Date: May 12, 2010
Title: Reach for the Stars: Advice on a Career in Astrophysics
Podcaster: Renee Hlozek and Sarah Miller
Organization: http://www.sarahholmesmiller.com/
http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~Hlozek/
Description: Renee and Sarah discuss what brought them to a DPhil (PhD) in Astrophysics, what skills they need and use on a daily basis. They highlight what makes a career in academic research (and particularly astrophysics and cosmology) so exciting.
Bio: Renee is currently a DPhil student at Christ Church in Oxford, reading for a degree in Astrophysics as a Rhodes Scholar from South Africa. Her research interests include Dark Energy and decoding the information contained in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and Type Ia Supernovae. She is also interested in new methods of parameter estimation and forecasting. Beyond her research she is passionate about outreach and public understanding of science.
Sarah Miller is obtaining a doctorate in Astrophysics at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar from Texas. She studies how galaxies spin and evolve through time, as well as the distribution of dark matter in the universe. She is interested in the interdisciplinary discussions between sciences, arts, and cultures, and conducting these discussions in relevant ways which engage people beyond the academic community.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Angela Johnson Meszaros on behalf of my husband and soul mate, Imre. We’re all so proud of your accomplishment. “Dr. Meszaros,” I like the sound of that.
Transcript:
RH:
Hi, My name is Renee Hlozek, I am a DPhil student here at Oxford, and I am originally from South Africa.
SM:
And I am Sarah Miller, also a DPhil student also at the University of Oxford, and I am originally from Texas.
RH:
We were chatting a lot about what we like about being astronomers and scientists, and we wanted to share the joys and interesting things about being a scientist with all of you.
SM:
So the first question that comes to naturally comes is how did you even decide you wanted to become a scientist? There’s all kinds of things you dream about being as a kid and how you come to be what you are is always kind of an interesting path. So how did you end up being a scientist, Renee?
RH:
Yeah, so people always ask you: “So, when did you decide you wanted to do Astronomy and [be] a scientist?” And, I knew growing up as a kid that I really liked Maths and solving equations and trying to understand how things all fitted together, and the reason why I got attracted to Cosmology, which is what I study, is that it is Maths on the biggest and broadest scales, it is huge, it’s hot, it’s cold, it’s far away, it is really exciting and so it was kind of natural for me to go into it.
And you?
SM: Well my grades actually were absolutely worst in Physics, I was a terrible Physics student, I always did pretty well in Math, but Physics, I did horribly in, but I always thought the topics were absolutely fascinating because I had the chance as a kid to pick up a few popular science books on cosmology and Einstein’s theory of relativity and different types of things that really made the whole subject really come alive and be exciting, but of course those books are only really written on a surface level and you don’t get into the Maths and the equations so much. But I was horrible, I never did my homework in high school and then in college I still decided I wanted to do Physics because it was the hardest thing out there and I thought if I am going to college for something I had better go for Physics and then I can always switch out of it if I really could not cut it. I was about to quit, I was about to stop doing Physics and then I took an Astrophysics class, and that just reopened everything up for me, I was reinvigorated by this childhood love of these popular science and Physics books, and yeah, I was hooked! It was a cosmology class actually that hooked me.
RH:
So, from what you were discussing, I often get questions about, you know: “Do you have to be really, really great at Maths and Science in order to do Science and Astronomy?” What do you think are the biggest skills that you bring, that you need to have in this career?
SM:
That is an excellent question actually, because I don’t think that people are born with this innate ability to be a scientist. I think it is actually something that you actually kind of gather along the way.
It is really perseverance and focus that ultimately makes someone a successful scientist, because you can have all these natural talents and gifts, but if you don’t utilize them and apply them then you are not going to be very successful.
RH:
Yeah, just being good at something is helpful, but it is more about how you pick yourself up, and as you said how you can keep yourself working and I think the love for it – if you love what you do then you can overcome all these obstacles because it will make you want to try harder.
