yet to land a job in a company or academia. In fact there has been a couple of commentary articles published in Science journal regarding this inaccurate notion about the so called demand for STEM grads. (e.g., []).
 * While I might be inclined to argue that these hypothetical, would-be STEM graduates are "lost" long before they reach the university-level (the student who laments, "I'm just not good at math" after ineffective teaching in middle school and high school, e.g.), once on campus, retention requires that students are actively taught problem-solving, rather than the ability to reproduce a narrow-application of a numerical technique. We do far too much of the latter.
 * A free market will adjust its demand and supply accordingly. A role we can play is facilitate the flow of information: from industry to academia and vice-versa.
 * Improve the overall quality of education in STEM majors
 * More outreach activities for early stages of education so that students are motivated to choose STEM in the higher education and better equipped for college STEM courses
 * Emphasize the importance of STEM majors even before college education
 * Encourage student-organized support groups; comradery helps immensely when slogging through the basic math and science classes required of STEM majors
 * Supporting links between STEM courses and other fields; highlighting that many skills are needed for successful STEM careers (writing, speaking, etc.) and that these skills can be transferred to many other careers (business, entrepreneurship, journalism)
 * By the time they get to universities it is probably too late. So any approach needs to reach back much earlier in the education system and ignite their interest in STEM topics while giving them some tools to approach them.
 * Communicate what makes STEM jobs fulfilling and exciting - improvements to public safety and health for example.
 * Students must support each other. Encourage this with comfortable and easily accessible study spaces.
 * Students needs to be encourage in STEM from early age by science fair and more support for STEM majors. Career opportunities needs to be made clear to the students.

3. Research Collaborations
What are the benefits of research collaborations?
 * Support
 * Labor division ( as long as each team member has unique functions, not overlapping functions)
 * Synergies in creative insights
 * Outside perspective for ideas that may be discipline bound
 * A bigger circle of experts and talents
 * Creative thinking, resource integration, and network build-up
 * Most current scientific problems require inter-disciplinary participation and hence it is almost mandatory to develop skills to enhance research collaboration.
 * Remaining informed of current work in related fields
 * 1+1>2
 * More available research resources
 * Supplement ideas and skill set
 * May provide access to additional equipment, resources, etc.
 * Recognition for a new university collaborating with other well-established universities
 * Novel ideas and critical views from multi-discipline discussions
 * Interdisciplinary perspective
 * More efficient use of resources and expertise
 * Ability to apply for and complete the research for larger grants, potential to expand visibility to a broader range of funding agencies
 * Good research is made up of a match between a good problem and a good solution. Interdisciplinary collaborations increase "mixing" of problems and solutions, increasing the probability of a good match.
 * Collaboration is necessary for solving interdisciplinary problem. Collaboration also helps in knowledge and expertise sharing.

4. Being a Student
Related to number 3, understanding your students is a key part of being a good advisor. Post one item each on rewarding and challenging aspects of being a student. You can add more rows by using the table icon or using the 'text editor'. with a specific research || less visibility and independence || topics through diverse coursework || classroom discussion is as strong and as weak as the particular students in the class || than one's advisor or one's collaborators. || albeit a teeny-weeny bit, to the knowledge sphere of humankind. || The uncertainty of research, and more uncertainty as I leave the safe shelter of the school. ||
 * __**Rewarding**__ || __**Challenging**__ ||
 * less responsibilities so more time to engage
 * opportunities to explore new directions and
 * you have a bright light to guide you along || might be constrained by very high workload, part of which might just be distractions. ||
 * Cultivating independent research ability by the guidance of a supervisor || Research is always challenging and needs patience and focus. ||
 * Opportunity to learn and apply science to solve problems || To have a Plan B or C when things don't work career-wise when you graduate from school ||
 * The invigoration of knowing one's path is still largely undefined || The realization that one's research project represents a vastly higher proportion of one's personal responsibilities
 * That warm tingling sense of satisfaction that I have contributed,
 * Being trained to become a next generation scholar || Quality of the experience depends heavily on luck and timing ||
 * Completing the experiments to understand new conceptual models || Understanding the big picture from smaller experiments to how they fulfill grants and overall learning objectives and knowledge gaps ||
 * Enthusiastic and energized to carry out the research tasks at hand || Time-management and lack of foresight and planning/experience may lead to failures ||
 * Learning the skill of writing, communication, critical thinking and any other characteristics that is needed for a faculty from current advisor || How to balance your time on research, especially multi-task research ||
 * Learning new skills and methods :) || Learning new skills and methods :( ||
 * Freedom to explore interesting findings and work within a community of researchers || Especially the first year, feeling like you don't know enough and will never know enough to make contributions to your field ||
 * Learning what makes you tick; figuring out what kinds of work cause you to get "lost in the process" (achieving a state of flow). What types of work do you really, really enjoy (both doing them and mastering them)? || Learning how to develop a research plan in a new topic. ||
 * Learning from experts in their respective fields. || Maintaining self-motivation after repeated failure or projects without clear path to publication. ||

