Angela Dudley

I like being different. In fact, one of the reasons I decided to pursue a career in physics is that there are very few scientists in South Africa, and even fewer female scientists. My thinking was that fewer people in the game meant less competition and more opportunities. Each year, there are only about 23 Ph.D. graduates produced per million South African citizens (and this encompasses all academic disciplines, not just the sciences.) Here, I provide a few tips for getting your Ph.D. in a country where high-level degrees are not the norm.  

Find a dynamic mentor.
At the end of my undergraduate studies, I chose the topic of my research project based not only on my interests, but also on the potential supervisors with whom it would put me in contact. Having a helpful ally is important for any graduate student, but even more so for those in a country that has fewer resources available for Ph.D. students. I had a checklist for the mentor I wanted. He or she needed to be:

• Available and approachable
• Able to provide me with the opportunity to attend and present at conferences (even if they were only local ones)
• Good at sourcing funding, and
• Well-connected in the South African science community.

While on vacation from university, I got a short-term position at the CSIR’s National Laser Centre that enabled me to test the waters for future opportunities. This was the ideal interview process: I got to see if I enjoyed the environment and the research, and my future Ph.D. supervisor was able to assess if I was a good fit for the group.

During this time, I saw that my mentor was ambitious and dynamic. He had an impeccable track record at securing funding and many local and international contacts. I could tell that, if I wanted to distinguish myself in my field, he could teach me how to do exactly that.

Be proactive. 
Where networks don’t exist, you must create them. Our student body formed local OSA and SPIE student chapters, which opened up many opportunities for me and other students, including travel grants, funds to bring in world-renowned lecturers, the possibility of hosting our own student conference (IONS) and discounts on publications. The OSA Recent Graduates program will also provide you with volunteer opportunities, so that you can gain experience and showcase your potential to science and business leaders from around the world.

Return the favor.
Admittedly, I pursued this field in part because I knew I would be a minority. But I hope this will not always be the case. I would like to encourage young people in South Africa and other developing nations to take advantage of the opportunities in the sciences and use their influence to help others along the same path. I intend to give back to the community by becoming as effective a teacher as my mentors have been for me.

Angela Dudley (ADudley@csir.co.za) conducted her Ph.D. research at the CSIR National Laser Centre based in Pretoria, South Africa. She received her Ph.D. in June 2012 from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and subsequently commenced her current position of Postdoctoral Fellow within the Mathematical Optics group at the CSIR National Laser Centre.

Danuta Bukowska

My path to a career in optics has been an adventure. Although I have only worked in the field for four years, I have learned a lot in that time and come to love this branch of physics. Before I started my Ph.D. studies, my background in optics was fairly limited. Fortunately, my advisor didn’t view that as a problem. He was looking for students who were passionate, hard-working, curious and ready to take on challenges. As surprising as it may seem, you don’t have to be a specialist in the field when you begin your Ph.D.

In a team environment, people can do the work that best suits their tastes and strengths. That is one of the reasons why joining the Optical Biomedical Imaging Group at Nicolaus Copernicus University was such a wonderful choice for me. My colleagues are not only talented and helpful; they have also become good friends. There is always someone available to discuss difficulties in the lab or problems with theoretical work.

No one is expected to do everything. For example, I’ve never had much patience for writing long mathematical formulas or doing computer simulations, so someone else takes on that role in the lab. With this division of labor, work gets done faster and more effectively. The team shares work, knowledge, problems and our different perceptions of optics.

But getting your Ph.D in optics is about more than just working in a lab. In the past four years, I have attended eight conferences, mostly in the United States. I have written grant applications and publications and collaborated with scientists from institutions in Poland and abroad. I am also involved with the Nicolaus Copernicus University SPIE Student Chapter, which inspired me to establish an OSA Student Chapter two years ago. 

I have gotten a lot of personal satisfaction from my student chapter activities. Working with children as part of our outreach activities has been a special joy; I enjoy their curiosity and sense of wonder. The chapter has also given me the opportunity to meet fantastic people from all around the world. Because we live in an international optics community, networking can lead you to find collaborators from many other places. For example, I helped to organize the international OPTO Meeting for Young Researchers in Torun in cooperation with people from Romania, Russia and Ukraine.

