Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL Climbing the Technical Ladder at Sandia National Laboratories Cynthia A. Phillips Discrete Algorithms and Complex Systems Dept. CRA-W Advanced Mentoring Workshop 11/14/08

Slide 2 Who am I? AB in Applied Mathematics from Harvard PhD in Computer Science from MIT Part-time work at Thinking Machines Corp in grad school Joined Sandia National Laboratories as a senior member of technical staff (SMTS) in Principal MTS in 1998 (when current ladder instituted) Distinguished MTS in 2000 Always in research. Dept name evolved through reorganizations –Theoretical computer science –Optimization and uncertainty quantification –Algorithms and discrete math –Discrete mathematics and complex systems

Slide 3 Mathematical Mercenary Parallel combinatorial optimization Polyhedral combinatorics Experimental algorithmics Scheduling Manufacturing and transportation planning Computational biology Computer security Network reliability Social network analysis Sensor placement in networks (roadway, water) Quantum computer architecture design

Slide 4 National Laboratories Environment (Research) More applied than academia –Impact on problems important to the nation Less driven by the bottom line than industry Wealth of research questions Flexible scheduling Pay tracks to industry Every hour charged to a project –Get funding to do what you want to do Resources (supercomputers, rocket sleds, particle-beam fusion accelerators, …) Annual formal merit review

Slide 5 Sandia Technical Ladder Levels –Member of Technical Staff (MTS) Senior (SMTS)  Assistant professor Principal (PMTS)  Tenured associate professor Distinguished (DMTS)  Full professor –Senior Scientist –Fellow Quotas as move up Formally based on –Technical ability (breadth and/or depth) –External visibility –Customer contacts/program development –Creativity –Leadership of people, projects, programs

Slide 6 Impact Quantifiable impact on an important project –Solve a problem you couldn’t before –Solve a problem significantly better than before Frequently involves code –People use it (especially for important things) Bringing in funding Publications Patents Major awards (e.g. R&D 100)

Slide 7 Visibility Talks are an opportunity to shine –Annual department review –Any external review of project or group –Dog & Pony shows for potential or current sponsors Tailor your talk to your audience Want them to walk away with –Your one-line technical message –A sense of your competency, vision, integrity, and passion They don’t care about the details as much as you do Topic selection (when an option): management attention span

Slide 8 Mentorship When starting out, attach to a good mentor –Deliver for them –Take advantage of the association to become visible –Learn from them Then get out from the shadow and lead your own project –Managers tend to associate a project only with the leader Then become a mentor yourself –Leading a group of others is important –You get to lead by bringing in money –You get to lead by being technically capable and delivering

Slide 9 Other Pluses Good writing skills –Write clearly and quickly Be a resource Have a good network inside and outside the lab –Know who to ask Keep up with the literature