Materials Connect

What defines a materials scientist?

Recently, the MRS bloggers have been sharing ideas about what defines a materials scientist. We discovered that our group is made up of a diverse pool of people from a variety of backgrounds. As one of the bloggers involved in the conversation, I was curious to analyses our different profiles and compare them to my own experiences. It appears that we have all taken different paths to arrive to the materials science discipline and, although our views vary on what we consider to be the top three skills of a materials scientist, there are some quite interesting trends.

My own path to materials science has been a winding one, although it’s all been based in the UK. I started out with a joint honors undergraduate degree in earth science with astronomy before obtaining a multi-disciplinary MSc related to process engineering. After that I spent a few years working in the nuclear industry before returning to academia to pursue a PhD in molecular modelling of polymers for carbon capture. Finally, I moved in to a post-doctoral position at a flagship radiation science laboratory which was converted into a fellowship specializing in nuclear waste.  

In my analysis of our ideas about materials science I found that, surprisingly, while some of us focused on technical skills needed to achieve the heights of materials discovery, many of us articulated the sheer importance of transferable skills that would apply to many other disciplines.

At least half of us mentioned that creativity, imagination or curiosity are key attributes of a materials scientist. Kero explained this very well when he pointed out that it takes more time than a PhD to become a true expert in any one discipline. He gave examples on how he is juggling with disciplines but probably, it is his curiosity that drives him to delve into his research and to keep exploring. That is certainly one of the things that keeps me going as well.

Most of us mentioned working with others in some way, whether that be about communication or collaboration. The ability to talk multiple scientific languages was specifically mentioned by both Hortense and Bharati. I think this makes a lot of sense as we are often working with people who may be technical specialists in one very particular area such as NMR or ion beam interactions and you often need to rely on several different disciplines to conduct an experiment. Since a lot of us supervise students or PhD candidates who many not yet have the same level of knowledge as we do, it is also important for us to be able to clearly explain key concepts to them.

A summary of the top 3 skills we each identified in a materials scientist. Blue = technical skill; Green = creativity and curiosity; Yellow = working with others.

Given our diversity, there were, of course, some very individual responses. Gargi may be the only one who mentioned that planning and multi-tasking are important and, to me, this suggests that picking the most outstanding skills of a materials scientist is actually quite difficult.

I agree completely that that these attributes are very important so why didn’t they make it in to my own top three? I suppose that this is something I would do automatically and so, when I was asked the question about skills, I focused on what was on my mind at the time. Since my background is quite I learned to multi-task before I entered the materials science field. In contrast, I’m still getting to grips with some aspects of radiation science and supervising a research group.

Perhaps the reason that many of the bloggers focused on transferrable skills is that we’re already quite advanced in our education, and so already have a good grasp of many of the technical skills. I guess my analysis means that, ultimately, there are many aspects of a materials scientist, and that we draw on a common skill-set depending on the environment that we are working in.

So, what defines a materials scientist? It seems that there are a lot of attributes to consider and technical ability is only one part of the story; our creativity and ability to interact with others are just a few of the common skills we have identified.

 

Invest in your future: Go to seminars

When I was working on my PhD (over six years ago now), I was so focused on my own research that I never really saw any value in attending seminars or guest talks from invited speakers. Unless their research was directly relevant to my own work I just didn’t see how it would benefit me. With hindsight, this was a pretty daft viewpoint.

At the time I was so wrapped up in my research that I’d totally failed to see all the other benefits that the PhD experience provides, benefits that would be much more useful to my future career development.

While part of the PhD experience is certainly about carrying out novel research, a much bigger part of this experience is all the skills that you learn along the way. I’m not necessarily talking about the skills required to collect high quality microscope images or to use data processing software, what I found far more valuable were the transferrable skills. These skills are things like the ability to apply critical thinking to some results, the best way to talk about my work so that other people could understand it, and how to tackle a problem from different angles to find a good solution. Yes, I developed some of these skills by immersing myself in my own research but I think I’d have picked them up far more quickly if I’d made the effort to actively listen to other people talk about their work, and really tried to understand it. I think this would also have helped with the inevitable job-hunt that ensues once you’ve finished a PhD.

It’s fair to say that I now make much more effort to engage with these research seminars and, rather than just letting the words wash over me like they would have all those years ago, I now find it easier to stay attentive and can usually think of a question or two to ask at the end. This hasn’t exactly come easy but I’ve discovered a few tricks that have helped.

The easiest trick is simply to write down what the person is saying. Much like I did when I was an undergraduate who sat in a lot of lectures, I find that picking out the key points, or those that seem important really help me to stay focused. To continue the undergraduate lecture analogy, it also helps to imagine that someone might ask you to summarize the talk afterwards, a bit like the exam you’d sit at the end of the semester.

Another good idea is to make use of social media, although of course I don’t mean during the talk itself. I find LinkedIn and Twitter really useful for finding out about wider research and, since social media usually encompasses a broad audience, its often pitched in a way that you don’t need to work in that exact field to understand it. Just twenty minutes of daily browsing has really improved my general science knowledge which in turn has helped me understand the more specific information provided in someone’s talk. I guess you could say that it makes the talk more meaningful to me.

My final piece of advice is; if you’re really struggling to pay attention then you could assess the style and delivery of the talk, rather than the actual scientific content. Ask yourself whether the talk is logically structured, are the slides too cluttered, can you easily match up what the person is saying with the content of visual aid. It’s also worth asking yourself if there are any aspects of the presentation that you like and could apply to your own talks, or conversely, if there something about the talk is really off-putting then know to avoid doing something similar for your own work. When I do this I often find that I’ve actually taken in quite a lot, and could probably explain to someone what I found interesting about that person’s work.

The skills that I’ve now developed from critically listening to someone else’s work have certainly helped me with my own research. More broadly, these critical thinking skills would be just as useful should I choose in the future to change my career path and move away from research. It seems to me that, although you’ll develop as an independent researcher during your PhD, the transferable skills you acquire will be even more valuable.