In this final episode of the show we sat down with our advisor Mark Wiesner. Mark is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a long time Department Chair at Duke University. He also has directed of the Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology for 10+ years where he worked with Christine. Mark has shared insights about trust and building relationships throughout your career. This is the perfect capstone to the show.

Courtney joined us in episode 6 as she was driving across the country to her new position at Washington State University. She rejoined us so we could learn how things shaped up in her first year+ of teaching, advising and grant writing. There is lots of reality in this episode, but a bunch of hope for those hoping to land a faculty position someday or starting one soon. She did not hold back telling it like it is and we appreciate her candor. 

We take stock of the past 32 episodes and plot a course for future episodes of the show. We both work in roles where we help integrate teams and enable them to co-create knowledge, and we are going to focus on sharing more of those insights going forward. After a paternity leave for Matt we will return with the show later in the Fall. We will have a few longer interviews of academics but mostly focus on shorter 15 minute episodes centered on teams. 

Creating your own style as a team leader is about gathering the best ideas that are out there and adapting them to your personality. We asked 9 different podcast hosts to join the show to share their best ideas for onboarding others into teams or groups. They discuss positives and negatives have they experienced when being onboarded themselves. Download this episode to find great onboarding ideas and have the bonus of hearing about 8 great shows you can subscribe to.

Too much technology and you overwhelm the students and yourself. However, today's students are digital natives and may expect a different approach to learning than students just a few years ago. How do you harness the best of what technology has to offer to improve your courses and make your job easier? Dr. Monica Burns, host of the Ed Tech Made Easy podcast, joined us to share many tips for platforms and approaches for technology in your courses. Show notes and transcript:...

How do you obtain the first experiences in the classroom? How do you learn the vocabulary you need to discuss your teaching experience? As host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast and a faculty member herself these are the two questions Bonni Stachowiak sees early career researchers struggle with. She answers these questions and also jam packs this episode with manageable steps for any graduate student, postdoc or professor to improve their teaching.  www.teamhelium.co/episode30

As an early career faculty member you are often called upon to design or redesign a course. This can be something faculty dread as a distraction from research. But by following a framework for course design you can enjoy and excel in this process. In this episode Liesl Wuest walks us through a framework that will allow you to intentionally create your next course in a structured way with learning goals, objectives, content, activities and assessment in mind.  episode download:...

Your brain creates your mind which creates your experience. It determines your happiness levels and your ability to make new discoveries. But how well do you understand your brain? How well do you take care of your brain? Author and engineer Sean Webb joined the show to talk about the benefits of understanding how your mental states are created and how you can train your brain to improve your cognitive processes through practices like meditation. Resources and more at...

Dr. Olivia Aguilar, Associate Professor at Denison University, joined the show to talk about her wide ranging experiences. How tough is the tenure process? How much tougher it is for someone who is a first generation in her family college grad? How do you manage and vet the opportunities given to you as a new assistant professor? How do you authentically engage early career researchers who come come from diverse backgrounds? Show notes can be found at www.teamhelium.co/episode27

When you think to yourself, how do I make a bigger impact with my research? Are you lost about where to start? It was great to host Mark Reed, host of Fast Track Impact podcast, on this episode. We dove into the questions you should be asking yourself when you want to increase your impact beyond impact factor. We also discussed how to use social media properly for maximum effect. Mark also touched on mental health issues surrounding social media and academia.

How do make space for the joy in your career? Early on it feels like you must say yes to anything and everything but as Dr. Emily Bernhardt explains in this interview it quickly shifts to having to make space. This is space for those things that will both define your career and bring you joy. One strategy she dives into is putting both financial and time price tags on projects to determine if you want to invest.

Is it possible that graduate school transformed you into a less human version of yourself? Are you prepared to take care of yourself properly so you can help others maximize their potential? If you said maybe to any of these questions this episode is for you. Dr. Antes joined us to help us rehumanize ourselves and our relationships to our lab groups. It is not complicated but she lays out some key steps we all need to be better at creating connections with others.

