Be Like Me
Posted by Arjendu on March 13, 2012
A long time ago, in a very different-seeming life, my first teaching job was at Rice University. I worked on their large introductory classes, and got to think about teaching as my first (and only required) priority. It was fun teaching there, and a critical part in my landing my job at Carleton. I also got to do some great research — a couple of solo papers (free of an adviser for the first time) and some collaborations with Rice AMO faculty — specifically Randy Hulet and Barry Dunning — that were transformative in helping me understand how to work with experimentalist collaborators, and helped me get 3 other papers as well. So yeah, that was a good few years.
My position grew into what has since become the Wiess Instructorship in Physics and Astronomy. Those of us who served in that position include Gary Morris (now a dean at Valparaiso), Nathan Harshman (Chair of Physics at American University), me (for my sins, a dean at Carleton) and Todd Tinsley (Assistant Prof at Hendrix College).
In short, it’s a good place from where to move on to a teaching career. They treated me well, and here’s me returning the favor by plugging their job:
http://careers.physicstoday.org/jobs/4681305/wiess-instructorship-in-physics-and-astronomy.