After four years, I have a solid knowledge of optics. I’m experienced in working in the lab, presenting my research in front of a global audience, educating children in science, organizing international optics meetings, and writing grant applications. My experiences in the field have prepared me to face new challenges and live up to the demands and expectations of the world after graduate school. I look forward to my next big adventure!

Danuta Bukowska (danbu@fizyka.umk.pl) is a Ph.D. student at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. She belongs to Optical Biomedical Imaging Group guided by Maciej Wojtkowski. Her research interests include optical coherence tomography and laser spectroscopy applied to biomedical imaging. 

Diana Antonosyan

Albert Einstein once said that, “Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.” This perfectly describes the predicament of working in science in a developing country. As I began my career in Armenia, I was excited and passionate about physics. But when I started my own research, I was forced to confront the catastrophic lack of money for scientific research typical in emerging nations.

A serious obstacle
Early-career scientists sometimes don’t prioritize their salary and instead do research for the love of it. However, even if one doesn’t expect or need to make much money, there are still obstacles to overcome. These include limited access to scientific journals, a lack of modern technologies in laboratories, and the inability to present one’s results at major conferences because of insufficient funds. All of these barriers exclude young and talented researchers from the international scientific community and impede their progress. As a result, these scientists may become uncompetitive or leave the field.

Finding support and solutions
So what is one to do? There are a number of ways to overcome these problems. My solution was to leave my country and continue my work in one of the leading universities in the world, where there was better funding. But I did many other things before I made this decision. I realized that attendance at conferences was a very important prerequisite to becoming a competitive scientist, so I started to look for conference funding.

I recommend that all aspiring researchers join their local OSA and SPIE student chapters. This is an excellent first step that links you with the international scientific community. There are many benefits from membership, from notifications about conferences, to discounts and even travel grants for attendance. Another possibility is obtaining international funds that support early career students, particularly from developing countries. You can also find support at home. There are non-profit groups with funds available and professional organizations at most universities that support talented young students.

The importance of making contacts
My main advice is to talk to people. At conferences you should make an effort to connect with professors and other scholars. This can sometimes seem difficult. You may feel shy because of language barriers, afraid to ask a silly question, or nervous about being rejected by famous or experienced scientists. However, you need to forget these fears in order to be successful. Be prepared, goal-oriented, active and confident. As a result, you may get good advice or even an invitation from a leading group in your field to continue your research, as happened to me.

All of this demands effort: outstanding results in research, the ability to write well to present projects, and excellent communication skills to interact with potential sponsors. If you are seeking a career in science, you have to work hard to develop these personal traits.

The hard truth is that success won’t wait for you and won’t be given to you.  You will only find it by having big dreams and working hard and persistently to make them come true, regardless of where you start your career.

Diana Antonosyan (dantonosyan@gmail.com) received her Master’s degree from Yerevan state University in 2008. She was awarded “The Best Female Student Prix of 2010” from the Republic of Armenia President in the IT sphere. She is currently doing her Ph.D. research in nonlinear optics and quantum information technologies at NLPC, RSPE, the Australian National University.

by Ben Franta

An OSA student chapter can provide a great avenue for developing your leadership skills and cultivating professional connections, both within and outside your university. 

If you don’t have a chapter at your college or university, this post explains how you can establish one. The idea of forming a student organization from scratch can be daunting, but don’t worry. With the right approach, it can be a great experience and a lot of fun. While founding our own student chapter at Harvard, we learned how important it is to have a clear plan of action from the outset:

Gather a group of cofounders. Even if you feel you can do everything yourself, don’t! Gather a small group of students who are dedicated to the success of the project. Not only do many hands make light work, but building a leadership team early will make your chapter more resilient down the road.

Find one or more faculty advisors. Although your organization will be run by and for students, it pays dividends to find at least one faculty member who is willing to be associated with it in an official way. A faculty endorsement sends a message that your chapter represents a serious effort that is worthy of support. Furthermore, your faculty advisor can make use of official channels of communication within your university on behalf of your group.

