1. Teach
1.1. Teach classes in Fall and Spring semester
1.2. Professors are paid a 9 month salary. The extra 3 months they have to make for it in grant funding.
1.3. The teaching load is allocated based on how grant active a faculty member is. The more grants you have the fewer classes you have to teach. It's a numbers game. In general if the faculty is generating more in funding that is brought into the university than the number of students generating that revenue then the university prefers the faculty get more funding for the university.
1.4. What is teaching
1.4.1. Coming up with lecture materials
1.4.2. Designing lesson plans that convey knowledge while also keep students interested/entertained
1.4.3. Updating lecture materials
1.4.4. Adjusting lecture approach constantly to improve student outcome
1.4.5. Being an entertainer to students
1.4.6. Developing exams
1.4.7. Grading homework
1.4.8. Grading exams
1.4.9. Being a baby sitter for students with difficulties
1.4.10. Dealing with students who cheat- like gathering evidence of cheating, re-writing exams.
2. Research
2.1. Write Grant proposals
2.1.1. Acceptance rate for proposals are typically about 10%- that means we have to write 10 grant proposals to win 1.
2.1.2. It can take as long as 6 months for an agency to tell you they have declined your proposal.
2.1.3. Proposals can easily be 50 pages long.
2.1.4. Each proposal is like writing a separate PhD dissertation.
2.1.5. A faculty member may write as many as 3 proposals a year.
2.2. Build a Lab
2.2.1. Faculty typically have to build a research lab from scratch.
2.2.2. That usually means you get a room and electricity and that's it.
2.2.3. Building labs can be everything from buying furniture to equipment.
2.2.4. Faculty usually get a starting package that they can use to build their labs or fund students.
2.3. Execute Grant Proposals
2.3.1. If we are lucky enough to win a proposal you have to execute on it.
2.3.2. Proposals from federal governments can last between 1-5 years.
2.3.3. Grants are used to pay students to do the research.
2.3.4. Grants can also cover faculty salary for summers, which is when they usually are not paid. Often faculty will forego summer salary to squeeze more out of the grant and have it go toward student salary.
2.3.5. 50% of the grant $ won goes to the university. The remaining 50% is what faculty have to spend on research.
2.3.6. Grants from companies are rare. Companies typically are not a reliable source of funding. It is highly dependent on how well they are doing financially. Companies are primarily interested in short term problems. Federal government instead wants faculty to think 10 to 20 years into the future. Technologies like the microwave and lasers took 20 years before becoming commercial products.
2.3.7. Some grants like SBIRs encourage technology transfer to companies. 2/3 of the budget goes to the company.
2.3.8. Faculty will typically conduct the research with their students.
2.3.9. Faculty who engage in research with human subjects also need to write research protocols for approval by the university.
2.3.10. Faculty have to be bean counters to monitor expenditure on grants.
2.3.11. Faculty have to manage their labs and lab staff like a small company.
2.3.12. Faculty have to interview and hire students and staff.
2.3.13. Faculty have to advise their students to graduation as masters or PhDs.
2.3.14. Faculty have to mentor post-docs.
2.3.15. Faculty have to write either quarterly or annual reports for their projects.
2.3.16. Faculty have to publish findings of their research.
2.3.17. Faculty have to speak to the general public about findings of their research.
2.4. Publish
2.4.1. The old adage, "publish or perish" is true.
2.4.2. For tenure you have to publish consistently and ideally to top conferences and journals which have acceptance rates as low as 15%.
2.4.3. It takes a couple of years mentoring a student to the point that they are able to publish papers.
2.4.4. Some faculty write their own papers. Many have students write them and they guide them. This is common in all universities.
3. Service
3.1. Outreach to general public
3.1.1. Faculty host tours of their labs.
3.1.2. Faculty build exhibits to show at various conferences.
3.1.3. Faculty provide advice to local, state and federal government.
3.1.4. Faculty serve in lawsuit cases as expert witnesses.
3.2. Review Grant Propoals
3.2.1. Typically we are asked to review proposals several times a year.
3.2.2. Each time we may be asked to review as many as 10 proposals.
3.2.3. Proposals can easily be 50 pages long.
3.2.4. It takes about 2 hours to review a proposal.
3.2.5. We have to attend panel sessions that can last 2.5 days to make deliberations on proposals.
3.3. Review conference or journal publications
3.3.1. Faculty are usually part of professional organizations where they attend annual conferences to learn about the latest breakthroughs.
3.3.2. Faculty are often asked to review papers for these conferences and journals.
3.3.3. Senior faculty are often asked to chair conference sessions, and/or run conferences.
3.4. Sit on University Committees
3.4.1. The more senior you are, the more university committees you'll be asked to participate in.
3.4.2. All faculty will typically sit on committees of Masters and PhD student theses and dissertations. That means reading their theses and dissertations, giving them feedback, and attending their proposal defense and final defense.
3.4.3. Faculty are often asked to be adjuncts in other departments- in essence you are helping out in other departments that you feel are complimentary to your interests.
3.4.4. e.g. promotion and tenure committee.
3.5. Attend workshops
3.5.1. Sometimes there are workshops organized by federal agencies.
3.5.2. Faculty are often called upon to contribute at the workshops by preparing white papers. And then co-authoring the workshop report.
3.6. Outreach to companies
3.6.1. Faculty may work with outside companies on joint grant proposals.
3.6.2. Faculty may work with outside companies to transfer technology to companies to create new products.
3.6.3. Faculty may work with outside companies to write proposals that fund companies in technology transfer activities.
3.6.4. Companies often think faculty are free consultants.
3.7. Lead new initiatives
3.7.1. Faculty are often called upon to lead new university initiatives.
3.7.2. That could be new educational programs, new large scale grant proposals, new institutes.
3.8. Help students with their life problems
3.8.1. It's not in the job description but we are essentially parents to students when they are away from home.
3.8.2. We have to counsel students in their career.
3.8.3. We have to guide them through life problems- like depression.
3.8.4. There are university services to help but the faculty is always a co-parent in this process.
3.8.5. If you have like 15 students you mentor that's like raising 15 children.