本期由知名醫(yī)療影像專家AAAS 和 IEEE Fellow, Ge Wang教授談?wù)撍麑淌谶@個(gè)職業(yè)的看法。
I am glad to see that some young remembers in my lab become interested in the faculty career and keep asking me about it. I recognize that this is a big topic. Before we dig it deeply, it may be helpful to first comment on advantages and disadvantages of the faculty career. Hopefully, this type of information is also interesting in various ways to many others.
我很高興看到我實(shí)驗(yàn)室的一些年輕成員對大學(xué)教授這個(gè)職業(yè)產(chǎn)生了興趣并不斷向我咨詢有關(guān)問題。我知道這是一個(gè)很大的話題。在我們深入挖掘之前，先評論一下教授職業(yè)生涯的優(yōu)缺點(diǎn)可能會有所幫助。希望這種類型的信息以各種方式也可以令其他許多人感興趣。
As an established profession, the pros and cons of a faculty career have been extensively discussed, and it would not be easy to add new points. Naturally, we want to hear what others said about this career option. A quick Google search reveals a good number of relevant items. For example, this link came on the top of my search: https://www.phdstudies.com/article/Pros-and-Cons-of-Continuing-into-an-Academic-Career/. After a quick reading, I got the following positive aspects of the faculty career: (1) Your freedom, (2) interest, (3) association with young students, (4) an international network, and (5) job stability and decent compensation; and the negative points are: (1) less money, (2) strong competition, (3) unstable transition, (4) chance to fail tenure, and (5) your work not into practice.
作為一個(gè)既定的職業(yè)，教授職業(yè)生涯的利弊已經(jīng)得到了廣泛的討論，增加新的觀點(diǎn)并不容易。自然地，我們希望聽聽別人對這個(gè)職業(yè)選擇的看法。谷歌能夠搜索到大量相關(guān)的內(nèi)容。例如我搜索到的第一條的鏈接：https://www.phdstudies.com/article/Pros-and-Cons-of-Continuing-into-an-Academic-Career/?？焖匍喿x后，我得到了教職的以下積極方面：（1）自由，（2）興趣，（3）能和年輕學(xué)生接觸，（4）國際社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)，（5）工作穩(wěn)定性和體面; 以及負(fù)面因素：（1）較少的工資，（2）激烈的競爭，（3）不穩(wěn)定的過渡期，（4）拿不到長聘教職的可能性，（5）你的工作無法實(shí)用。
To make this blog more relevant, let us focus on an academic faculty career, and see if I could give you some new points worth your reading time. My immediate comments would be on the above-listed negative points which I tend to view positively.
為了使這篇博客更具相關(guān)性，讓我們專注于學(xué)術(shù)職業(yè)生涯，看看我是否能給你一些值得你閱讀時(shí)間的新觀點(diǎn)。我的評論是根據(jù)上面列出的負(fù)面觀點(diǎn)給出我的積極看法。
(1) Less money. Not necessarily. According to https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-Physician-Salary-by-State, the average salary of a physician varies with the state, roughly in a range of 200K. By https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Industry=High-Tech/Salary, the average salaries for Senior IT Project Manager, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Executive Officer are
175K, and $220K respectively. I would say that these salaries are not higher or not significantly higher than a good professor makes.
(1) 錢少？未必！根據(jù) https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-Physician-Salary-by-State, 臨床醫(yī)生的平均工資因州而異，大致范圍在15萬到20萬美元之間。而根據(jù) https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Industry=High-Tech/Salary, 高級IT項(xiàng)目經(jīng)理，首席營銷官和首席執(zhí)行官的平均薪水分別為10萬美元，17.5萬美元和22萬美元。我會說這些薪水并不比一位不錯(cuò)的教授的薪水高或高很多。
(2) Strong competition. I don’t think so. I have a surgeon friend who is an international authority in liver transplantation. He earns much more than a physician. He is a perfectionism, every hit must drive the golf ball directly to the hole, because he doesn’t tolerate any imperfect move that can be fatal in the surgical suite. As a former software engineer, I used to make a lot of mistakes, and I would be really happy when most bugs were removed by the end of the day. Hence, I consider my pressure is much less than my friend’s. Because a professor pursues a real interest, he/she enjoys the work and associated pressure if handled well. As a faculty member, one does not need to be perfect or successful all the time. Persistence is rewarding, which is my former mentor Dr. Michael Vannier told me.
