ASTR 8500 (O'Connell) Spring 2018

Professional Development For
Astronomy Graduate Students

ASSIGNMENTS

There will be four assignments this semester. Only one will involve a written submission, but three will involve a presentation to the class using PowerPoint or the equivalent.

You should think of your participation in this course not just as a requirement to be discharged but as an opportunity to build a set of reference materials on the profession that will be useful to you, other UVa graduate students, and to the larger astronomical community as well.

A. The "Dark Energy Debate"

To provide some context for the rest of the semester, students will be asked to read two brief papers from Reports on Progress in Physics that stimulated interesting controversy ten years ago. The initial provocation was Simon White's article titled "Fundamental Physics: Why Dark Energy is Bad for Astronomy." A response from Rocky Kolb titled "A Thousand Invisible Cords Binding Astronomy and High-Energy Physics" appeared several months later.

The issues --- including the intersection between the astronomy and physics communities, funding constraints, specialized vs generalist facilities, careers in the age of group science, and publication metrics --- are just as timely now as they were then.

Students should read and compare the two articles and be ready to discuss them at the second and third class meetings.

B. Faculty Top-10 Advice

Working in teams of 2 or 3, students will interview as many faculty and senior researchers at UVa and NRAO as possible over a ~2 week period to obtain their best advice for graduate students in the form of the "top 10 things that grad students should know" in confronting their careers. Interviewees aren't obligated to offer you 10 suggestions, but they have been alerted to your visits, and we hope they will be happy to participate and will have thought about the topic ahead of time.

The teams will divide up the interviewees as desired. Each team will consolidate the advice they receive into a top-10 list, which they will present to the class in a brief (~8 minute) talk. The class will consider and discuss all the presentations and arrive at a final "top-10" consensus list.

One (volunteer) student will act as coordinator to help groups pick interviewees without duplications, provide contact information, etc.

C. Proposal to the Virginia Space Grant Consortium

General considerations and advice concerning writing good proposals will be covered in a class presentation. As a realistic exercise, each student will develop and write up a proposal to support their ongoing ASTR 9995 research project in the form expected by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium Graduate Research Fellowship program. That will include writing a resume (or "CV"). Writeups will be submitted for grading. Each student will also present a brief (8-10 minute) summary of their proposal to the class.

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D. Presentation on Optional Topic

Each student will select an optional topic related to the course for a 10-12 minute presentation during the last third of the semester. I will provide a list of possible topics, but students can suggest others.

After presentations made under items (C) and (D), the audience will provide constructive feedback using written evaluation forms. Copies (PDF files) of presentations, including lists of resources, will be posted on the course website.

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Last modified March 2018 by rwo