Career Communications Group

This is academia. We have the most flexibility of any job, and yet here we are saying that if s easier in industry to have children. I do not understand this. When my children were born, I was at home, and I had group meetings at home—we have computers now, and we have all kinds of means of communication—so I was gone for just a month or two. Now, I have never taken a sabbatical—which is my personal choice—but I have colleagues who were on sabbatical, and I could not tell because I hadn t seen them in 2 or 3 years anyway. These are all side tracks off the main issue of integrating your life into your career. It is so terribly discouraging that for some reason academia is not perceived as a wonderful... 

Desire to remain in native land/fear of the nnknown. While economic conditions in Russia may be tough, an unfamiliar existence in a foreign land, living far away from one s community and loved ones, and promises of money and prestige from states and sub-national groups that many Russians consider inferior may provide little incentive for specialists to risk their careers and home life for the sake of profiting from proliferation. 

Throughout one s career, one works in groups with a wide variety of people. Sometimes another group member will be one s polar opposite. For example, one member prefers to take in all the information, think about it, and give a solution without detailing the steps. Another prefers to go step-by-step and always keeps a neat calculations notebook. Group members need to interact on a basis of respect for each other s unique styles. Interactions based on respect and professionalism make use of this diversity to enhance creativity, to improve communication with a wide variety of clients, and to help all group members develop a broader array of capabilities. 

Prof. Hirst has a strong interest in promoting the field of soft matter and its importance to students, scientists, and the public. In 2008, she founded Soft Matter World (http //www. softmatterworld.org), a Web site dedicated to the soft matter scientific community. Through this online resource, students and researchers are able to discover soft matter research groups around the world and keep up with the latest in conferences, research, and career opportunities. 

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