(2) 競爭激烈？我不這么認(rèn)為！我有一位外科醫(yī)生的朋友，他是肝移植方面的國際權(quán)威。他的收入遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過內(nèi)科醫(yī)生。他是一個(gè)完美主義者，每次擊球都必須將高爾夫球直接送到球洞，因?yàn)樗荒苋萑倘魏尾煌昝赖膭?dòng)作，這在外科手術(shù)室中是致命的。作為一名前軟件工程師，我曾經(jīng)寫過很多bug，當(dāng)一天結(jié)束時(shí)改完大多數(shù)bug時(shí)，我會非常高興。因此，我認(rèn)為我的壓力比我朋友的壓力要小得多。因?yàn)榻淌谧非笳嬲呐d趣，如果能處理好的話，他/她喜歡工作和相關(guān)的壓力。作為一名教員，人們不需要一直保持完美或成功。堅(jiān)持是有回報(bào)的，這是我的導(dǎo)師Michael Vannier博士告訴我的。
(3) Unstable transition. It is good. Before one becomes a tenured professor, he/she is relatively young. The journey from a postdoctoral position and a tenure-track job toward a tenured professorship can be an exciting, joyful, eye-opening, and invaluable experience. The threshold for tenure is not easy but is not ridiculously high either. Hence, a majority of tenure-track faculty members eventually make it. In one’s lifetime, when the tenure decision is made it is a finest moment of memory.
(3) 過渡不穩(wěn)定？這挺好！在成為終身教授之前，他/她相對年輕。從博士后職位到獲得進(jìn)入終身教軌的工作再到終身教授的這段過程可以說是令人興奮，快樂，大開眼界的寶貴經(jīng)歷。終身教職的門檻并不容易，但沒有高得那么離譜。因此，大多數(shù)選擇這條路的人最終都成功拿到了終身教職。在一個(gè)人的一生中，獲得終身教職的時(shí)刻是記憶中最好的時(shí)刻之一。
(4) Chance to fail tenure. Not the end of the world. A chance of not getting tenured is not zero; otherwise, the tenure system will lose a good part of its meaning. The fact that one has been put on the tenure track shows his/her quite intellectual merits, since many other candidates even cannot get a chance to be tried out. By any measure, the period on the tenure track is unique, and can help develop into other career options, as long as you do not take the failure personally. Interestingly, all those I know who failed tenure are actually not below the average quality of the faculty, and do have alternative decent career paths. It seems to me that the main reason for failure in the tenure system is lack of senior mentorship and/or academic network, instead of insufficient IQ. This can be the topic of another article.
(4) 沒能獲得終身教職？不是世界末日！沒有獲得終身職位的可能性不是零; 否則，終身教軌制度將失去很大一部分意義。事實(shí)上，一個(gè)人能進(jìn)入終身教軌，這就已經(jīng)表明他/她具有很大的智力優(yōu)勢，因?yàn)樵S多其他候選人甚至沒有這樣的機(jī)會。無論如何，進(jìn)入終身教軌這段時(shí)期是獨(dú)一無二的，即便失敗，這期間的積累都能幫助你進(jìn)一步發(fā)展。有趣的是，所有我知道的失敗的人實(shí)際上都并不比獲得終身教職的人的平均水平差，而且都有其他不錯(cuò)的職業(yè)道路。在我看來，他們失敗的主要原因是缺乏高層次的指導(dǎo)和/或?qū)W術(shù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)，而不是智商不足。這可能是另一篇文章的主題了。
(5) Work not into practice. Generally untrue. For example, we are now performing AI/ML-based imaging research in collaboration with leading companies. Such academic-industrial partnerships are ideal to translate cutting-edge research results into the medical imaging marketplace. It is widely known that scientists figure out why, and engineers work out how. We are “scieneers” who are interested in both why and how in a highly interdisciplinary field called biomedical engineering. There are many chances to make differences and have impact on communities and lives. The boundaries are increasingly blurry between academic institutes and startup companies. For example, Google is a spin-off from Stanford University. Generally speaking, academic value is more fundamental than daily utility. Purest mathematics and theoretical physics do meet our high level needs, and can be viewed as critically useful.
