Biophysical Society Bulletin | June 2022

Career Development

How to Embark on a Teaching Career in Academia You just received your PhD and are now thinking about what to do next. Or you are a postdoc or junior faculty member and are not sure whether the academ ic research track is the right path for you. Being in the lab is something you do but is not your favorite part of your day—teaching is! You love spending time with students, training them to become the next generation of scien

answer a scientific question related to teaching and learning. They have published in academic journals, presented at scien tific meetings, and received extramural funding for their work. If you choose to focus on education at a research universi ty, blend your teaching and your research. And check your institution’s organization beyond your primary department— there might be another department or unit that focuses on education and learning where you may benefit from a joint or adjunct appointment. Typically, PUI faculty are required to maintain substantial teaching commitments as well as to run a research lab and mentor undergraduates. Some institutions emphasize teach ing but have lower research expectations, while others allow for greater research productivity by providing faculty support (teaching assistants, lab managers, etc.). The balance of these requirements varies among PUIs, but all place a high priority on undergraduate teaching at every level of the curriculum. Since many of these schools are relatively small, as part of their “service” responsibility, faculty can actively participate in the shaping of institutional policies to develop new teaching initiatives, which can be rewarding. As you consider an academic teaching career, it is important to find an institution that will be the best fit for you and your interests and skills. That may well be your current institu tion—investigate the options available to you that will allow you to focus on education. Talk with others at your school who are active and passionate teachers. Or it might be time for a change. Do your research, study the school’s website, and schedule informational interviews to establish what would be expected of you and what sort of support would be available. Explore your options and show that teaching future scientists is an invaluable skillset. — Molly Cule

tists, motivating them to learn, to think, to synthesize ideas and concepts. So how do you pivot from the “expected” re search-focused career path to a successful teaching position in academia? While most academic positions include some level of teaching commitment, in addition to the ubiquitous service requirements (e.g., being on committees), that balance varies widely, depending on the type of institution and its internal organization. In the United States, there are approximately 3,000 four-year colleges and universities (public and private). Of those, nearly 800 are exclusively four-year primarily undergraduate insti tutions (PUIs), while the rest also have graduate programs (research universities). There are excellent teaching opportu nities in both. Advancement at reesarch universities generally requires contributions to both research and teaching, with research often carrying the greatest weight when it comes to salaries, tenure, and promotion decisions. This can represent a disad vantage for faculty members with a teaching focus in large part because effective teaching is time consuming, leaving little time for research—unless that research has to do with education itself. Some very well-known biomedical educators have established successful research programs using the same data-based hypothesis-driven, analytical processes to

2022 BPS Elections NowOpen Voting is open June 1 through August 1

www.biophysics.org/election

June 2022

12

T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E B I O P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y