26 - Increasing Your Impact Beyond Impact Factor

In this final episode of the show we sat down with our advisor Mark Wiesner. Mark is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a long time Department Chair at Duke University. He also has directed of the Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology for 10+ years where he worked with Christine. Mark has shared insights about trust and building relationships throughout your career. This is the perfect capstone to the show. Please consider heading over to Patreon and supporting Helium Podcast so we can pay to keep the show online and on the podcast servers. 

Courtney joined us in episode 6 as she was driving across the country to her new position at Washington State University. She rejoined us so we could learn how things shaped up in her first year+ of teaching, advising and grant writing. There is lots of reality in this episode, but a bunch of hope for those hoping to land a faculty position someday or starting one soon. She did not hold back telling it like it is and we appreciate her candor. 

We take stock of the past 32 episodes and plot a course for future episodes of the show. We both work in roles where we help integrate teams and enable them to co-create knowledge, and we are going to focus on sharing more of those insights going forward. After a paternity leave for Matt we will return with the show later in the Fall. We will have a few longer interviews of academics but mostly focus on shorter 15 minute episodes centered on teams. 

Creating your own style as a team leader means gathering the best ideas that are out there and adapting them to your personality. We asked 9 different podcast hosts to join the show to share their best ideas for onboarding others into teams or groups. They discuss positives and negatives have they experienced when being onboarded themselves. The bonus is that you also get to hear from 8 great shows that are for you as academics. Download this episode to find great onboarding ideas and your next podcast (or podcasts) to subscribe to. Creating your own style as a team leader means gathering the best ideas that are out there and adapting them to your personality. We asked 9 different podcast hosts to join the show to share their best ideas for onboarding others into teams or groups. They discuss positives and negatives have they experienced when being onboarded themselves. The bonus is that you also get to hear from 8 great shows that are for you as academics. Download this episode to find great onboarding ideas and your next podcast (or podcasts) to subscribe to.  Show notes: www.teamhelium.co/episode32 Shows included are: (1) The Contingent Professor (2) Personal Finance for PhDs (3) Fast Track Impact (4) Working Scientists (from Nature Careers) (5) Grad Blogger (6) Research in Action (7) PhD Career Stories (8) Teaching in Higher Ed

Too much technology and you overwhelm the students and yourself. However, today's students are digital natives and may expect a different approach to learning than students just a few years ago. How do you harness the best of what technology has to offer to improve your courses and make your job easier? Dr. Monica Burns, host of the Ed Tech Made Easy podcast, joined us to share many tips for platforms and approaches for technology in your courses. For full show notes and transcript: www.teamhelium.co/episode31 

How do you obtain the first experiences in the classroom? How do you learn the vocabulary you need to discuss your teaching experience? As host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast and a faculty member herself these are the two questions Bonni Stachowiak sees early career researchers struggle with. She answers these questions and also jam packs this episode with manageable steps for any graduate student, postdoc or professor to improve their teaching.

As an early career faculty member you are often called upon to design or redesign a course. This can be something faculty dread as a distraction from research. But by following a framework for course design you can enjoy and excel in this process. In this episode Liesl Wuest walks us through a framework that will allow you to intentionally create your next course in a structured way with learning goals, objectives, content, activities and assessment in mind.  www.teamhelium.co/episode29

Your brain creates your mind which creates your experience. It determines your happiness levels and your ability to make new discoveries. But how well do you understand your brain? How well do you take care of your brain? Author and engineer Sean Webb joined the show to talk about the benefits of understanding how your mental states are created and how you can train your brain to improve your cognitive processes through practices like meditation. Sean makes a convincing argument that meditation is a practice you should start today. 

Dr. Olivia Aguilar, Associate Professor at Denison University, joined the show to talk about her wide ranging experiences. How tough is the tenure process? How much tougher it is for someone who is a first generation in her family college grad? How do you manage and vet the opportunities given to you as a new assistant professor? How do you authentically engage early career researchers who come come from diverse backgrounds? These are just a few of the questions we cover in this interview. 

When you think to yourself, how do I make a bigger impact with my research? Are you lost about where to start? It was great to host Mark Reed, host of Fast Track Impact podcast, on this episode. We dove into the questions you should be asking yourself when you want to increase your impact beyond impact factor. We also discussed how to use social media properly for maximum effect. Mark also touched on mental health issues surrounding social media and academia. How do match your values with the time you are spending each week?