Chris Siedlecki, Ph.D. '91
Assistant Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering
Position Description:
University Professor. I do some teaching but I am primarily expected to conduct. I am required to secure extramural funding, and train graduate students, postdocs and summer undergraduates, to write research papers and present the results of my studies at conferences and lectures. I am also expected to contribute to the field by serving as a peer reviewer for federal/state/private granting agencies and by reviewing manuscripts submitted for publication in scientific journals.
Necessary education or experience:
Ph.D. and postdoctoral training.
Key skills that are necessary to be successful in your position:
The ability to balance many projects and priorities; to reason out scientific problems and develop creative research experiments; to communicate both orally and through writing. Good interpersonal skills are definitely an asset.
A description of your path to your current position:
I undertook five years of graduate school following my B.S., followed by two years of postdoctoral training. I spent six years as an assistant professor prior to promotion to associate professor.
Good (and bad) aspects of your current position:
Good aspects of the position are the independence to pursue research areas of interest, nearly complete control over my own research projects, plus an ability to pick and choose collaborations in areas of interest. There is a good feeling as you watch students mature and graduate/move on to permanent positions. The bad aspects include having to balance a very large number of high priority items at same time. There is never enough time to get everything done so you have to constantly decide priority of multiple tasks and be able to take on a variety of very different tasks at the same time. Research funding is getting harder to secure so there is additional pressure to make sure that the lab stays funded and people continue to have positions. There is often a lot of travel involved which is good in that you get to visit lots of interesting places and go to interesting conferences but sometimes you can be on the road too much.
| For information about MSOE's B.S. in Biomedical Engineering program, contact interim program director Dr. Charles Tritt at (414) 277-7421. |