Abstract: I will discuss my experience searching for a tenure-track faculty position. I will talk about different stages of the process including getting your application package together, searching for open positions, interviewing, and negotiating. I will tell you about many lessons I learned on the way and about things I wish I had done differently. I applied for both physics and engineering positions and interviewed at many diverse departments, so the lessons I learned are to some extent applicable to other subfields besides condensed matter.
Bio: I did my undergrad and Master's in Moscow, Russia in both physics and applied mathematics. As a Master's student, I spent a year in Fermilab (near Chicago, IL) as a visiting scientist working on superconducting radiofrequency niobium cavities. After I joined the University of IL as a physics PhD student, I focused on studying quantum materials in Vidya Madhavan's group. I studied thin films of topological insulators and nanopatterned superconductor/topological insulator heterostructures. My experimental expertise includes scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), molecular beam epitaxy, atomic force microscopy, and various material analysis techniques. Currently I work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and use STM and transport at 10mK to study quantum materials, namely twisted graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides.