Plan a series of events and create a budget. You need a schedule of activities to obtain funding, but it can be difficult to plan events without knowing how much funding you’ll have. Don’t get stuck here! Sit down with your group of cofounders and identify potential funding sources. These might include your school or university, your department, student activities funds or other professional societies. Estimate the amount you can reasonably request from each source, and use that budget to plan a series of events (with dates) for the coming term. Be ambitious but realistic. Remember that the best events for a young chapter are those that have wide appeal and build student membership. 

Register your chapter and open a funds account. Now it’s time to make your chapter official.  Register your group with OSA as well as with your school or department. Ask someone within your institution to help you create an account for your chapter funds, whether it’s through the university itself or an external bank. They should also help you to conform to any rules or regulations pertaining to student organizations at your university.

Make funding proposals. Propose your coming schedule of events and budget to each potential source of funding.  Clearly lay out how much you’re requesting, when the funds will be used, and what they will be used for. Work with each source to address its questions and accommodate its requests. Remember: building long-term working relationships with funding sources is more important than simply obtaining as much funding as possible right away.

Finalize your events schedule and ramp up advertising. Once you know your level of funding, modify your plan of activities and finalize your schedule. At this point, it’s essential to reach out to students and faculty to raise awareness of your chapter and its coming activities. Fire on all cylinders: email, websites, posters, word of mouth, and anything else you can think of. Your goal is to gain momentum.

Ensure sustainability. Congratulations—you’ve got your OSA student chapter up and running! But how do you ensure it lasts long after you’ve gone? If you build a deep and flexible leadership team, generate enthusiasm and involvement from student members, and work to grow your chapter into a vibrant community of friends and collaborators, your chapter will take on a life of its own.

Hopefully this article helps to demystify the process of starting your own OSA student chapter. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Good luck and have fun!

Ben Franta (bafranta@fas.harvard.edu) is a graduate student studying applied physics at Harvard University and the president of Harvard’s OSA student chapter.

by Jemellie Houston

I was a graduate student at the University of Maryland working on a Ph.D. in chemical physics, and I had a plan: I would finish my Ph.D. and then do a postdoc before starting a career in research. At the time, I was working on the high-speed generation of entangled photons with the quantum cryptography laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. I adhered to my path religiously and went the extra mile through my involvement in extracurricular activities. For example, I was an OSA student chapter president and IONS North America organizer. And then … life got in the way.

I went through several life-altering circumstances, including losing my mother and getting engaged and married. I became aware that my career was now part of a bigger picture that included my life with my husband, who was also pursuing a Ph.D. in addition to doing his full-time job. I also found myself surrounded by postdocs and recent Ph.D. graduates who were unable to find permanent positions. Between the economy and the scarcity of full-time positions, I decided it would be more practical for me to obtain my master’s degree and gain some real-world experience rather than complete my Ph.D.

It was a very difficult decision for me. I struggled because I felt like I was digressing from THE path, like a black sheep that had lost its way. Until then, I had only known of one way in which a scientific career could progress.

A path beyond academia

Immediately after finishing my M.S., I found employment at Mettler-Toledo, Autochem Inc.—a division of Mettler-Toledo that makes precision instrumentation for spectroscopy and other optical measurement equipment. I applied for a software test engineer position.

During the interview process for the engineering position, my potential employers deliberated about whether or not I would be a better fit for a position on their research and development team, since I had a solid research background. In the end, I got the engineering position, and in hindsight I am fortunate to have been given the opportunity to strengthen my skills in electrical and computer engineering.

I have now been with the company for more than three months. In anticipation of a product line launch in a couple of years, I am again being encouraged to join a research and development team. I am thinking about this and figuring out my next move. I like what I do now, but I am open to other opportunities as well.

One of the perks of my job is that my company will pay for my classes if I pursue another scholastic degree. I plan to take advantage of this opportunity as well in the next academic year.

Learning to adapt

The moral of my story is that opportunities arise unexpectedly in places that may be unfamiliar to us. We shouldn’t have a rigid mindset about how to get where we want; we also need to open our minds to other perfectly good opportunities. This not only opens doors for your career but also gives you a chance to learn more about yourself.  Although I am not a gambler by nature, I am glad I took a risk. If I hadn’t, I would not likely be as happy as I am right now. I like where I am and where I am headed.

Jemellie Houston (Jemellie.Houston@mt.com) is a software test engineer at Mettler-Toledo AutoChem Inc. in Columbia, Md., U.S.A.

