Surviving Life as a Researcher

Abstract:
The lives of most scientists today are very different from when many of our cultural myths about science were formed, and the world of research is much larger and more complex than one is generally aware of during grad school. In this talk, I will discuss my experiences and observations gathered over 15 years as a non-university researcher, and what I have learned about the joys and pitfalls, surprises and struggles of the scientific life. Along the way, I will share some heuristics that I have found helpful for attaining success professionally, as well as for finding balance and survival as a human being.

Bio:
Dr. Jacob Beal is an Engineering Fellow at Raytheon BBN Technologies, where he leads research on synthetic biology and distributed systems engineering. His work in synthetic biology includes development of standards for representation and communication of biological designs and experiments, signature-based detection of controlled pathogens, methods for calibrated flow cytometry, precision analysis and design of genetic regulatory networks, and engineering of biological information processing devices.