Career Profile: Paul Markowski
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HideDepartment of Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania State University is a public research university.Click on a topic to read Paul's answer to an individual question, or scroll down to read the entire profile: Educational background and career path * Early teaching challenges * Research transition * Institutional fit * Balancing responsibilities * Advice for new faculty
Briefly describe your educational background and career path.
I received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in meteorology. I study tornadoes, a phenomenon in which I've keenly been interested since a tornado outbreak I experienced during childhood.
What were some of the challenges you faced in your early years of full-time teaching? Could you briefly describe how you overcame one of those challenges?
The biggest surprise was getting used to the fact that the average student cared far less about the science than I did. Even the average grad student--even my own grad students--were far more needy than I ever was. Regarding the undergrad teaching, I've always (fortunately) been able to identify at least one or two good students in a class and these are the ones who motivate me. I shoot for the top and hope to drag as many of the "bottom dwellers" along with me as possible. I'm now wondering if this may not be the best strategy, however. More later.
How did you make the transition from your Ph.D. research to your current research program?
What helped me most is that another professor was hired in my department at the same time I was, and in roughly the same area. We began collaborating immediately, and this collaboration has been extremely fruitful and has ignited research in new areas, although not completely unrelated from the area of my Ph.D. research. I think it's crucial to have an "intellectual playmate" in one's department.
An essential component of achieving tenure is finding or making an alignment of your teaching/research goals with the goals of your institution.... How do your goals fit with those of your institution? Did you adjust your goals to achieve that fit? If so, how?
To be honest, getting tenure has never influenced my day-to-day decisions or activities. I'm much more interested in being respected in my field by my peers--they are the ones who know me best--than by my institution's administrators. My approach has always been to keep doing what I was doing before I was hired. That ought to be good enough for tenure. If it's not, then I don't want to be here anyway. Doing what you did before being hired ought to be sufficient for tenure. After all, why would a department hire someone whom it felt was performing below expectations with only the hope that the person would somehow "step it up" after being hired so that s/he could be granted tenure?
Many of the new faculty members in these workshops are interested in maintaining a modicum of balance while getting their careers off to a strong start. Please share a strategy or strategies that have helped you to balance teaching, research, and your other work responsibilities, OR balance work responsibilities with finding time for your personal life.
That's a tough one. I'm not sure I have found a great balance yet. I still work long hours and occasional weekends. But there is unsurpassed flexbility as well. This is the tradeoff. If there's a day I want to stay home in the morning a little later with my young son, I can do that. If his school is closed, I can stay home with him. Ditto if he's sick. Most working parents do not have this sort of flexibility. I'm grateful of it and am willing to work crazy hours at other times in exchange for it.
What advice do you have for faculty beginning academic careers in geoscience? What do you know now that you wish you had known as you started your career in academia?
I've never gotten used to always having unfinished work. I wish someone would have told me this would be the case! I also wish I had read Stuart Rojstaczer's "Gone for Good: Tales of University Life after the Golden Age". It is a must-read!