By Christina Folz

At last week’s Frontiers in Optics meeting, I attended the first meeting of OSA’s Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE), a new group intended to connect optics students and young professionals with mentors who are scientist-entrepreneurs.

This post shares advice that was given at the event on how to jump into the startup world. The speakers included Greg Quarles, president and chief operating officer of B.E. Meyers; Michelle Holoubek, director in the electronics group at the intellectual property law firm Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox; and Tom Baer, executive director of the Stanford Photonics Research Center at Stanford University, cofounder of Arcturus Bioscience Inc. and 2009 OSA President.

Like a startup, ONE is still in development. Its organizers, including Bright Futures bloggers Brooke Hester and Danny Rogers along with Armand Niederberger of Stanford, are seeking volunteers to grow the program. Please contact Brooke, Danny or Armand if you are interested in joining this new community.

Greg Quarles: How to Act Like an Entrepreneur

Have clarity. Know why you do what you do. Successful entrepreneurs have a purpose, cause or belief that exists above and beyond the products or services they sell.

Have discipline. You must understand not only what product or service you plan to offer but how you intend to do it. Business owners cannot simply demand that their team “make it so,” in the fashion of Captain Jean Luc Picard on Star Trek. They must hold themselves and their teams accountable to a defined set of guiding principles or values.

Be consistent. Everything you do and say must prove what you believe. In this sense, YOU are the product—a critical part of your own brand. The product should reflect your core values, and you should adopt a winning attitude in all areas of developing your business. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, how can others?

Michelle Holoubeck: Why Intellectual Property Matters
Intellectual property (IP) includes trade secrets, patents, copyrights and trademarks. Every fledgling entrepreneur should learn the fundamentals of IP to protect their growing business because it enables you to:

Guard your ideas and establish a competitive edge. IP is the only way that small companies can contend with larger ones on an otherwise skewed playing field. For example, when Microsoft was shown to have used XML technology that was patented by the small company i4i in one of its product releases, the software giant was ordered to pay i4i to the tune of several hundred million dollars.

Promote investments. Because funders want to protect their investments, they are unlikely to finance startups that have not developed IP safeguards.

Encourage disclosure of new ideas. Sharing exactly how a company’s products or processes work in a patent helps to drive further innovation in the marketplace, and it enables businesses and consumers to easily distinguish among different products and services.

Also keep in mind:
• Publically disclosing your invention—by describing it at a conference, for example—before filing a patent application may limit your ability to protect your invention.

• If you disclose some of your invention, you must disclose it all. You can’t keep the best components a secret.

• You don’t have to actually make an invention to patent it; you just have to describe how you would make it.

• Not everyone who works on a product is an inventor. Incorrectly attributing inventorship to someone who did not play a real role can damage your patent.

Tom Baer: Know your Market First
Contrary to popular belief, a product idea is not required to start a successful company. Here’s the process that worked for Tom:

Identify a market. A couple years ago, Tom worked with a team to develop the Stanford spinoff Auxogyn—without a specific product idea in mind. Instead, the team started by targeting the area of assisted reproduction, a market that is growing by about 20 percent per year, with about 1 in 6 couples facing infertility.

Look for people who can build your company. For Auxogyn, this included a diverse group of medical doctors, developmental biologists, engineers, imaging experts and others. Look for those with the skills you lack.

Study the market. Talk with customers and assess other businesses in your niche. How do they work? What will give your company a differentiable edge?

Find and develop your idea. As you do your homework, your idea will emerge. Once it does, create product models to show your customers and incorporate their feedback into the next version. For its product, Auxogyn ultimately decided on imaging platforms that monitor the developmental process of embryos in an incubator—allowing for the selection of the healthiest ones for in vitro fertilization.

Delay financing as long as possible. Once you have the right ideas and the right market, you can find investors. If you fail, it’s better to fail early—before you’ve invested significant time and funding into product development and pilot production.

Christina Folz (cfolz@osa.org) is OPN’s editor and content director.

Zuleykhan Tomova
 
Organizing the IONS conference in Moscow had a tremendous impact on my global outlook—and my career. It contributed to my professional development by fostering skills in networking, project management, community building, fundraising and leadership. 
 
