California State University-Fullerton

California State University-Fullerton is a university with graduate programs, primarily masters programs.

Ever since high school, I knew I wanted to teach. But, it was not until my junior year at Hamilton College that I knew I wanted to teach at the college level. As a junior (1992), Dr. Eugene Domack offered me the opportunity to spend 35 days along the Antarctic Peninsula aboard the RV Polar Duke. Thirty-five days later, I was hooked on paleoclimatology! For my undergraduate thesis, I studied Holocene climate using sediments and seismic reflection data from the Palmer Deep. After Hamilton, I headed to the University of Colorado, Boulder (1993) to work with Dr. John Andrews. There, I studied Heinrich Event sedimentology, source, and chronology using sediment cores from the northwest Labrador Sea. After two years as a MS student, I decided to take a hiatus to teach high school earth science. I moved to Buffalo, NY where I taught for two-years at Canisius High School (1995-1997). Ready to move on, I headed to Syracuse University (1997) to work with Dr. Hank Mullins on NE USA paleoclimatology. After this, I moved to sunny Los Angeles (2001) where I was a post-doc at the University of Southern California with Drs. Steve Lund, Lowell Stott, and Chris Poulsen. A year later (2002), I obtained a tenure track position at California State University, Fullerton.

My job is divided into three parts: teaching, research, and committee work. Typically, I teach two classes per semester, run a research lab with BA, BS, and MS students, and participate on various department, school, and university committees. The trick to this three-pronged animal is organization and time efficiency. My department (Geological Sciences) requires that all BS students complete a research proposal and thesis to graduate. This adds a complexity to my research because it requires that I develop small research projects that can be completed in less than 10 months of work. A typical teaching days is dedicated to teaching, grading, and office hours. Non-teaching days are dedicated to research exclusively. Committee work is lowest on my to-do list and is therefore often relegated to a few evenings of work per month.

Although teaching is how I make my salary (and I love teaching), my real passion is research and teaching through research. Because the stresses of research success are low at Cal-State Fullerton, I have the opportunity to take risks and pursue projects that may or may not produce any significant results. This stress-free research environment is particularly suitable to finding small projects for BS theses. Like myself in 1992, I find that research experiences (lab or field) are a fantastic medium to connecting with students and sharing my passion for science.

The most challenging aspect of my work is balancing my three obligations – teaching, research, and committee work. As everyone will have different primary interests, one discovers that their balance is often skewed towards that which interests – or motivates – them the most. For me, my balance is skewed towards research. My challenge, therefore, is maintaining a rigorous research agenda that does not impact negatively the quality of my teaching or my collegial obligation to committee work.

To tackle this challenge, I divide my time into teaching days and research days. On research days, I do not schedule office hours, grade papers, or do anything related to teaching. Obviously, I teach through my research as well; however, teaching through research is still linked directly to my research. Another way I address this challenge is to hire an undergraduate student as a lab assistant. Hiring a lab assistant depends on funding, of course. Once funding is secured, however, a lab assistant can advance your research agenda without requiring you to spend long hours in the lab. Every hour I spend in the lab is one less hour I can spend writing. Moreover, the opportunity for an undergraduate to "run" a lab is a life-changing experience that opens many doors to a student's future.

Having real teaching experience made a big difference. As they say, if you can teach high school, you teach anything! I was also fortunate to publish some papers from my BA, MS, and PhD prior to applying for jobs. In today's competitive market, it is expected that even fresh-out-of-school PhDs have published. A post-doc is also a pretty good thing to have. It represents experience and time to develop a research agenda independent of your thesis advisor. Lastly, a good attitude and ability to connect with people is critical in the job market.

My wife is a tenure track professor, and we have two little girls (3 and 6). Balance, scheduling, and patience is the recipe we live by. I often ask myself what is more important in the long run – one more paper or grant a year at the cost of weekends, or some weekend R &R with the family. I can always write a paper later, but my kids will not wait to grow up and that is something I do not want to miss.

How to set up a lab. How to run and fund a research program. How to effectively and efficiently involve students in your lab.