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University of Houston research: Making the shift from academia to industry

To tenure or not to tenure. That is the question. Graphic byMiguel Tovar/University of Houston

Is academia the only option for postdoctoral work?

Let’s be honest, it’s always been difficult and now it seems even trickier to get a job in academia with a postdoc. Ending up as a tenured professor is just not in the cards for the majority of Ph.D.s.

“In 2020, only 10 percent of engineering Ph.D. graduates and 16 percent of those in physical and earth sciences ended up in academic positions in the United States” according to an article published in Nature by Nikki Forrester. While another article notes that only 26 percent of the graduate students polled said their program had prepared them “very well” for a “satisfying career.”

Be an encourager

But as a lab advisor, you have the ability to steer your junior lab staff to make the transition to non-academic careers in industry – where “real science” is done just as frequently as it is in academia. This is simply to be realistic.

According to Forrester, one researcher said: “Some of my students were hesitant about pursuing academic careers, so I made sure that they knew what they were getting into. I told them how few academic jobs are available, instead of just focusing on the romantic aspects of doing research.”

Another went on to say that a PI should say out loud that non-academic Ph.D. careers are okay to pursue. “PIs can tell everyone in their lab, ‘I know many of you are not going to get another job in academia, and that’s OK. I want you to know that I support you in your search for that job, and I will do everything I can to help you.’” A junior researcher should not be made to feel like a “scientific sell-out” just because they decide to shift away from a position as a professor.

Be an informer

According to Arunodoy Sur, Ph.D. in an article entitled, The Top Ten List of Alternative Careers for Ph.D. Science Graduates: “The reason most Ph.D.s do not get Ph.D. jobs in industry is because they lack the information they need to get these jobs.” He goes on to encourage postdocs to understand the many options they really do have as a non-academic Ph.D. ”You need to gain in-depth knowledge of all the career tracks available to you, not just one or two. You should also pay close attention to changing trends, making sure to note which job sectors are rising and which are falling.”

Be a researcher

Sur went on to construct a list a of the top 10 industry careers for folks with a Ph.D. in the sciences. One such job was a Market Research Analyst: “your responsibilities include gaining information about commercialization opportunities as well as evaluating the key advantages and disadvantages of your products versus competitor products.”

Other jobs of this nature include Business Development Manager and Competitive Intelligence (CI) Analysts (whose main role is “to gather information about products that are in a competing company’s pipeline and analyzing these products to determine how they will affect the market.) Medical Communications Specialists or technical writing for healthcare is another job that is seeing a huge boom lately. Do your research to see which career might be a natural transition from your current research endeavors – to an industry that would value your experience.

Be an explorer

Inga Conti-Jerpe told Forrester: “Give students time to explore.” She maintains that the most important thing universities can do is to encourage connections between early-career researchers and those who work in industry as non-academic Ph.D.s. “Graduate students already have transferable skills, but the way to get a job is often by knowing somebody who knows somebody,” she stated.

The big idea

Sur closed his article by saying, in essence, that in order to secure an industry position, you need to prepare yourself by researching all careers that might be a natural progression from the research you worked on in the lab. He also emphasized that expanding your network beyond academia is incredibly important. You can grow your network by working with career-services teams at your institution, going to a CV-writing workshop and by attending recruiting events.

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This article originally appeared on the University of Houston's The Big Idea. Sarah Hill, the author of this piece, is the communications manager for the UH Division of Research.

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Building Houston

 
 

Baylor College of Medicine's Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower is set to open in 2026. Rendering courtesy of BCM

Baylor College of Medicine has collected $100 million toward its $150 million fundraising goal for the college’s planned Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower.

The $100 million in gifts include:

  • A total of $30 million from The Cullen Foundation, The Cullen Trust for Health Care, and The Cullen Trust for Higher Education.
  • $12 million from the DeBakey Medical Foundation
  • $10 million from the Huffington Foundation
  • More than $45 million from members of Baylor’s Board of Trustees and other community donors, including the M.D. Anderson Foundation, the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation, and The Elkins Foundation.

“The Cullen Trust for Health Care is very honored to support this building along with The Cullen Foundation and The Cullen Trust for Higher Education,” Cullen Geiselman Muse, chair of The Cullen Trust for Health Care, says in a news release. “We cannot wait to see what new beginnings will come from inside the Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower.”

The Baylor campus is next to Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park, a 37-acre project. Rendering courtesy of BCM

The Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower is set to open in 2026. The 503,000-square-foot tower is the first phase of Baylor’s planned Health Sciences Park, an 800,000-square-foot project that will feature medical education and research adjacent to patient care at Baylor Medicine and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center on the McNair Campus.

The Baylor campus is next to Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park, a 37-acre project that will support healthcare, life sciences, and business ventures. Baylor is the anchor tenant in the first building being constructed at Helix Park.

“To really change the future of health, we need a space that facilitates the future,” says Dr. Paul Klotman, president, CEO, and executive dean of Baylor. “We need to have a great building to recruit great talent. Having a place where our clinical programs are located, where our data scientists are, next to a biotech development center, and having our medical students all integrated into that environment will allow them to be ready in the future for where healthcare is going.”

In the 1940s, Lillie and Roy Cullen and the M.D. Anderson Foundation were instrumental in establishing the Texas Medical Center, which is now the world’s largest medical complex.

“Baylor is the place it is today because of philanthropy,” Klotman says. “The Cullen family, the M.D. Anderson Foundation, and the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation have been some of Baylor’s most devoted champions, which has enabled Baylor to mold generations of exceptional health sciences professionals. It is fitting that history is repeating itself with support for this state-of-the-art education building.”

The Cullen Foundation donated $30 million to the project. Rendering courtesy of BCM

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