Overview

1

Overview
Preparing a Successful Career Development Plan
My Perspective and Experience Dr. Mario Richard
EdenDepartment of Chemical EngineeringAuburn
University NSF CAREER Proposal Writing
Workshops Honolulu and Hilo, Hawaii March 23
26, 2007
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My Background

• Education
• 1999 M.Sc. (Chem. Eng.), Tech. University of
  Denmark
• 2003 Ph.D. (Chem. Eng.), Tech. University of
  Denmark
• Professional Experience
• 2002 2003 Visiting Lecturer, Auburn University
• 2004 Now Assistant Professor, Auburn
  University
• CAREER Experience
• 2004 Rejected for CAREER Proposal Writing
  Workshop
• 2005 Accepted for CAREER Proposal Writing
  Workshop
• 2005 Submission of successful CAREER proposal

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Disclaimers
The material presented here are derived from my
own experiences and does not represent the views
and/or opinions of the National Science
Foundation!
Look very critically at each piece of advice and
recommendation and determine whether it applies
to you and your particular area!
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Acknowledgements

• Mentoring and Career Advice
• Dr. Chris Roberts, Auburn University
• Dr. Mahmoud El-Halwagi, Texas AM University
• Inspiring this Presentation
• Dr. Gracious Ngaile, North Carolina State
  University
• Dr. Ana Muriel, University of Massachusetts
  Amherst
• Dr. Jim Smay, Oklahoma State University
• Dr. Martin Culpepper, MIT

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The Key to Securing Funding
Funding agencies do not fund good projects they
fund good people with good projects!
TRANSLATION

• Technical quality has to be high, but a really
  strong proposal makes it clear
• Why your research is novel and important!
• Why you are the best PI to carry out this
  project!

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CAREER vs. Career

• Writing a Career Development Plan
• Important and valuable exercise
• Should be done by any new faculty member
• Describe your short and long-term career goals
• Detailed plan for first 5 years leading to these
  goals
• Should include submission of CAREER proposal
• The NSF CAREER Program
• Provides wonderful foundation for your career
• Only one of many components in an academic career
• Not likely to singlehandedly make/break your
  career!
• Many successful faculty members without CAREER

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The CAREER Proposal 13

• Structure of Most CAREER Proposals
• Project Summary
• Project Description
• Research Plan
• Education Plan
• Integration of Research and Education

Previously called career development plan
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The CAREER Proposal 23

• Some General Comments
• Very different from a regular research proposal
• Goal is to convince reviewers of your
  qualifications and promise for a career with
  valuable contributions in research and education
• Reviewers need to be made aware of your vision
  from the beginning and the proposal should
  outline a path toward achieving that vision
• Proposal is meant to cover all your activities,
  so there will be significant (technical) overlap
  with other proposals submitted or in preparation

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The CAREER Proposal 33
Your CAREER proposal represents your career
development plan! The research and educational
activities proposed should be things you are
going to do regardless of whether the proposal is
successful!
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My CAREER Proposal 13

• General Structure
• Wanted to show cohesiveness of research projects
• My research area Process Design and Optimization
• Spent more time on finding the right outline than
  on actual proposal writing
• Research Plan
• Two well-developed research projects
• 1 Extension of my Ph.D. work
• 2 New area ventured into after joining AU
• One project still in its infancy
• 3 Builds upon my general expertise as well as
  1 and 2

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My CAREER Proposal 23

• Education Plan
• Was unable to write a separate education plan
• Course responsibilities are closely related to
  research
• CHEN4460 Process Synthesis, Simulation and
  Optimization
• CHEN4470 Process Design Practice
• Decided to incorporate the educational aspects as
  natural (logical) extensions of research work to
  avoid being repetitive

This is a luxury not offered to all new faculty
members!
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My CAREER Proposal 33

• Outreach Plan
• Did not want to suggest outreach activities that
  I did not feel made sense to me and my research
  area
• Did not want to include token statements about
  planning to infuse process design and
  integration into K-12 education
• Wanted to recruit K-12 students away from
  computer science by illustrating how engineers
  use computers and math
• Resisted attempting to reach out to everyone
• No significant Hispanic or Native American
  population in area
• Auburn is close to Tuskegee University (a HBCU 20
  miles away)
• Decided to write an honest proposal
• Unlikely that the only thing the reviewers
  criticized was the lack of novel and innovative
  outreach components

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General Advice 15

• Project Summary
• First thing the reviewers see!
• Needs to excite them about the rest of the
  proposal
• Imperative that you point out the importance of
  your work and why you are just the right person
  to do it
• Get a non-technical person to read it
• Help the reviewers find your contributions
  through bullets, italics or bold fonts

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General Advice 25

• Research Plan
• Establish your career objectives
• Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years? a
  career?
• The award is for 5 years so be ambitious, but
  focused
• Establish your track-record as a researcher to
  convince the reviewers that you can do the
  project
• Preliminary results and publication record on the
  subject
• Prior funding
• Letters from collaborators
• Provides validity if collaborator is willing to
  invest in you
• Should illustrate knowledge of your work

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General Advice 35

• Education Plan
• Develop graduate level elective course
• Mentor and train graduate students and
  undergraduate researchers
• Involvement in honors and professional societies

PAR FOR THE COURSE! These do not add much
positive value, but reviewers notice if they are
omitted!
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General Advice 45

• Education Plan (Continued)
• Integrate research and education activities
• Ease and seamlessness depends on course
  assignments
• Remember that all research results can be
  translated into something that has educational
  value
• Tabletop experiments
• Computational tools
• Interactive websites
• Case studies highlighting aspects of interest to
  a given class
• Be creative, but propose only what makes sense to
  you

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General Advice 55

• Outreach Plan
• Has a tendency to become all encompassing
• Make sure you leave time for research
• Increasing diversity in science and engineering
• Sensitive subject and addressed differently at
  each school
• You are not expected to solve this all by
  yourself
• Capitalize on what is unique to your region, e.g.
  HBCUs etc.
• K-12
• Most universities have established procedures and
  channels
• Use this infrastructure to the extend possible
• Propose only what you would like to do anyway,
  not what you think the reviewers would like to see

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Final Thoughts
Your career should not depend on your CAREER
proposal! Regardless of the reviews, you will
not radically change research directions! There
is no reason to reinvent the wheel, nor is there
any reason to invent a square wheel just because
it would be a novel approach! Remember, funding
agencies do not fund good projects they fund
good people with good projects!
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Contact Information
Dr. Mario Richard EdenAssistant
ProfessorDepartment of Chemical Engineering222
Ross HallAuburn University, AL
36849-5127Phone [phone]Fax (334)
844-2063Email edenmar_at_auburn.eduWeb
www.eng.auburn.edu/users/edenmar