The International OSA Network of Students (IONS) is a close-knit community of students who are united in our passion for traveling, visiting different research centers, meeting new friends and experiencing new cultures. Started six years ago, the IONS project has grown into a global network that connects young optics researchers around the world.
 
By the time I attended my first IONS conference—IONS-5 in Barcelona, Spain, in 2009—I had heard a lot about this project. I expected to meet new people, listen to interesting talks, have fun, and return to Moscow (where I was studying at that time) full of new ideas.
 
But I didn’t fully realize that I would take part in such a dynamic exchange of information and be surrounded by very enthusiastic people from many different cultural backgrounds. Such deep impressions defined my long-term involvement with IONS and led me to organize a conference in Moscow.

By Marcius Extavour

After a busy day at the office last Monday, I settled in for a long night of poll-watching and punditry. As I scanned the Web for ballot results, comments and analysis about the U.S. mid-term election, I realized that, more than ever, I have a real professional stake in the results. Regardless of the exact political outcome, the nature of my job in energy policy with the United States Senate will certainly be affected.

I am only a few months into my term as an OSA/SPIE Guenther Congressional Science and Technology Fellow on Capitol Hill, but I have already learned a great deal about the nexus of science, technology, policy and politics. I am spending my fellowship year in the majority staff office of the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources. This committee’s main function is to write, review and research legislation within the broad scope of energy policy, minerals and natural resources, public lands and parks.

My day-to-day work includes writing memos; summarizing technical and policy issues for the Chairman and other committee members; planning and organizing committee hearings related to emergent issues or pending legislation; and meeting with subject matter experts from academia, industry, government, and other stakeholder groups to ask questions and hear public concerns.

I have learned a few valuable lessons the hard way, even on the first few weeks on the job. Mostly, it’s been about shifting from the priorities of a laboratory scientist to the priorities of an active policy staffer. Here are a few lessons I’ve taken away from my experience so far. 

Get to the point. Concision is a virtue; verbosity a vice. Many of my assignments consist of summarizing complex technical material or policy history for a Senator or their staff--in one page or in a few bullet points! There is a tremendous appetite for accuracy and detail, but little tolerance for expansive treatises, no matter how eloquent.

Deadlines matter. In my academic career, a deadline could be sacrificed in the name of accuracy, improved analysis or added nuance; the focus was on producing the best product, even if it was delivered a bit late. Around Capitol Hill, timing is everything, and late material quickly becomes irrelevant. Accuracy and speed are both prized and expected.

Networking is key. A network is a group of trusted colleagues who can be counted on to give good advice in a pinch. As a new Fellow, this has meant introducing myself and my skills broadly to colleagues, and then finding out how we can work together. Career-wise, it has meant approaching people whom I admire and respect, and asking them how they got to where they are. I’ve found that most people who are good at what they do and who enjoy their work love talking about it!

With the national campaigns over and done with, policy discussions will likely intensify as electoral politics and strategy retreat. I hope that developing new skills will serve me well as I work with colleagues to advance the conversation on issues related to science, technology and especially energy policy.

Marcius Extavour, most recently a quantitative risk analyst at Ontario Power Generation, is currently serving on Capitol Hill as the OSA/SPIE Arthur H. Guenther Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow.

By Kelly Goss

Finding the right job can be a daunting task. As I recently began searching the wealth of online resources available, it became apparent to me that there are a set of skills needed for finding a job: identifying job opportunities, writing a resume, striking up a conversation at networking events, and negotiating a salary, to name just a few.

Fortunately, as students and professionals in optics and photonics, we already have a number of relevant skills that we can use to find a job. In this post, I list a few examples:

Apply your critical thinking skills to your job search. Critical thinking is a key skill—and one that is often listed as necessary in scientific job postings. It includes observation, interpretation, analysis and evaluation. We can use our skills of interpretation when responding to a job post and determining the critical elements that the employer is looking for. We can also observe and analyze trends in the job market to know which skills are in high demand and where the appropriate jobs are. And finally, evaluating our options helps us to know where we feel our best fit is.

Do your homework by gathering resources. Graduate students and young science professionals manage resources every day. Whether it is information, equipment, money, people or time, we all have our own ways of finding and directing these precious commodities. There is a seemingly limitless amount of job-related resources out there, including books, blogs (like this one), Twitter accounts, career advisors, professional head hunters, research articles in human resources, friends with advice, colleagues with connections, and the list goes on.

