Postdocs

In the scientific community, there are a disproportionately large number of people who hold a PhD. The depth of knowledge needed to successfully conduct research and uncover a new understanding of how the world and universe works necessitates countless hours pouring over the published literature. Many of those who hold a PhD entered graduate school with the thought in mind that they would pursue an academic career as a professor, but the numbers simply don't work out. There are far fewer available faculty positions than there are those with a PhD. The number of PhD holders has gone up significantly, while number of faculty positions are holding steady or in decline. This leads to plenty of PhDs, but not enough jobs that equal the qualifications. Enter the postdoc. This is, by definition, a temporary position meant to augment and develop professional skills. Postdocs exist in universities, industry, and government labs. And although the goals - an educational experience meant to allow for flexibility and professional development - are the same, the manifestation of the experience can be widely different depending on the setting.
Most institutions that hire postdocs end up relying on them to reach their research goals. And in many cases, postdocs bring novel perspective, paired to the latest technology, fresh out of graduate school. And in a temporary position, postdocs often are paid less than their permanently-hired counterparts. This is a huge advantage to employers of postdocs, but can be a detriment to the postdoc, who ostensibly are in a professional development position, but are really pulling more than their full share of the weight. As a postdoc myself, I'm finding it critical to make my career desires known to my mentors and immediate supervisors, while contributing as strongly as I can to develop the capabilities that will benefit the lab. But I'm also recognizing that doing good work and keeping my head down won't be enough to launch into the career I really want. So my advice to you, if you're a postdoc or considering becoming one, is:

• Get plugged into your organization. You'll be seen as an inherently temporary member of the organization, unless you make your presence known.
• Volunteer for organizations such as Postdoc Associations, research outreach opportunities, etc. Try to find resources for people who are in a similar place in their career. That network will be invaluable to finding opportunities for longer-term gigs.
• Take every opportunity to share your research, and make sure you plug it into a broad, easily accessible context.
• Build your brand. Figure out what you stand for, what problems and skills are most important, and make your mark. 

Check out this article on Nature on the future of the postdoc for more on this topic:

https://www.nature.com/news/the-future-of-the-postdoc-1.17253

Still plenty of room at the bottom?

Following up on Plenty of Room at the Bottom - how did Feynman do?

As I pointed out in an earlier post, Feynman's quintessential article imagines what accomplishments of which very, very tiny technologies and machines might be capable.

To summarize the contents of the article, Feynman:

• Appeals to visual logic by calculating how little space printed materials really need to take up (he shows that one could write the entire contents of all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britanica on the head of a pin)
• Imagines a way, based on technologies available in 1960, to write and copy "written" information at such a small scale
• Describes how, by taking advantage of all three spatial dimensions, all print copies of every written medium in 1960 could fit on a spec of dust.
• Points out a need for the development of a better electron microscope to take this information processing strategy from being a possibility to becoming a reality; he also talks about several earth-shattering consequences of an electron microscope able to map and manipulate individual atoms
• Discusses possibilities and advantages of miniaturizing the computer
• Imagines miniaturizing machines, such as cars and robotic hands, and thinks through the logistical limits of scale, such as the volume needed in the engine blocks for combustion to occur, or the limits of human dexterity.
• Calls for high-school contests which use such "miniaturization technology"

So how did Feynman do? Nearly 50 years later, what has become reality and what is still a beckoning call to the modern physicist? 

• Computers are VERY much miniaturized compared with what they were in 1959. The logic gates used in modern computers are, in fact, reaching the limits of size, going down to about the scale Feynman calls out as the size limit (100s of atoms). New strategies are emerging which will allow for further increases in computational power once the limits of conventional electronics are reached (more on that in an upcoming blog post)! 
• Information is stored in very tiny capsules. Just think, the computer or smart phone you're using to read this has the ability to store about as much information as five average sized libraries! All in the palm of your hand.
• Modern electron microscopes have aided in the understanding of biological processes, and was instrumental in DNA sequencing, essential in mapping the human genome
• There are communities supporting high school students who regularly use scanning electron microscopes to take images such as this (a moth's eye):

photo credit: http://remf.dartmouth.edu/images/insectPart3SEM/image/22noctuidae120.jpg

For all the remarkable predictions Feynman made, some of his dreams have yet to become reality. These include: 

• a high numeric aperture electron microscope, capable of repeatably and reliably manipulating individual atoms
• miniature robotic hands capable of manipulating at the nanoscale (although there are tools which can be used to physically scribe things at that scale, such as the atomic force microscope)

One of the most important aspects of the continued development of the field of nanotechnology is understanding how physics is different at that scale, and what effects that are imperceptible to us at the scales we deal with in our day-to-day lives affect the nanoscale miniatures we're making every day. Several of the upcoming blog posts will deal with some of these weird effects and how we can explain them. 

Welcome to the Human Frontier!

Scientists: the modern-day explorers

Few things pique my curiosity more than the limit of human interaction with the universe. It stirs the same part of my soul as learning of the voyages of Marco Polo, Amerigo Vespucci, Magellan, Columbus, Lewis and Clark... Western explorers of uncharted reaches of the earth. 

Today, there are few places on the surface of earth which are uncharted, but above us and below us, and the realms around us which cannot be seen by unaided eyes remain a mystery. 

The explorers of bygone centuries planned their voyages, trained for years, assembled highly skilled teams of brave souls willing to leave the world they knew behind for good, not knowing what they were going to encounter. They brought along the best technology of the era to explore these mysterious lands. The first explorers recorded everything to the best of their ability, but inevitably, there were some mistakes and misinterpretations along the way. Later explorers corrected and refined these explorations until we had an accurate understanding of the "New World". This is the same as the scientific endeavors of today. We, the scientists, are the modern-day explorers. We, the engineers, are on the human frontier. We will go bravely wherever the data takes us, and we will boldly proclaim, to the best of our ability, an accurate and precise interpretation of the data, expecting and eagerly anticipating corrections to reports and deviations from our apparent course.

This blog is a space where I will periodically share inspirational advancements in humanity, in our understanding of the universe. Check back for new and interesting discoveries! 

Photo credit: http://eskify.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/explorers-of-the-new-world_00003-1080x675.jpg