Conversing with the Associate Director of nano@stanford, Sara Ostrowski, here is some insight into the life of a nanotechnologist for Stanford University. 

What is your day to day life as a research scientist?

"I haven’t actually worked on pure research in a very long time (since 2005!), but instead I spent most of my professional career working at characterization service labs (https://www.eag.com/ and https://www.ge.com/research/characterization).  Clients would pay the lab/company to have scientists like me perform materials testing on their samples. For example, I tested samples such as personal electronic devices, brain tissue, DNA, MOS transistors, medical implants, and microLEDs, but I’m certainly not an expert in any of those areas."

"Compared to my experiences in industry, the work-life in academia is slower paced and my goals are more nebulous.  My day-to-day tasks are still quite diverse.  I prepare presentations and reports for the National Science Foundation to update them on our program’s progress.  This includes data crunching, such as user statistics (% of Stanford users, external academic users, industry users etc.) and lists of scientific publications that used our facilities.  On another day, I might be organizing a technical workshop, planning a conference, or helping to run a community outreach event."

 

What are the pros and cons to working for a university, as opposed to a corporate company? 

"Industry pros – ending each day with a sense of accomplishment (lots of short-term goals!), nice balance of hands-on lab time vs non-technical tasks, clear goals & performance expectations, exposure to cutting-edge science across many industries/applications, meeting a variety of industry professionals

(Salary was not a ‘pro’ for me; although in most cases in the US, industrial jobs pay more than university jobs.)

Industry cons – stress, long hours, poor work/life balance, limited sense of what impact I may have made for my clients (I rarely received feedback from them), little sense of societal impact (making money for a big company just didn’t feel like I was making a difference in the world).

Academia pros – lower stress and great work/life balance (I do need to sometimes work long hours and address difficult/urgent problems, however that is sporadic rather than an everyday occurrence), great sense of societal impact (ex. we’re providing students who have limited resources with experiential learning opportunities), lots of university perks (interesting seminars, arts & culture events, fitness center access)

Academia cons – the slow pace and red tape (bureaucracy/ university politics) can be frustrating, my goals & responsibilities aren’t always clear, I worry I’ll lose my technical edge by leaving the lab, staff can feel like 2nd class citizens relative to professors"

 

Briefly, what is the nano@stanford program that you work for and how do they help students worldwide?

"Education & Outreach is an important component of nano@stanford. For example, [this program] provides various internship opportunities, including a 20+ week paid internship experience for community college students. 

Our nanoSIMST workshop enables middle school teachers to teach nanoscience in their classrooms (https://nanolabs.stanford.edu/education-outreach/nanoscience-summer-institute-middle-school-teachers-nanosimst). 

We also offer facility tours and activities that strive to inspire excitement in nano and STEM for students and the general public.  And finally, we collaborate with our technical staff to create on-line learning content that is available to everyone."

 

For anyone thinking of entering the field of nanotechnology, Sara Ostowski also mentioned:

"The nanotech industry is most definitely growing! I learned that the US semiconductor industry is projected to grow to over $1 trillion by 2030 and there is concern that we’ll experience a talent shortage by then because of this rapid growth (so lots of new job openings in the pipeline)."