What are some ways that university researchers can build relationships for collaboration and funding at mission driven government agencies? Gayle Hagler of the US Environmental Protection Agency joined us to talk about how she has seen this work at the EPA. Much of this knowledge can apply further to other agencies that are also mission driven. Understanding the mindset and the priorities of the organization will make you more successful in finding funding. www.teamhelium.co/episode23

How do you have to step up your ability to be outgoing in certain situations when you are working in academia? You might not expect a person in the National Academies for Engineering and Science to say that self-doubt still resonates at times. But Professor Bruce Rittmann can still get in touch with that feeling and identifies himself as shy. Dr. Rittmann shared his processes for practicing the outgoing role when he identifies as an introverted person. Show notes: www.teamhelium.co/episode22

Do you want to start working with undergraduates in your research group? Dr. Dannemiller shared her process on how to interview them for the job and design undergraduate-sized projects. She also details her process for onboarding them including the research expectations document she reviews, the type of proposal she has them all write, and the experiments they trial run before they start. This episode is perfect for anyone wanting to improve the way they mentor undergraduates for research. 

As researchers we can spend a good part of the year traveling to and attending conferences. How do you step back and make the most of that time by making a strategy for the conferences you attend and how you divide your time during those conferences? Our guests from the AEESP conference share their strategies and approaches for success and we share ours in a roundtable format. Listen to this episode to make your next round of conferences the best yet.

Dr. Richard Huysmans joined the show to discuss how to develop and nurture relationships with industry. These relationships lead to more well-rounded mentoring for your students, more research collaboration opportunities and possible sponsorship of you work. How do you start? Ask your senior mentors to introduce you to their industry collaborators & develop a LinkedIn profile where you talk about what you are passionate about in your research life.

Dr. Beth Calhoun joined the show to discuss when and how to navigate out of bad relationships with senior faculty. How to avoid the confidence traps she sees young faculty fall into. How to be flexible and not set in stone what your biosketch will look like in the future. How team science helped her early in her career and still helps her to this day. She also shares the advice she would have for her early career-self. 

Is your brain more important than your teeth? Do you have daily mental hygiene habits? Author Matthew Kent joined us for this episode based where we discuss his Medium article 5 Ways Your Technology Is Destroying You (and What to Do About It) We get into just how addictive multi-tasking can be and how you brain pushes you to believe you should do more of it. We also talk about the importance of scheduling your brain to have off periods so that your work can be much more creative and productive.

As an early career researcher how do you transition from covering multiple research areas to focusing and becoming the expert in a specific area? Greg Lowry talks about how he made this transition and learned to say no to opportunities that did not align. He also gives advice on how to stay grounded in the fundamentals so you can pivot to related subjects later in your career.

You'll hear about how to build a research group through careful recruiting, listening to students and letting go of what is out of your control. Greg dives into the way he mentors students from the day they arrive in his group, he also discusses how he recruits graduate students to join his group and how he has worked through bad fits before. His purpose is produce the best students because they will go on to have a bigger impact in the world than any of this publications.

Maren Wood and Jen Polk from Beyond the Professoriate joined us to talk about how mentors can open doors for graduate students and enable them to explore alternative career paths. The key for them is eliminating the default career mindset in academia. Your students can pursue other careers after their time with you and go on to have impactful careers. Want happier graduate students? Have open and honest career discussions with them.

Mentoring is a big part of the conversation in this second half of our interview with Thomas Seager. The conversation also spanned scales from the day to day practical to broad visions of defining personal metrics for success and the fundamental purpose of research, engineering, and the personal growth and mentoring needed to reach our potential.

What are the incentives and measures of academic success? What are your measures of success? Do these align or will you need to decide what is important to you? We had Thomas Seager on for episode 12 and he shared a ton of insight into the history and future of the university. If you are an early career researcher, or someone who plans on working with universities over the next 5 to 20 years this episode is thought provoking.