Thesis Done

[Achan hiArusa]

I have finished, defended, and turned in my thesis. So does anybody know of work for a astromicrobiophysicist (my undergrad was in physics, my first masters was in physics/astronomy, and my second masters was in astrobiology/microbiology, that was supposed to be a PhD in Space and Planetary Sciences, but I have a certain program director to thank for that) with three years of library technician experience and two years of teaching organic chemistry lab? Something has to be better than adjunct professoring and substitute teaching :\ .

 

[LightPhoenix]

Congrats! You should change your user name to "Dr. Achan hiArusa"

You would probably know better than most of us about work opportunities. What do you want to do? I'm not sure how work goes in that field, but in biochem there's usually teaching, pharm/private industry, and government. I would imagine it's much the same for astrophysics.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Not sure what I want to do (besides D&D ). I figure I will be in a lab somewhere or get some project manager type job administering scientists (though I should probably invest in an MBA or something). I have also though about getting my Science History PhD and MLS and be a science librarian. Also I am looking into getting my teaching certificate or taking the LSAT and looking into patent law. In short, I don't know.

 

[megamania]

So does anybody know of work for a astromicrobiophysicist .... :\ .

Congrats on being an astro...astromicrobot.....astronaunt..... guy with a big title!


So you are into life from outerspace I take it?

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Pretty much, my research was on growing earth life in Mars conditions for the second Masters and on detecting extrasolar planets for the first Masters.

 

[HandofMystra]

Not sure what I want to do (besides D&D ). I figure I will be in a lab somewhere or get some project manager type job administering scientists (though I should probably invest in an MBA or something). I have also though about getting my Science History PhD and MLS and be a science librarian. Also I am looking into getting my teaching certificate or taking the LSAT and looking into patent law. In short, I don't know.

You are glutton for education. You could try sending your resume to JPL. I have heard that MLS are quite boring degrees. I have a BS in Physics and have a clerical job in a library that allows me time to make my D&D PCs at work. Right now I am working on data entry of spells for spellforge and and making up item cards to follow that Morrus vision of having as much stuff on cards for players as possible.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

How about Astronaut?

In all seriousness, you probably have the kind of hard science background where you would be quite useful doing hard science on a Lunar / Mars program. It is probably about the only field of study where you would have a great chance to use all of your education, rather than part of it.

The next most likely job you could do is teach at a university level.

Beyond that, I really have no idea what kind of jobs your education is useful for.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Umbran]

Something has to be better than adjunct professoring and substitute teaching :\ .

Are you an aggressive researcher? You can try to get yourself into a tenure track position.

I don't know of any commercial concerns looking for that kind of work done - if you're willing to step sideways away from your roots and go into application of microbiology and chemistry in extreme environments, you might have some luck, especially in the energy industry.

I personally found that the economic rewards for a physicist who wasn't a real hefty researcher were... meager.

 

[freyar]

Well, to get a good faculty job, you probably will have to go get that PhD (though it sounds like you were cheated out of one already). Umbran has some good ideas for industry, but you might also check out places like JPL (mentioned upthread, though I don't know if they still have a hiring freeze or not) or large aerospace corporations (Hughes, Northrup Grummond, etc.). I don't know if they have a lot in the way of xenobiology, but a number of friends of mine with astro degrees work for companies like that. Some of them are quite involved in the big NASA projects.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

I'm not too sure about JPL. You see, the program director of the program I was on PhD track for has lots of friends there and I know that he is evil enough to have me blackballed there and at Johnson. He also has enemies at Goddard and Ames and they probably won't look at me because they will associate me with him.

As for aggressive research, not really (I was pursuing research, but not fast enough for him). I like teaching better though I could do lab work. But as for the MLS, a nice boring Masters might be nice.