Use them! Apply your critical thinking skills to determine which resources will best serve you—but the key thing is to use them! Many people, billions actually, have solved this problem before and found jobs. Learn from what others have done; there is no need to re-invent the wheel. I started working on my job search a few months ago when OPN's Career Focus column began, and I am amazed at the resources available and what I have learned in such a short time.

Use your technical writing skills to build the perfect resume. Being in a technical field, we all have skills and experience in writing about optics and photonics. We are able to write technical reports about scientific research conducted by Noble laureates; we can describe how a laser functions and explain nanophotonics and other phenomena that are invisible to the human eye. These skills can be directly translated into communicating our skills, talents, and strengths, which are sometimes complex and invisible.

Approach writing your resume or C.V. like you would a journal article or technical report: Be clear on your main contribution, know your audience and provide proof for your claims.

These are just some of the many skills that we already have to draw on from our work in optics and photonics. As a community, we have applied these skills with great effort. As a result, our field is not only growing—but making huge contributions to technology and society. By applying these skills with the same earnestness to our job search, we are bound to be successful!

Kelly Goss (kcgoss@ucalgary.ca) is a Ph.D. student in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

By Patricia Daukantas

In grad school, there's always plenty of work to be had through teaching or research assistant positions within your academic department. But if you want to broaden your exposure to different areas of research, or try on a different career path for size, an internship can be a great opportunity. You can spend part of your graduate career at another institution, get a public policy fellowship on Capitol Hill, or work in a nearby industrial lab.

But be aware that grad-school internships are not the same as the ones from undergraduate days. In many programs, you aren't expected to do an internship, so you will need to find such opportunities on your own—and then make the case to your professors that the off-site job is worth the time away from the laboratory.

The Career Focus column in the December issue of Optics & Photonics News will present case studies of three OSA young professionals who found success in internships before and during their graduate studies. Here are some advice and ideas gleaned from them:

Look at national funding agencies. In the United States, the National Physical Science Consortium offers graduate fellowships to U.S. citizens at several government laboratories. The U.S. National Science Foundation also provides a list of graduate-level opportunities, although not all of them are relevant to optics and photonics. Canadians can check out the Technology Exploitation and Networking (TEN) program offered by the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations.

If you're applying to graduate school, consider programs that already offer internships. For example, the University of New Mexico offers an internship option as one possible track toward an M.S. in optics. However, the student must do the internship at a nearby employer, so this option is most appealing to students already working at a local government laboratory, says Luke F. Lester, who heads the UNM graduate program in optical science and engineering.

Schools with a heavy focus on technology transfer—such as the University of Central Florida's CREOL—often encourage graduate students and faculty to partner with local photonics companies in order to help them create successful applications based on optics research. Internships are likely welcomed.

Prepare for paperwork. You (not your adviser) are responsible for visa applications, temporary work permits and other documents needed for an internship in another country. Even if you're working locally, you may have to write up a formal proposal beforehand or a written summary of the work you've done and how it ties in with your graduate research.

Keep an open mind. You may think you were hired as an intern for your expertise in nonlinear optics and then find yourself working in silicon photonics or on a terahertz-imaging system. You may need to learn how to use totally different lab equipment and/or software. It may be scary at first, but take it all in stride. Ultimately the internship will broaden your skills and make you more confident about your ability to handle new challenges.

That said, if an internship is so unstructured that you are not learning anything new or you are spending the vast majority of your time on administrative tasks, speak up. A good internship should benefit both you and your employer.

Ask questions. Use your inquiring mind to find out what other people outside your immediate workgroup are doing. You may discover a new interest that you never knew you had, or you might find interesting parallels with your own research.

Keep in touch. Your mentors and fellow interns may end up being future colleagues or mentors. At the very least, you'll already know some people the next time you go to a scientific meeting.

Bottom line: For motivated students, internships just during or after your graduate career can expose you to new research topics and valuable contacts that can pay dividends down the line.

Patricia Daukantas is the senior writer/editor for OPN. She holds a master's degree in astronomy from the University of Maryland.