7. C. Career Pathways

What is the recipe for successful achievement? To my mind there are just four essential ingredients: Choose a career you love, give it the best there is in you, seize your opportunities, and be a member of the team.” - Benjamin F. Fairless

As a child, I always thought I'd end up being a teacher. Don't ask me how I thought I'd able to do this being so shy, that I rarely spoke. In high school, each my teachers ended up urging me to follow their professional tracks - my English teachers thought I should major in English and pursue a career as a writer, my history teachers urged me to pursue a degree in history, my math teachers wanted me to major in math, my biology, physics and chemistry teachers all urged me to follow in their fields as well. What should I pursue? Science had always been my favorite, so that's what I pursued. I always looked at math more as a tool than anything else. I was good at it, but I've now forgotten much that I've learned in college of math. If you don't use the advanced math, you lose proficiency in that area.

I entered college as a biology major. I was good at the biology, but I became frustrated, since I wanted to learn things at the molecular level. In the 1970s not that much of that was known. I was tired of taxonomy (which I did well at, but found relatively boring). I stayed as a biology major until the end of my junior year. That junior year was a bit of a turning point for me, since I realized I had to decide what was going to do with my life. I knew I no longer wanted to do biology. I actually seriously considered going into the ministry, but decided that my shyness and reluctance to speak in public, didn't mesh with that profession. I decided to switch to chemistry, which I did rather late, at the end of my junior year. These days I probably wouldn't have switched, but become a molecular biologist. In the early and mid 1970s, the idea of introducing genes not native to a species was just getting started. Understanding on the molecular level in that field has come a long way since then. Switching to chemistry, wasn't very painful, since I had been minoring in chemistry (and math at the time, but I ended one class short there). To get out of college in four years, I needed to get with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with emphasis in biochemistry (they didn't have a separate biochemistry degree at Cal. State Fullerton at that time). That let me finish within four years, and use all those biology credits. I really didn't plan to pursue biochemistry if I got accepted into graduate school. I had become extremely interested in inorganic chemistry. I could see where there was the potential to design new catalysts, and that understanding things on the molecular level was more mature in that field, so you could figure out how those new catalysts worked. I did undergraduate research in inorganic chemistry for my mentor, Dr. Patrick W. I actually ended up with a publication from my undergraduate research in "Inorganic Chemistry." I knew I wanted to go to graduate school in chemistry, and I tried to get my applications in in early December before the deadlines. I had decided to apply to only three graduate schools: University of California Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Wisconsin. I got offers from UCLA and Wisconsin. My application to Berkeley was a comedy of errors on Berkeley's part. I had requested an application packet from Berkeley and they were slow in sending it. And then the application form itself was missing from the packet! I wrote another letter to the graduate school at Berkeley explaining the problem, and they sent a rather nasty letter accusing me of losing the application form, and saying "Here's another one!" I distinctly remember opening an reading this letter seated on the couch in my parent's rec room, since my best friend Jeff was also sitting on the couch. Jeff was laughing hysterically, since there was again no application form in the letter!! I wrote back to them again and pointed out their mistake,even showing where they had forgot to put the "enc:" code on the letter. I also told them to forget sending a third since I'd managed to obtain one through a friend of Dr. Patrick W.'s at Berkeley, who picked one up and mailed it to me directly. The upshot of all this, is that my application got to Berkeley the day after the deadline, and they had already made their offers. I actually got a phone call from head of the Department of Chemistry at Berkeley, saying he was sorry for the trouble I'd encountered (apparently Dr. W.'s friend had told him what went on) , and that I'd definitely would have been offered a position if my application had not been late. That wasn't the end of the story though. About two weeks later I got another letter from the graduate school (not the chemistry department) at Berkeley, that was rather insulting basically asking me snidely "Why did you apply if you couldn't get in?" I gave up the whole experience as just another run-in with incompetence. Jeff saw this letter as well, and he was mad enough for both of us. I just tossed the letter in the trash. Actually Berkeley had been my third choice anyway. Now I had to decide between UCLA and Wisconsin. There was one person at each school I thought I'd like to work for. At UCLA this was a tenured professor, while the professor at Wisconsin was new. Wisconsin was also my father's alma mater. The tenure/non-tenure facts didn't weigh very heavily on my decision, however. I sat down and did careful calculations to see if I could afford to move myself to Wisconsin, or near UCLA. It turned out it was close, but Wisconsin was just out of reach for me. UCLA was just within reach, barely. So I wrote to UCLA and told them I'd accept their offer, and wrote to Wisconsin declining their offer. I now concentrated on my last semester as an undergraduate, finishing everything. That last semester I was taking my last math class needed for a math minor. I turned in the second homework assignment, and got it back. Every problem had been marked wrong, although every answer was right. I'd derived the easiest way to solve the problems, which was obvious (at least to me) and used that method. After class when I asked the professor why everything was marked wrong, he said "I haven't taught that yet." When I pointed out to him that at the very beginning of the homework assignment I'd derived the method, he didn't care. He wouldn't budge. The next period I showed up with a drop slip in my back pocket. After class, I requested he sign it and at first he refused saying "You need this course to graduate!" And I told him, "No, I don't. I'm a chemistry major. I highly disagree with a teaching method and teacher that punishes insight and hard work. I also believe that "busy work" really doesn't have a place in a college class," so that's why I don't have my math minor. I found some notes from that class this week...and I can honestly say, I don't remember any of it, and really couldn't understand it. That's what happens when you don't use that branch of math. I graduated in June of 1975. I did research that summer for Dr. W. at Cal. State Fullerton before starting in the fall in the graduate program in the chemistry department at UCLA.

