Dear Senator Boxer

Dear Senator Boxer,

I'm a physics PhD student at Stanford University. I do cancer research and my career goals are to stay in academia and continue doing research into how cancer can be better imaged and treated. I will be graduating in about a year and will soon be looking for post-doctoral research positions.

It is highly likely that my next job will be at a university or hospital. I'd like to find research that will benefit from my skill-set and has the potential to help many cancer patients. But what if that group is at a Catholic Hospital or University? As a student, I have never had to worry about whether my health insurance (provided through the university) covered what I needed. Now my future career plans may be limited or changed based on provided health care.

I have an IUD, which means that I will need to get it replaced or removed in a few years. If I had to pay out of pocket, that could easily be $1000. Without the new health care rules that would ensure my employer would cover contraception, how could I know this would be covered? When looking at a position, will I need to call HR and find out whether the health care plan covers contraception? Who can provide assurance that the plans would not change? There are many leading research universities and hospitals with a religious affiliation, so this is a real concern for me. It isn't one that the men in my lab worry about.

Thank you for supporting contraception access. I find the conversation right now horrifying - a bunch of men thinks it limits their religious freedom if I have access to contraception. I wish I could tell them about my latest cancer treatment research and explain to them that it wouldn't be happening if I had children to take care of at home. I am able to make contributions to science - perhaps that they will benefit from - because I have control over my body and whether I have children.

Thank you for being an elected politician I can count on.
-Nicole Ackerman

Faculty Benefits

As part of my fellowship, I am visiting a few local campuses this quarter. So far I have visited Santa Clara University and Foothill College. The goal of these visits is to understand different types of institutions, specifically how it differs to be faculty at different types of institutions. I am greatly enjoying these visits and am seeing that there is a lot to be excited about at all institutions.

There are some big questions we are getting answered at every visit: How is hiring done? What is the tenure process? Sometimes the discussion turns to the mundane topics of employment - wages and benefits. I don't feel particularly concerned about these topics. If I was working as a part time faculty (adjunct) I would have issues of low pay and no benefits. But as long as I am full-time (tenure track), I should be able to live, right? As I recently learned, community college faculty are fairly well paid. What would I possibly need to worry about?

"Live" Blog: Startup Panel at APS

I am at the APS California Regional meeting, at SLAC. They are having a panel on "How to Start Working for a Startup Company?", so I am going to try "live-blogging" it.

Panel Members:
Yi Cui
Stanford Professor
"Every professor on campus has a startup"
Says that as a 3rd year faculty member, he wasn't thinking about statups. But being in Silicon Valley, VC/entrepreneurs keep approaching him and he ended up starting a company.

Jessa Lee
Graduated Stanford in 2009 with BS Physics, MS EE
Works for Pacific Biosciences making DNA sequencers
Was interested in a startup instead of a PhD in order to "understand the ecosystem that science exists in"
Had interned for Pacific Biosciences before graduating, which interested her in industry rather than just going straight to PhD.

William E. White
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Company: Positive Light, TiSaph amplifiers
Started working full time on company in 1999, sold company in 2003. Then came to SLAC.

Andrei Terebilo
PhD at UCLA, dissertation on SSRL
Works for Pacific Biosciences

Question 1: How hard is it to come back to academia?
Bill: It depends on what you do. Some fields it is harder than others. It seems easier to come back to a National Lab, compared to a University.
Advice Do internships. The culture is different, so you can figure out rather quickly if it is for you.

Question 2: How do you get funding?
Yi: Establish credibility through publication of research, etc.
Bill: Take business classes while you have access to them.
Andrei: Join a small company where you can learn these things.

Jessa: It is very helpful to do non-technical internships to learn about product development on the marketing side. It needs to be a good product, not just good technology.

Yi: If you come across as very capable and credible (ie, Steve Jobs) the investors will give you money, no matter what the idea is.

Question 3: How does one protect their IP - ie, get money for it?
Yi: Students need to understand the value of the idea, then get patent protection before going out and giving talks on it.
Bill: Dealing with patents easier in the academic setting. In companies, it is so hard to fight patents, people just keep things secret.

Question 4: What are the options for a theory student?
Jessa: Do you want to keep doing theory? Companies are always looking for smart people. If you want to branch out - computing, modeling - there is a huge industry.
Yi: A theorist can found their own company.

Question 5: Does industry prefer Masters degrees to PhDs?
Jessa: Bigger companies have more specific ideas; startups tend to be more flexible and will want you to do everything.
Bill: I've hired a lot of scientists and the interview - how you are perceived - is more important than Masters vs PhD.
Andrei: The "inflexibility" reputation may come from how complete PhD's expect to understand and know a problem and the solution, compared to the standard in the business world.

Question 6: What type of skill set is academia actually looking for?
Jessa: Communication skills are critical.
Uwe (moderator): It is important to have an expertise, rather than be a jack of all trades and a master of none.
Yi: When interviewing, I drill people on their technical skills.
Bill: Don't underestimate the value of a network. I know who I want to hire before I post the job. Because these industries are small, everyone knows if you leave a company on bad terms.
Andrei: Really research the company, know what their big problems are. Show your application to that in the interview.

Question 7: How does the current economy affect the jobs? What are the pros and cons of a startup vs a government job
Bill: I don't think it is hard to find money if you have a good idea right now.
Yi: (Analogy about sinking boat) A company is a small boat where everyone is bailing, the government is a big boat that takes a long time to sink but no one helps bail.