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Future Faculty Seminar
CS 400
Spring 2006
When:   Wednesdays, 4:15pm - 5:30pm
Where:  Hewlett 201 (aka Bloch Lecture Hall, formerly TCSEQ 201) map to the building
Announcements:   send mail to majordomo@lists.stanford.edu with a body of "subscribe future-faculty-seminar"
Coordinators:   Adam Beberg and Jeff Klingner (Both are "last_name" at stanford.edu)

This is a weekly seminar for students who are considering an academic career. Its scope includes all the stuff that faculty do besides research. Ph.D. students generally get plenty of opportunity to learn about research: choosing problems, doing the work, publishing it, and presenting it, but they often get little chance to learn about tenure, grant writing, teaching, service, and other non-research aspects of the profession. This seminar is meant to fill that gap in order to (a) give students thinking about an academic career a better understanding of what professors do, and (b) help those who do choose to be professors to be good ones.

Date Topic Speaker Slides
April 5 The Faculty Hiring Process
(the hiring committee's perspective)		 Hector Garcia-Molina
Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
April 12 Public Speaking for Faculty Tom Freeland
Oral Communication Program at the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning
April 19 The Faculty Hiring Process
(the applicants' perspective)		 Yi Cui
Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering. Hired 2005 Amin Saberi
Assistant Professor, Management Science and Engineering. Hired 2005
April 26 Intellectual Property in Academia Katharine Ku,
Director, Office of Technology Licensing
May 3 CANCELLED
May 10 Ethical Issues in Academia Don Kennedy
Editor-in-chief of Science, former president of Stanford, author: Academic Duty
May 17 Preparing Now for a Future Academic Career Richard Reis
Author, Tomorrow's Professor		 slides
May 24 The Teaching Role of Faculty Eric Roberts
chair of the Stanford Faculty Senate, winner of some teaching awards
May 31 Grant Writing - What they Really Want Panel of:
Scott Delp Chairman Bioengineering Department, jedi master of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant writing
June 7 Tenure Jim Plummer
Dean, School of Engineering

The future faculty seminar is held every spring quarter.  It consists of some core topics that are covered every year plus some chosen from a rotating set.  That means the seminar content changes from year to year. (2005 schedule)

core topicsrotating topics
  • tenure (what it is, how it works)
  • the faculty hiring process (job search advice)
  • research funding (sources, process, ethics, ...)
  • intellectual property issues: copyright, licensing, starting companies
  • the service role of faculty (service to department, university, society)
  • grant writing
  • balancing family & professional life
  • ethical issues in academia
  • planning a new course
  • preparing and giving a lecture
  • time management for new faculty
  • establishing a research program (getting students, using start-up funds wisely, ...)
  • mentoring & the advisor role
  • preparing for an academic job while in grad school
  • politics in academia (department, university, funding, ...)
 

Enrolling for Credit

Engineering students may earn credit for attending the seminar by enrolling in CS400, a one unit S/NC course. In order to receive credit, a student must not miss more than two talks. Canceled talks do not count toward attendance.

Everybody is welcome to attend the seminar.  Enrollment is restricted to engineering Ph.D. students.
updated 17 April 2006