談話室
キャリアデザイン談話室（21） The Journey to Academia from an International Perspective
2024 年 64 巻 1 号 p. 44-46
詳細
2024 年 64 巻 1 号 p. 44-46
Pursuing academic career is often an uncertain, stressful and long journey that deters many young researchers from chasing their dream to become a scientist. Here I will share my career path highlighting various obstacles and considerations that I faced in hope to provide some hints to those who plan to establish their career in academia. Some of my concrete suggestions will be given in the form of questions and answers (Q&A) in the later part of this article. Moreover, suggestions given here are my personal opinions that only serve as a reference for the interested readers.
Under the supervision of Prof. Ilya Prigogine1) and Dr. Petrosky, my PhD study in statistical and mathematical physics investigated the highly theoretical and challenging topic on the arrow of time in small non-integrable systems. As Prof. Prigogine agreed to offer me a postdoc in continuing the study of time symmetry breaking in dynamical systems, I did not worry initially about postdoc applications in my final PhD year. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, the passing of Prof. Prigogine shortly after my thesis defense had shocked me, both in the loss of a great scientist and in the insecure future of my postdoc study. Immediately, I faced the tough situation of missing the postdoc recruitment season and applying for positions without a strong support from one’s supervisor.
Due to these difficulties, it took me longer than six months to adjust and improve my postdoc application strategies. These include establishing scientific networks by attending conferences with fields (e.g. biophysics) quite different from my background, applying positions in different fields of physics, etc. The buildup of fluctuation and the financial pressure from staying in a foreign country (the US) without a formal employment after PhD had forced me to consider leaving academia and applying for industry jobs. At this critical point, luckily, I received a postdoc offer from Prof. Komatsuzaki in Kobe University, Japan, who ‘rescued’ me from quitting the academia.
My first research project after joining the Komatsuzaki group in 2004 was the study of gas phase reaction dynamics from the viewpoint of dynamical systems. The project was carried out in close collaboration with Prof. Toda’s group in the Nara’s Women University. During the first two years of my postdoc in Japan, I could apply methods and knowledges from my PhD studies, e.g. Hamiltonian and nonlinear dynamics, and at the same time explore the new field of chemical reactions. From this study, I started to realize the importance of training of scientific skills that are applicable or transferable to multidisciplinary studies. It is quite often that research topics can vary significantly during one’s academic journey, from PhD to postdoc, and from postdoc to principal investigator. My suggestion to young researchers, especially to PhD students, is to pay attention to the training of scientific skills necessarily equipped by an independent scholar, such as the ability to formulate research question, problem solving, logical and critical thinking, effective communications, etc., in addition to acquiring knowledges from a specific domain.
In 2005, I was introduced to another highly interdisciplinary field of single molecular biophysics and became a JST/CREST research fellow working on a collaboration project involving the Komatsuzaki group (statistical analysis and modeling) in Kobe University, the Takahashi group (single molecular measurement) in Osaka University and the Sambomgi group (biochemistry) in Hiroshima University. From this project, I had chance to learn and develop new methods in data science, statistical modeling and molecular science, and further strengthen my knowledge in nonequilibrium physics. These new competences turned out to be crucial for my current research and education in modern machine learning/AI and their applications in biomedical research.
On the other hand, it was my first time in the JST/CREST project to work closely with researchers from very different backgrounds. This allowed me to practice effective communication with our non-theoretical collaborators, such as the ability to explain mathematical concepts intuitively and grasp relevant biological information in meetings. In my opinion, communication skills are among a set of ‘soft’ skills that are essential for the success of a scientist (in fact, also for nonacademic careers). I will discuss more about these soft skills in the Q&A.
The moving of our research group from Kobe University to the Research Institute for Electronic Science (RIES) in Hokkaido University in 2008 has led me to another stage of my academic career. I was again lucky to be promoted to the position of associate professor in the Komatsuzaki group after a relatively short postdoc (less than 4 years). In RIES (and some other research institutes in Japan), associate professor is not a fully independent and permanent position, but rather a ‘super’ postdoc whose duties extend beyond research to teaching, supervision, grant application and group administrations. In RIES, I had gained valuable experiences in running a research group, supervising students and postdocs, writing grant proposals individually and jointly for internationally collaborative projects, organizing conferences, etc. I can say that my stay in RIES as associate professor from 2008 to 2016 was truly a ‘honeymoon’ period of my academic career during which my employment was stable that provided me with more time in research and exploring new research directions, such as information theory, statistics, machine learning, molecular and cell biology, etc.
In order to become a fully independent principal investigator together with some family issues, I have moved to my current position in Stockholm University in Sweden in 2016 that ended my 12-year fascinating scientific adventure in Japan. From the US to Japan, and then from Japan to Sweden, I once again switched between eastern and western environments that gave me another cultural shock in the first half year in Sweden. Nevertheless, my valuable experience in the RIES helped me quickly adapt and establish my own research team. Furthermore, I was able to actively involve in departmental duties, such as being the director of graduate studies to monitor and provide advice to PhD students, graduate level curriculum development in machine learning and AI in response to the recent rapid developments of the fields, etc. Based on these experiences, I will share in the following some suggestions on what to pay attention to when pursuing an academic career.
Q: If my PhD study is highly theoretical, does it affect my chance in applying research positions in applied science?
A: From experiences of my own and PhD students in my department (mathematics), I do not think that it matters much. In fact, many experimental groups (and companies) purposely look for applicants with strong theoretical backgrounds that complements existing experimental expertise in the team.
Q: What are the main differences between eastern and western research cultures?
A: To name a few, western supervision focuses more on training of independence that students are sometimes requested to come up with their own research questions, whereas eastern supervision puts more weights on training technical skills related to the study. In most western countries, the equality between supervisors and students are emphasized, whereas a strong hierarchy may exist in some eastern research environments. These differences may affect how supervisor and student interact in a subtle way. In eastern scientific meetings, I found that students speak out less often probably due to the common oriental proverb ‘silence is gold’, whereas in many occasions, ‘silence could mean absence’ in western meetings. In general, I strongly suggest young researchers to spend some period of their academic career abroad to experience and benefit from different research cultures.
Q: Besides scientific skills, what other skills are important in pursuing academic career?
A: When reviewing an applicant for a postdoc or faculty position, the selection is often based on the competence in research, teaching and receiving grants. In addition to solid scientific abilities, these competences involve a set of soft skills, such as the capability to present/write about one’s study effectively, establish social networks within one’s own field, present/write popular materials, write strong applications, etc.
Q: How can these soft skills be trained?
A: Practices, practices and practices. For presentation skills, one can take part in classroom teaching that is a perfect place to practice public speaking, building up confidence, explaining abstract concepts intuitively and in a popular way. Scientific network can be established from attending/organizing conferences and not being shy in speaking out for questions and comments. To improve skills in writing application, one can learn from the successful grant proposals, cover letters, CVs of senior researchers, etc. Many universities also provide supports in career and grant applications in the form of public talks and consulting services. Finally, the improvement of these skills takes time and therefore it is important to start the training as early as possible, e.g., in the early stage of PhD study.
Chun-Biu LI
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Mathematics Dept., Stockholm Univ. Sweden
