The New Professor's Handbook: A Guide to Teaching and Research in Engineering and Science

This book is an ideal resource for those making the transition from graduate student to new faculty member in engineering and science. Developed through years of use with new faculty, it tackles the two themes that will be constant in a young faculty member’s career: teaching and research.

The book first distills the abundant literature that has already been published on teaching, covering student learning and course planning, conducting discussions and lecturing, creating exams and assignments, and working with teaching assistants.

Bringing together guidance gained from numerous seminars, discussions, and interviews, and the little existing in current literature on starting and conducting scientific research, the next section includes assembling research teams, supervising graduate research, getting research funding, writing research papers, reviewing research proposals, presenting results, and conducting graduate seminar programs.

The book features practical chapter exercises that apply concepts, and it concludes with an extensive bibliography. It will be of help to any faculty member embarking on a teaching and research career in higher education in the sciences.

SUSAN A. AMBROSE is Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning and Professor of Education at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh. Ambrose received her B.A. degree (1979) in political science and her M.A. (1981) in history from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and her doctorial degree (1986) in American history from Carnegie Mellon University. At Carnegie Mellon, she has created faculty and graduate student development programs and conducted seminars for faculty in colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. Ambrose has made presentations at regional, national, and international conferences on issues around faculty and graduate student development, and has publications in those areas. She also teaches courses on immigration and ethnicity.

CLIFF I. DAVIDSON is Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy, and is Director of the Environmental Institute, at Carnegie Mellon University. He grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. Davison received his B.S. (1972) in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon, and his M.S. (1973) and Ph.D. (1977) in environmental engineering science from California Institute of technology. In addition to publishing and lecturing widely on environmental topics, he is on the editorial boards of three journals and has been a member of more than a dozen governmental committees. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association for Aerosol Research. He has taught both undergraduate and graduate course since 1977.