WWU Chemistry Striking a Balance: The Dreyfus Scholar-Fellow Program as Preparation for a Career at a PUI James R. Vyvyan Department of Chemistry Western Washington University Bellingham, WA Postdoctoral Appointments: Roles and Opportunities National Science Foundation Workshop Arlington, VA May 11 – 13, 2003

WWU Chemistry Successful faculty at a PUI… Must balance the triad of academe  Teaching  Research  Service Too many faculty juggle these duties  One is always ‘in the air’  Dropping one (or more) is always a risk

WWU Chemistry What type of post-doc? The ‘Harvard’ post-doc  Fast-paced, high-powered research environment  Develop pedigree for the job search  Will work for career at PUI or Ph.D. granting institutions Visiting / limited term faculty appointment  Develop instructional skills  Practical experience for the PUI / liberal arts job search Dreyfus Scholar / Fellow Model  Teaching and research experience with undergraduates

WWU Chemistry The Dreyfus Scholar / Fellow Program History  Instituted in 1987  200 Scholars / Fellows at 68 institutions  Up to 10 awards / year Structure (revised in 2000)  $ 100,000 over 2 years ($105,000 if high school teaching incl.)  Fellow stipend of $35,000 each year  Institution must provide $10,000 for Fellow stipend in yr 2  Research and Educational support of $20,000 each year  $10,000 Supplemental Award if Fellow accepts position at PUI

WWU Chemistry Not just a ‘teaching postdoc’ “ The award is intended to enhance and enrich the Scholar’s research and teaching. It is also designed to provide the Fellow with experience in the operations of an undergraduate department. The Fellow is expected to have teaching …assignments that are meaningful but still allow for significant research collaboration with the Scholar.”

WWU Chemistry My experience with Dreyfus Knew of Scholar / Fellow program in 1991 Considering career options in graduate school  Academic career interest group (Peter Carr) Set sights on career at research-rich PUI 1995…a great year to be an organic chemist ! Position at Hope College with Stephen K. Taylor

WWU Chemistry Structuring for a ‘win-win’ “My goal is to prepare someone to outperform me in their career.” Stephen K. Taylor, spring 1995 A variety of teaching assignments Co-advise the entire research group Develop and explore Fellow’s own research ideas, including supervision of students on those projects Participate in the department as regular faculty

WWU Chemistry Developing as a teacher… Fall 1995 Organic Laboratory I Spring 1996 Organic Chemistry II Fall 1996 Structure, Dynamics and Synthesis Spring 1997 Organic Laboratory II Calibrating expectations

WWU Chemistry Developing as a scholar… New areas of research  Reaction of aluminum ester enolates with spiroepoxides  Synthesis with enzymes and whole-cell systems Supervising a research team  6 students  5 students , including 2 to myself ! Writing papers and grant proposals  Published 3 papers  Contributed to 2 grant proposals

WWU Chemistry Developing independence… Nurturing research ideas for export  spirolactone natural products  caparratriene  asymmetric haloetherification  medium ring ethers: the heliannuols Some preliminary experiments were done and two research proposals completed !

WWU Chemistry The job search Response to Dreyfus post-doc mixed, but generally favorable: some schools prefer the ‘Harvard’ postdoc… …but most schools look for talent, experience, and potential regardless of post-doc type at least one school only looked at Dreyfus Fellows !

WWU Chemistry Starting out at WWU January 1997  Accept position at WWU May 1997  Submit proposals to PRF-G and Research Corp Fall 1997  Arrive in Bellingham  Equip lab with start-up and Dreyfus $  PRF-G funded; Research Corp denied  Select first group of research students

WWU Chemistry Starting out at WWU  Submit revised RC proposal—funded  Increase size of research group  First independent publication; 2 UG co- authors, one from Hope College  Submit NSF CAREER proposal—rejected

WWU Chemistry Starting out at WWU 2000  Second publication  Submit revised NSF CAREER proposal— funded  Increase size of research group  Develop new elective: Medicinal Chemistry

WWU Chemistry Starting out at WWU  Published 4 papers  Frasch Foundation grant  Tenured and promoted 2002  NSF-MRI grant for 500 MHz NMR

WWU Chemistry Acknowledgements Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Bob Lichter National Science Foundation Stephen K. Taylor Hope College