Academic Careers in Transportation

1
Academic Careers in Transportation

• Joseph L. Schofer
• Northwestern University
• Evanston, IL

2
The University

• University mission produce, disseminate
  knowledge through
• Research
• Teaching
• Service
• Research is paramount
• Its learning, Exploring, Problem solving
• Examples
• Models to predict trip making
• Durable bridge materials
• Optimal intersection control
• Strategies for rapid incident clearance
• In universities
• All teachers are researchers
• Most researchers are teachers

3
Career Options

• Student (best job)
• Self investing
• BS, MS, PhD
• But its temporary!
• Professor (next best)
• Independence
• Multi-tasking
• Teaching, research, management
• Full-time researcher (close 3rd)
• Some institutions have these

4
What Do Students Do?

• Classes
• Hands-on learning research
• Graduate school is different
• MS professional work
• PhD research, teaching
• Arms and legs for research
• High expectations
• Fun stuff, too

Students build knowledge skills for next
career phase
5
Professors Work

• Teaching
• Classroom, mentoring, coaching
• Research
• Discover new ideas
• Solve important problems
• Grantsmanship
• Find money to do the job
• Disseminate the results
• Write, publish
• Travel, speak
• Manage research teams
• Manage universities
• Time flexibility
• Its vacation time now I can work!

6
Research/Academic Career Requires...

• Interest in the field commitment
• Technology-society interface
• Solving real problems
• Problem solving skills
• Quantitative and qualitative analytics
• Communications skills
• Interest in human development
• Helping other people grow

1, 2 3 important for the field 4 is essential
for academic career
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Path to Becoming a Professor

• Ph.D.
• B.S. 4-6 years
• Independent research
• Practice, skill building
• What does it take?
• Commitment (interest!)
• Work hard, dig deeply
• Domain knowledge
• Analytic skills (tools)
• Communication skills
• Writing, speaking
• Independence of thought

8
Rewards?

• Learning new stuff
• Discovery
• Teaching mentoring
• Coaching
• Variety flexibility

9
Payoff

• New ideas
• Solutions
• Useful ideas
• Tools
• Technologies
• Materials
• Trained professionals
• The legacy

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Questions?