I had a tough time that first quarter at UCLA. I realized I had to work hard to catch up on theory in a few of my classes compared to my classmates. I was also having a hard time since a girl I was dating (whom I was extremely serious about) broke up with me. To say that I didn't deal with it well would be an understatement. I wasn't angry or mad at her, but completely confused. I can now recognize that I went into the only depression I've suffered in my life. I finally recovered by setting some goals for myself, which later didn't work out either (see the "Opposite Sex"). The winter quarter of 1976 I ended up having to have a knee operation, at the end of the quarter, but other than that things went well. The spring quarter I had to teach the lab I taught limping into the lab with a cane. But things were still went quite well, except for my teaching evaluations. I was a victim of one of those flukes of statistics...one of my labs had a few A & B students, and the rest were essentially failing the class. I gave help sessions before tests and labs. I did everything you could possibly do to help the students. Unfortunately, only the A and B students took advantage of the opportunities. I got bad student evaluations for the only time I was there. I was called in to talk to the director of the freshman program to talk about ways to improve my teaching. (The next quarter, I actually got an award for being one of the best teaching assistants. What did I do different? Not a thing.) By the end of the quarter, I had also decided to ask Dr. H. to be my supervisor. He accepted me. That summer I started a research project that Dr. H. assigned me. It looked like it should work to me. (If you ask me, it still does.) But it didn't. I kept trying more and more reactive metal complexes, finally getting a bunch of products using a very reactive nickel (0) complex. Dr. H. didn't like the look of things, and took me off that project. That sequence of events actually took a whole year. During that year, I completed nearly all my required classes. After that I only took classes that interested me. I was doing well in my classes. Dr. H. put me on a different project, one which began going quite well fairly quickly, and developed into the major portion of my Ph. D. dissertation. Meanwhile, it took me quite a while to pass the five required cumulative exams. I did manage to pass five, four inorganic and one organic (on organometallics). I passed my oral exam, but had to write a short additional paper about inherent (I think a few of the professors might have thought they knew what inherent line widths were, but after that paper they definitely had a better idea). Perhaps the most significant thing that happened during my oral defense, Dr. H. was falling ill of viral pneumonia which would sideline him for more than a month. By the end of 1979 and the beginning of 1980, I knew it was close to time to finish up. Every reaction I tried with the system did exactly what was expected...there were no surprises left. I started writing up my dissertation, on an old Smith Corona portable electric typewriter. I started looking for a job. The two possibilities were in academia or industry. Unfortunately there were very few academic jobs for inorganic chemist available, so I concentrated on industrial jobs. I interviewed with quite a few firms. I managed to find a job at Dow Chemical's Central Research in Midland, Michigan. I was planning to start at Dow on July 1, 1980. However, my fiance' Valerie's grandfather was not doing well, and it looked like she might have to go to Michigan for a funeral. I requested my start date at Dow be modified to September 8, 1980 which they agreed to do. Her grandfather rallied at last, and plans could proceed for our wedding. We had planned to get married in June, but with all that happened, that was no longer possible. We ended up getting married on July 12, 1980. While waiting to see what would happen with Valerie's grandfather, Dr. H. had me do a few more investigations. That and advances in our understanding of the catalytic system ended up with me having to make major revisions to my dissertation. These days that wouldn't be such bad news, but in 1980, it meant more or less retyping the entire dissertation. Valerie proof-read the dissertation. I managed to get the dissertation filed early in September and Valerie and I did a four day sprint from Westwood to Midland, Michigan