(5) 工作不能進(jìn)入實(shí)用？一般不是這樣！例如，我們現(xiàn)在正在與領(lǐng)先的公司合作進(jìn)行基于AI / ML的成像研究。這種學(xué)術(shù)—工業(yè)合作伙伴關(guān)系對將尖端研究成果轉(zhuǎn)化為醫(yī)學(xué)成像市場是很理想的。眾所周知，科學(xué)家們弄明白為什么，工程師們則研究如何解決問題，而我們是“scieneers”，要兩者兼得，并且對生物醫(yī)學(xué)工程這一高度跨學(xué)科領(lǐng)域中的“為什么”和“怎樣做”同時(shí)有好奇心。教授有很多機(jī)會可以做出改變并對社會和生活產(chǎn)生影響的成果。學(xué)術(shù)機(jī)構(gòu)和創(chuàng)業(yè)公司之間的界限越來越模糊。例如，谷歌就是衍生于斯坦福大學(xué)的。一般來說，學(xué)術(shù)價(jià)值比日常實(shí)用更具基礎(chǔ)重要性。最純粹的數(shù)學(xué)和理論物理確實(shí)滿足了我們的高層次需求，因此可以被視為非常有用。
Having examined the so-called negative aspects of the faculty career, we can further argue for it. As mentioned in https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-advantages-of-being-a-professor, the faculty career has the flexibility in schedule, the vibrant intellectual atmosphere, rewarding engagement with students, tuition benefits to family members, and especially “very few professions command the respect of the general (and especially educated) public as faculty do.” “This influence can have a tremendous impact both at the individual level (career advancement, consulting jobs) and the societal level (e.g., Manhattan Project). Faculty members, along with doctors, enjoy a level of social prestige that hardly any others can compete with.”
在審視了教師職業(yè)的所謂消極方面之后，我們可以進(jìn)一步推薦教授職業(yè)。如https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-advantages-of-being-a-professor所述，教師職業(yè)生涯具有靈活的時(shí)間安排，充滿活力的知識氛圍，有收獲地與學(xué)生共事，為家庭成員帶來學(xué)費(fèi)優(yōu)惠等等。尤其是“很少有職業(yè)能夠像教職一樣受到（特別是受過教育的）公眾的尊重。”，“這種影響在個(gè)人層面（職業(yè)發(fā)展，咨詢工作）和社會方面（例如，曼哈頓計(jì)劃）產(chǎn)生巨大影響。 教授和醫(yī)生一起享有相當(dāng)程度的社會聲望，幾乎沒有其他人可以與之競爭?！?/p>
While I acknowledge that all professions can be outstanding for matching individuals, generally speaking I believe that the academic faculty position is not only a good job but actually the best job. Intellectually, a professor keeps learning and studying new things. At some times on certain topics he/she can be the best in the world, from which intellectual satisfaction and sense of achievement is beyond worldly things. Learning from others and mentoring the next generation makes you an integral part of civilization. One’s students are his/her academic children. The theory, technology, papers and books can be perpetual monuments. The AI and other high-techs may reduce or replace many professions but will not substitute professors.
雖然我承認(rèn)在匹配個(gè)人的前提下其實(shí)所有職業(yè)都是最佳職業(yè)，但總的來說，我相信學(xué)術(shù)職位不僅是一份好工作，而且實(shí)際上是最好的工作。教授一直在學(xué)習(xí)和研究新事物不斷增進(jìn)智慧。在他/她的領(lǐng)域，他/她可能是世界上最好的，從中獲得的滿足感和成就感是超越世俗的。向他人學(xué)習(xí)同時(shí)也指導(dǎo)下一代使你成為文明不可分割的一部分。一個(gè)人的學(xué)生就是他/她學(xué)術(shù)上的孩子。理論，技術(shù)，論文和書籍可以是永恒的紀(jì)念碑。AI和其他高科技可能會減少或取代許多職業(yè)，但不會替代教授。
