How do I best position myself for an academic career? Where should I apply? How do I differentiate myself from my mentors? If I am lucky enough to get multiple offers how do I choose? How to get funding? Where to get funding? How do you set up a lab? How do I mentor students effectively? Is a work/life balance possible as an assistant professor? What about other aspects of the job, like being a journal editor or administrator? These are just a few of the questions I have been asked as I have mentored graduate students, postdocs and young faculty over the years. Every road to an academic career is unique so the answers to most of these questions depends on the individual and their circumstances. None-the-less there will certainly be good (and maybe some bad) general advice that will be given to you as you walk along your path. This presentation will outline the path that took me from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow to the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, via Cambridge, Los Angeles and Cleveland. How was this path revealed to me? Why did I choose that path? Did I choose the right path? What advice did I get as I went down the path? All great questions and some I even know the answer to!

Musings on an academic career - transitioning from small molecule organic chemistry to molecular engineering

256th National Meeting (2018)

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