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What field do you work in? (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by realChem@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org

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I've been curious how many working researchers we've got in this community, and what you all do!

If you're working in science (physical or social), engineering, etc in a research capacity, give a shout in the comments and let us know what you work on! Same goes for students and amateur scientists at any level. (And by amateur I mean those of you who are working on your own experiments but just not being paid for it / not working on a degree; I'm upset that "amateur" has a negative connotation, it shouldn't.)

I'm currently a PhD candidate, working on transmission electron microscopy and electronic materials (mainly ferroelectrics). In the past I've been involved in research / product development in a few different industries, including medical devices, aerogels, and materials for RF devices.

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[–] hamtooth@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m a staff bioinformatics scientist at an academic institution, got my PhD a few years ago and wasn’t interested in a postdoc. I get to work on a huge range of research questions and lots of different technologies. It’s great!

[–] appel@whiskers.bim.boats 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sounds cool, do you have any tips on what kinds of skills you need for a bioinformatics position? I have a background in biology, but some CS knowledge I have learnt myself, programming (unfortunately mainly python for now), linux, deploying stuff with docker, etc.

[–] hamtooth@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

This all sounds like a solid start tbh, if you learn pandas and bio python i feel like you are basically there

[–] realChem@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh that's rad! What's it like being a staff scientist at an academic institution? I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do after I graduate – I know I'm not interested in pursuing the tenure track, but I haven't decided if I should go back into industry / look into staff science positions national labs / etc.

[–] hamtooth@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It has its pros and cons — I work on lots of projects and help with parts of grant writing, but I’m not the one guiding the big research goal/question (I appreciate that the questions are interesting but don’t care that much about the question usually). Because I work on so many projects I usually only have <1 full day a week to work on each one, so progress can be slow and managing expectations can be challenging. I am paid more than a postdoc but less than I would in industry. It is expected that I will mentor undergraduate students and teach workshops. These things might make a big difference re: how much you enjoy the job. Folks in this type of position are sometimes called research software engineers: https://society-rse.org/

[–] realChem@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Huh, that's really interesting. I do like teaching, so that part sounds appealing (as does getting paid more than a postdoc!), so maybe it's a route I'll consider going forward. Thanks for your insight!