A former NASA engineer and astronautics professor offers down-to-earth advice and recommended reading on preparing for and surviving in science-related professions. This book is especially valuable for those who are attempting career transitions between the work place and academic environments.
This book translates "thinking like a rocket scientist" into every day thinking so it can be used by anyone. It’s short and snappy and written by a rocket scientist. The book illustrates the methods (the 7 secrets) with anecdotes, quotations and biographical sketches of famous scientists, personal stories and insights, and occasionally some space history. The author reveals that rocket science is just common sense applied to the extraordinarily uncommon environment of outer space and that rocket scientists are people, too. It is intended for "armchair" scientists, and for those interested in popular psychology, space history, and science fiction films.
Rocket science-or aerospace, as it is formally known-is the source of amazing accomplishments and benefits for humanity. From commercial aviation to GPS to Mars rovers, aerospace efforts also provide exciting and rewarding careers for a million people in the United States alone. But we have a problem...and it's bigger than Houston can solve! Actually there are several problems: > An earlier generation is entering retirement age, which will create shortages in skills and knowledge. Who will take their place?> The forces and velocities of change are putting large stresses on established aerospace organizations and approaches. How will they adapt?> Customers and citizens are still begging for affordable, safe, and reliable solutions that can only come from putting technology or people above planet Earth. What innovations will satisfy these demands? As Brett Hoffstadt explains, the single answer to these questions is "We need more rocket scientists!" Could you be one of them? Could one of them be in your classroom? Or your family? Distilled from over two decades of wide-ranging experience in the aerospace industry and written in a conversational style, within these tips are stories, quotes of wisdom, and specific resources help launch you on a course that can transform your dreams into reality. Even if your career journey is aimed toward another field, the tips that prove powerful for rocket scientists will give you unique propulsive force plus guidance, navigation, and controls (or GNC) for your own success. When you read this book you'll get 10 powerful tips to help you realize that Yes--YOU COULD BE a rocket scientist!
John L. Junkins, PhD, Distinguished Professor and Member of the NAE, has written this "professional advice" book for young and mid-career engineering professors. This book provides no-nonsense mentoring that will help professors achieve success and happiness while performing well the expected volume of teaching, research, scholarship, and winning grants. Dr. Junkins has performed these functions well for four decades, directed the research of over 50 PhD students, published 7 books, several patents and ~400 other publications; he has served as Principal Investigator for ~$40M of research. Over 20 of his offspring are successful professors. Known as an excellent mentor, his advice is derived from first-hand experience and surveys of colleagues. He conveys many practical insights that will help you achieve a productive professional career and a happy personal life. Statistical data provided on successful associate and full professor promotions will help set goals and calibrate your performance.
Provides updated key information, including salary ranges, employment trends, and technical requirements. Career profiles include air traffic controller, bridge tender, charter boat captain, commercial pilot, and more.
This textbook provides details of the derivation of Lagrange's planetary equations and of the closely related Gauss's variational equations, thereby covering a sorely needed topic in existing literature. Analytical solutions can help verify the results of numerical work, giving one confidence that his or her analysis is correct. The authors—all experienced experts in astrodynamics and space missions—take on the massive derivation problem step by step in order to help readers identify and understand possible analytical solutions in their own endeavors. The stages are elementary yet rigorous; suggested student research project topics are provided. After deriving the variational equations, the authors apply them to many interesting problems, including the Earth-Moon system, the effect of an oblate planet, the perturbation of Mercury's orbit due to General Relativity, and the perturbation due to atmospheric drag. Along the way, they introduce several useful techniques such as averaging, Poincaré's method of small parameters, and variation of parameters. In the end, this textbook will help students, practicing engineers, and professionals across the fields of astrodynamics, astronomy, dynamics, physics, planetary science, spacecraft missions, and others. “An extensive, detailed, yet still easy-to-follow presentation of the field of orbital perturbations.” - Prof. Hanspeter Schaub, Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department, University of Colorado, Boulder “This book, based on decades of teaching experience, is an invaluable resource for aerospace engineering students and practitioners alike who need an in-depth understanding of the equations they use.” - Dr. Jean Albert Kéchichian, The Aerospace Corporation, Retired “Today we look at perturbations through the lens of the modern computer. But knowing the why and the how is equally important. In this well organized and thorough compendium of equations and derivations, the authors bring some of the relevant gems from the past back into the contemporary literature.” - Dr. David A Vallado, Senior Research Astrodynamicist, COMSPOC “The book presentation is with the thoroughness that one always sees with these authors. Their theoretical development is followed with a set of Earth orbiting and Solar System examples demonstrating the application of Lagrange’s planetary equations for systems with both conservative and nonconservative forces, some of which are not seen in orbital mechanics books.” - Prof. Kyle T. Alfriend, University Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M University
This book provides young scientists, from physicists through to sociologists, the counsel and tools that are needed to be their own agents and planners, to survive and succeed, hopefully even thrive in science. Making a good career based on peer-reviewed science means navigating many stressful phases from graduate school through to permanent employment. Performing artists pay agents to help them in this effort. In effect, this book is designed to allow you to act as your own agent. You are counseled to analyze yourself deeply to know clearly what you want and whether you can live with it, how to make career choices and what you should then keep in mind, when to fight and when to yield. The unwritten rules of the ?science game? are explained, including how to become published and known, the pitfalls of peer review and how to evade them, papers and posters, job interviews and getting your science funded. Interspersed with this are illustrative anecdotes and a fair amount of humor. While the book is aimed at young scientists, from graduate students and beyond, more senior scientists will benefit from seeing the world from the point of view of rising scientists and become aware of the preoccupations of people in a system which has changed much from when the present senior scientists were rather younger.
Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Special Publications Series. Whether you are a science undergraduate or graduate student, post-doc or senior scientist, you need practical career development advice. Put Your Science to Work: The Take-Charge Career Guide for Scientists can help you explore all your options and develop dynamite strategies for landing the job of your dreams. Completely revised and updated from the best-selling To Boldly Go: A Practical Career Guide for Scientists, this second edition offers expert help from networking to negotiating a job offer. This is the book you need to start moving your career in the right direction.