Return of the Revenge of the Project for Non-Academic Science

I've been doing a lot of darkness-cursing lately (mostly off-line), so we could stand to have a little candle-lighting. It's been a few years since I last did a round of profiles of scientists outside academia, so let's see if that will fly again...

So, if you 1) Have a degree in a STEM field (BA/BS, MA/MS, Ph.D., whatever), 2) Have a career that doesn't involve people calling you "Professor," and 3) Are willing to share answers to a few simple questions about how you got there and how your science background helps, drop me a line. You can leave a comment here, email me (orzelc at steelypips which is not a com but an org), or hit me on social media @orzelc on Twitter, easily searchable on Facebook and G+), and I'll send you the list of questions.

If I get a reasonable number of responses, I'll lightly edit them and post them here as a slight signal boost for cool things you can do with a science degree that don't require entering the academic rat race. If I don't get any responses, well, we'll pretend I never posted this...

More like this

About three hours from now, Rhett Allain and I are doing another "Uncertain Dots" Google hangout. We don't have a real clear topic, so if you have any questions about physics, academia, blogs, etc.
There's been some behind-the-scenes tweaking of the ScienceBlogs framework, which has caused some problems with commenting on other blogs (along with some other embarassing glitches, involving posts being blocked by spam filters, and fun stuff like that).
After a bit of a hiatus because of scheduling issues, Rhett and I are back to talk about... stuff. Mostly summer classes, World Cup soccer, and Twitter. Also, how we've each gotten a blog comment from Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Your readers can find plenty of examples of people who started down the academic path, but then took a right turn and ended up elsewhere, at the Astrobetter blog:

http://www.astrobetter.com/

Look for entries titled "Career Profiles".

By Michael Richmond (not verified) on 18 Nov 2014 #permalink

If you would like to hear from a pediatrician, send me the list

By Don Cotler (not verified) on 18 Nov 2014 #permalink

I'm a physician (neonatology) who started out as a high school physics teacher. Send me the questions, please.

By Rick Meidell (not verified) on 18 Nov 2014 #permalink

Hi Chad

I would be happy to take part.

Hamish

By Hamish Johnston (not verified) on 18 Nov 2014 #permalink

I am a former Physicist working as an engineer and would be happy to take part.

By Steven Olson (not verified) on 19 Nov 2014 #permalink

I would be happy to participate!

By Irene Cesa (not verified) on 19 Nov 2014 #permalink

Hi Chad,

I'd love to help.
I'm a PhD chemist working as a science teacher at the moment.

Eli.