SM:
Yeah, and practice makes perfect, if you are not good at a certain type of Math problem of Physics problem, you just do it again and again until you get that type of thinking programmed into your brain and then you are better at thinking about problems in a certain type of way. I think that the people that end up being good at it were those who could sit down and do their homework, unlike me at some point! But then I learned that skill though at some point, and it did take a subject that I was extremely passionate about.
RH:
Because basically what we learn is how to approach problems, right, and how to solve them and how to tackle them and how to think in a certain way, and that is something that you have to learn by watching other good scientists do it, and so the ability to learn from other people is also really important.
SM:
Yeah, learning how to solve a problem in a certain way and then apply [it]. A lot of times creativity is taking a way of thinking in one context and applying it to a completely different context, which is something that you can learn and get better at.
RH:
Exactly! One of the things I was really surprised about when I was an undergraduate is I thought: “Oh I will never use a computer, I really hate computers and I don’t want to spend all my time working at a computer”! And then I discovered quite by chance that I really really love it, I enjoy coding and solving problems, and that of course is very useful because we spend a lot of our time on the computer, right, solving problems.
SM:
Yeah, it is only once in a while that you get to go, if you are an observer, to a telescope and observe for the evening. Or, fairly often actually we go to conferences and get to meet other scientists, so it is not just sitting at your desk all day, but you have to also have the ability to sit down for a week and hash out some good astrophysics on your computer.
RH:
That’s right. But that is one of the great perks, right? We get to meet interesting people from all over the world, who are not only passionate about science, obviously but other things, and also we get to go to cool places, right?
SM:
Yeah, I love travelling – this is definitely a career where you can travel.
RH:
Not only telescopes but conferences in cool places – I still have a list of cool places I want to go to.. it is really awesome.
What are the other perks? If you think about this job that you would not about another career?
SM:
I would say even more than travelling, even more than having such an interesting subject to study, I mean the vastness of the universe is so great, it is actually the freedom that it gives you.. because there are all kinds of jobs where you are doing interesting things but you are being told to do those things. You have a boss who says that you have to do this by this deadline, and this by this deadline, whereas in academia you get to set your own schedule, as long as you are getting your work done you can work as fast or as slow as you want. You can basically set your own schedule and work all night if you would like to and sleep all morning!
RH:
Exactly, I like coming into the office around 10-ish in the morning, and then I can work late [at night] at home. As you said, what you work on is really cool, and you can decide if you want to change topics, we are in an environment that really values learning and studying, and so if you want to learn something new you can find someone who can teach you, you can find things on the internet and learn it, and it is a real culture of learning which I love in this career.
SM:
Yeah you can be a galaxy person for years and then kind of start to transition to maybe perhaps supernova[e], and then that would take you onto a track where you are studying more cosmology and the fabric of the universe, and everything that it is made up of. You can sort of hope from one topic to another, and most astrophysicists work on a variety of different things – it always stays interesting and fresh, you don’t get stuck in the mud, which is bad!
RH:
Exactly. I think if I had one piece of advice for someone who was thinking about a career in science and in cosmology it’s: “Do you like solving problems” — ask yourself that question first of all, and if it is something that interests you then don’t give up, persevere, email a scientist to see if they have any advice. Be proactive and find out if this is something you want to do, because it is really a rewarding and exciting career.
SM:
Yeah, it is really quite different at the end of the day from how it feels to sit in a science class and solve problems in a book, in a textbook, because these are problems that have been solved over and over again, there is usually some trick to answer them, whereas in science you are on the absolute cutting edge of what we know. The answer is out there, but it is completely uncertain as to which way to go about it. You just have to be comfortable with the unknown and just going forth and trying to solve it in whatever way you can possibly grasp
RH:
Awesome, well hope you guys enjoyed it, and you can give us a shout if you want [have] more questions.. and good luck!
SM:
Yes, thank you for listening!
RH:
Awesome
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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