5. Resources
What types of resources would be helpful in applying for faculty positions?
 * Online resources
 * short informal meetings/courses organized by the faculty members to inform about the academic job process
 * Guidance on research statement, teaching statements, CVs, and cover letters
 * Overview of timelines and expectations for the application process
 * Discussions of structuring job talks, teaching demonstrations, and strategies for handling difficult questions
 * Letter of recommendations from distinguished collaborators
 * Guidance from distinguished professors and new faculty members
 * Experiences of new faculty members
 * Insight regarding which jobs are "fits" and which are an inefficient use of one's time
 * Critical assessment of the application package to identify weak areas that needs improvement.
 * "Murder session" as practice for tough chalk talks.
 * List of job ads for faculty positions located in one place
 * A class or a working group to have long-term discussion (like a semester long) about academic job search
 * How to get to the minds of the hiring committee and satisfy their requirements
 * Simulation of interview
 * "Job talk" pointers or practice job talk opportunities
 * More specific job postings
 * Guidance very early on in the graduate career. A lot of the important things about a candidate take several years to develop; you have to start down that path very early.
 * Participating in faculty search committee activities as a graduate student, even if this just means having lunch and attending talks of candidates.
 * Practice for phone and real interview

6. Workshop Attendee Questions
This part is specifically geared to the 2013 workshop. What are some questions you would like answered at the workshop?
 * What are some of the informal traits that faculty are looking for in a "good fit" once an applicant makes it to the campus visit?
 * Which of the following two is more attractive to the faculty search committee (assuming the two conditions don't co-exist in the applicants), background of a very top university, or strong publication record?
 * I have no teaching experience. How do I make up for this shortcoming?
 * Tips to endure the first few years as a new faculty.
 * How might one maximize the utility of a postdoc experience?
 * As a recently graduate, Is it worth applying to open-rank positions? and How does the search committee compare new graduates with experienced faculties?
 * How much is diversity valued in an applicant?
 * How can one improve proposal writing before and after starting a faculty job?
 * Where is the discipline of environmental engineering going forward? What is the "core" of our discipline? What can be the unique role as an environmental engineer? Since this discipline is becoming more and more interdisciplinary, topics at the research level and what is taught in the classroom for undergraduate students seem to be significantly apart.
 * How to balance time as a faculty member?
 * How do you select research students and scholars with high contributions
 * How to have a professional yet semi-personal relationship with your colleagues
 * How to develop your own ideas for future study?
 * What specific characteristics determine whether an applicant is a "good fit"?
 * What suggestions do you have for new faculty pursuing collaborations? Any tips for selecting collaborators, dividing research tasks, and fostering good communication throughout collaborative research?
 * As a researcher with lots of interdisciplinary work, how to position yourself as a "good fit" within an environmental engineering dept (or maybe another department) while staying true to the range of topics you work on?
 * How specific should you tailor your application package to each posting you apply?
 * Can your proposed research (in the application package) be a related, but still new topic to you?

7. Careers
More information is available on the careers page of this wiki site. If you are attending the 2013 workshop, go there and add information on at least one of the academic, business, or non-profit career sections.

8. Organizations OR Scholarships and Fellowships
If you are attending the 2013 workshop, please also add information to both the organizations or scholarships and fellowships below. Links we will added to the referenced pages after the workshop.

**Organizations**

 * __**Organization**__ || __**Website**__ ||
 * EWRS (Environmental Water Resources Systems) || None ||
 * ACS (American Chemical Society) ||  ||
 * ISME (International Society for Microbial Ecology) || [] ||
 * IWA (International Water Association) || [] ||
 * WEF (Water Environment Federation) || http://www.wef.org ||

**Scholarships/Fellowships**
 Where is environmental engineering going toward? This discipline is becoming more and more interdisciplinary. What is the “core” of our discipline? What can be the unique role as an environmental engineer? Since this discipline is becoming more and more interdisciplinary, topics at the research level and what is taught in the classroom for undergraduate students seem to be significantly apart.
 * __**Scholarship/Fellowship Title**__ || **__Website__** || __**Amount ($)**__ || **__Undergraduate/Graduate Students__** ||
 * Nuclear Regulatory Commission || nrc.gov ||  || graduate student ||
 * EPA STAR Fellowship || [] ||  || graduate student ||
 * Critical Language Scholarship* ||  || Summer language program, funds for travel, lodging, and language courses || undergraduate and graduate student ||
 * NSF GRFP || http://www.nsfgrfp.org/ || tuition + $30K/year || graduate ||
 * Harry Hess postdoc fellow ||  ||   ||   ||
 * It may at first appear that a language scholarship is not related to environmental science/engineering, however opportunities like these can be very important in gaining international experiences that may improve international engineering projects
 * It may at first appear that a language scholarship is not related to environmental science/engineering, however opportunities like these can be very important in gaining international experiences that may improve international engineering projects
 * It may at first appear that a language scholarship is not related to environmental science/engineering, however opportunities like these can be very important in gaining international experiences that may improve international engineering projects
 * It may at first appear that a language scholarship is not related to environmental science/engineering, however opportunities like these can be very important in gaining international experiences that may improve international engineering projects
 * It may at first appear that a language scholarship is not related to environmental science/engineering, however opportunities like these can be very important in gaining international experiences that may improve international engineering projects
 * It may at first appear that a language scholarship is not related to environmental science/engineering, however opportunities like these can be very important in gaining international experiences that may improve international engineering projects