At Dow my initial research responsibility was in Ziegler-Natta catalysis, specifically in converting their polyethylene polymerization catalyst to a isotactic specific polypropylene polymerization catalyst (something I didn't figure out until I left Dow for the University where I now work). Other projects were in reinforcement of polymers, anionic polymerization, conductive polymers, gas permeability in membranes, and facilitated oxygen transport through glassy membranes. Along with all this I used my skills at construction of gas tight systems to improve testing apparati. The most frustrating thing was that we were supposed to turn in our reports ready to be typed to the secretary. I turned in lots of reports, but only the first ever got typed. This dereliction was somehow MY fault making it look like I was unproductive. Essentially I was being shut out by my manager for some unknown reason. I finally bought a TI994A computer and a daisy wheel printer and started typing my own reports giving no one any excuses to bury my reports anymore. The last two and a half years I was there, I outperformed everyone in my building. I was rated highly by my supervisor (she no longer had any choice)and the lab supervisor, but that ranking was always reduced to near the bottom of my lab by the director of Central Research (who didn't like the projects I was working on, which wasn't supposed to affect you ranking, but did). It was clear that it was time to look for a different job. I also hated the research they had me doing, which was essentially 100% physical chemistry. I'm a synthetic/catalytic chemist. This work was boring me and making me dread going to work. I'd been there 6 years and was fully vested. I started applying for academic positions. I knew this would involve a pay cut, but if I was going to make the jump to academia, this was the time. In 1987 I was a serious candidate for four academic jobs, one in north Louisiana, one in southwest Louisiana, one in Florida (in a very expensive area) and one at a small college in New York. The job in New York was interesting but the salary offered was too low to support a family of four in New York. I ended up accepting a position at the university in southwest Louisiana. Things would be tight, but should be manageable, especially since the cost of living in Louisiana was relatively low.

I finished putting a new timing chain cover on my 1973 Toyota and left Michigan August 12, 1987, leaving Valerie and my daughters in Michigan where they'd try to sell the house. I made it to my destination about four hours later than I planned do to some overheating problems with the car. I was the told that in three days I'd be teaching a graduate course in inorganic Chemistry starting on Thursday night. I'd been told that I'd be teaching freshman courses but this was a surprise.

Things progressed well and I've relatively prospered. Until I got tenure I worked 75 t0 80 hours per week, establishing my research, program, writing grant proposals, etc. I still work over 60 hours most weeks, but I manage to be home much more. I, like every teacher that I've ever met, discovered that I did not like to grade. Other than that and filling out more and more paperwork, this would be an ideal job for me. I've become convinced that the University has someone locked in a room doing nothing but devising more forms to be filled out, which will probably never be looked at...almost all of it is CYA for the administration. This past semester, I took 5 hours of sick leave because I was sick. I ended up having to do and redo paperwork so many times that I actually spent five and a half hours on the paperwork. If you are wondering I've accumulated nearly two years of sick leave. I developed a good graduate course and completely redid the senior inorganic laboratory, including writing an in-house manual/textbook for the course. I end up teaching scientific literature, advanced inorganic chemistry and the senior inorganic chemistry laboratory in the spring semester and freshman courses in the summer and fall semesters. I'm currently serving as freshman chemistry coordinator and assistant department head. I served as interim department head from summer of 2000 to the beginning of summer of 2002. The spring of 2002 was hellish...a $29,000 shortfall of graduate stipends promised (but not delivered by the administration), an instructor dying of a brain aneurysm, another going blind because of retinitis pigmentosa and the secretary gone for most of the semester with health problems. Meanwhile I was battling my own health problems, which led me to step down and arrange for our current department head just before the summer semester of 2002.

I've done research in diverse areas, which is reflected where my publications have appeared throughout my career: Chemical Communications, Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Polymer Preprints, The Microchemical Journal, Organic Letters and four U. S. Patents (one from UCLA, two from Dow Chemical, and one from my current University). I've become expert in gas chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, infrared and near infrared spectrometry, ultraviolet-visible spectrometry, scanning differential calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis. I've also built an apparatus to determine single gas permeabilities of polymeric membranes. My areas of research at the University have included anionic (using organolithiums), cationic (using deaminatively generated carbocations) and Ziegler-Natta polymerizations, studies of poly(methylaluminoxane)s, studies of halatopolymers, differential scanning calorimetry studies of polymers, studies of gas permeabilities of polymers, and studies of metal complexes of gallotannins and derivatives of gallotannins.

Currently I'm attempting to get my research going more robustly. Understandably after my serious illness during the summer of 2002, students were a bit shy about signing up to do research with me, being fearful of losing their research advisor for an extended period. I've had two undergraduate researchers and one very productive graduate student since then. I'm currently attempting to attract some new graduate students. I've also entered into a few collaborative efforts with some of the faculty, which look like they will bear fruit (and make my research efforts even more diverse...I think I must be a research chameleon...always changing!)


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