Hatrack River Writers Workshop: What should my college professor teach?

This is topic What should my college professor teach? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

My present WIP's supporting character is a small town college professor. He needs to be knowledgeable with any space type science, possibly connected with space travel and star systems. He will eventually come in contact with ET's who left an important peice of equipment behind on present day Earth, and I'd like the professor to have enough knowledge and skill to be able to work with them once they arrive. At least within the limits of modern day American education.

Right now I'm saying he teaches aerospace science and technology. I made this up and don't know if there is even any such thing but need something like this for the knowledge he'll need to deal with the ET's and his current problem that involves the equipment the ET's left behind. I guess I should add that the ET's are the friendly and sociable kind, and the professor is an inventor hobbiest .

Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :

Just guessing here: astrophysics?

Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :

Maybe Astrobiology?

I think it's a course at Stanford. I tried downloading it through iTunes U, but it was giving me a miserable time. That's iTunes for ya'.

Posted by Josephine Kait (Member # 8157) on :

Check out Embry Riddle, even if your story doesn’t take place in Florida, your prof could have come from or through there. Maybe he always liked space and thought he wanted to work for NASA, so he went to ERAU. Then he transferred back to small town because he was homesick. Or something. But either way, looking through the school’s offered degrees and course offerings may get you where you want to be.

Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :

Does he need to understand star systems or the technology because these are two completely different fields?

Posted by Natej11 (Member # 8547) on :

Astrophysics is a good place to start. You could have him receive his doctorate for a specific field related to what he'll be dealing with in the story. Also a lot of scientists spread out beyond their area of expertise in research fields as they teach. My dad taught Physics 101 and 102 and also a less math-intensive class called Physical Science 100. All three fairly basic undergraduate classes, but his research at the university involved muon-catalyzed and metal-catalyzed fusion which was fairly cutting-edge.

So you can either have him get the specific degree he needs, or some other degree and then have him turn his emphasis to studies more pertinent to the story.

Also I don't know much about quantum mechanics, but I hear it's a more hip field for sci-fi at the moment. Or at least it was ten years ago . Quantum entanglement or string theory is always a good area.

Posted by Brendan (Member # 6044) on :

I think it would depend on the nature of the alien artefact. I'd consider the Aerospace Engineering, if the equipment is something to do with flying or propulsion. Also Nanotechnology, Materials Science, Chemistry or a Applied Physics course if the technology is a function of the materials. Microbiology, Chemistry, or Food Science if it is biological. Access to "cool" technology, such as electron microscopes, etc. will depend on the specialty, so I would consider what information he needs either quick access to or can obtain through experiment, in my choice.

Posted by rstegman (Member # 3233) on :

He could teach at MIT and therefore know technology when he sees it and can figure it out. There are a lot of shows out where the students have to invent something from a box of parts. That sounds like something your professor would need to know to do.

Posted by EmilyS (Member # 9447) on :

Speaking as someone in the space industry...it will depend on what you need him to be knowledgeable about. Aerospace engineering is probably the broadest--he'd know enough about the science of space to be able to design/build spacecraft. Astrophysics will be much deeper into the science, how the universe works and so on, but not as hands-on. Something like atmospheric, oceanic, and space science is sort of in between.

One caveat: a small community college isn't likely to have programs in any of these. He might have the degree, but he'd probably end up teaching something like straight-up physics and astronomy. A little research into college websites should give you an idea of what's a plausible program.

Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

My professor, whom I call Sam, must have enough background to understand teleportation basics in theory if nothing else. The ET's device that's left behind is a prototype teleporter and key to the story.

I like the idea that Sam's degree is specialized, but he teaches something more basic. Maybe because he raised his son on his own for the past 17 years. His son still lives with him, is 19, and preparing to enter college himself... preferably one with more to offer than a small town college.

So maybe have Sam's degree in astrophysics, but he teaches physics at the college? Does that sound feasible?

Posted by Brendan (Member # 6044) on :

Teleportation is the domain of quantum physics. I'd consider Applied Physics as a degree, because this covers both quantum physics and instrumentation/electronics.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I suppose a small-town college professor would actually sully his hands with teaching students, rather than some tenured expert at some Ivy League school who the students never lay eyes on. (Ever hear of the "I Touched Carl Sagan" saga?)

So in all probability, whatever Sam's degree, or degree of specialty within that field, he'd be teaching something basic. Astronomy. Physics. Engineering. Chemistry. Biology.

How small would the college be? Community college? Two-year? Four-year? Would Sam have students doing research and going for their Ph.Ds under him?

Posted by micmcd (Member # 7977) on :

quote:

Would Sam have students doing research and going for their Ph.Ds under him?

Unless the referenced small town was a college town, that answer is no. There are certainly towns that fit the bill that could still be called smallish. Ithaca, NY (Cornell), Charlottesville VA (UVA), Chapel Hill, NC (UNC). Depends on your definition of small.

Would an average Joe have heard of the college your prof works for? If so, then it's fine for him to be the world's leading expert on quantum field dynamics. Even if so, his PhD would be in physics or mathematics. Some colleges go so far as to grant degrees in Applied Mathematics/Physics, but I've never heard of an actual PhD in Astrophysics. I once dated an astrophysicist, and she was working on her PhD at Penn in physics. Everything she studied was up in the stars, though. Stuff more specific than that would be in his thesis, but his actual degree would just read the base field in most places (though it would read as such in Latin in plenty of places).

By the way, if Sam is really a world expert, he'd have to have a damn good reason to be living in Podunk where there is no major college. As in, knocked up a local and stayed to raise the kid. Short of that... PhD's from big schools tend to avoid community colleges. Perhaps has a sick mother and is taking care of her... something that would tie him down to a place he probably would rather not be in.

Posted by Smiley (Member # 9379) on :

I just came in on the tail end of the conversation but I think that I have an interesting take on your problem. There is a unique situation at a
college here in Texas that just might fit the bill for your story idea. You could use it as a template. FWIW

[This message has been edited by Smiley (edited March 22, 2011).]

Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

This is a little 4 year college. I live near two such colleges. The one I'm patterning my story after is Manchester College. The other is Huntington University. They're both located in NE Indiana.

Sam is in no way world reknown in his field. More like average. With the way the economy is, I was thinking he couldn't find a job opening in his specialty and took the teaching position in this small midwestern town (No way could you call it a city) that just happens to be where he was raised. He also feels it's a good environment to raise his son.

The story focuses on an accident involving the teleporter that Sam has to figure out how to correct or my protagonist will be in a real bad permanent predicament.

The college won't even be part of the story. I just needed a background for Sam that will help him solve my protagonist's problem... which is what the story is about.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Some of the subjects bandied about wouldn't have anywhere to be practiced outside NASA and academia, though.

Also...on the college not being part of the story...to reach way back, Charles Dickens used to have characters who would be, say, an architect, but the reader never saw these characters practice arcitecture. Over and over again. Dickens got away with it because his work was so rich in so many different ways (I picked this up from an analysis of Dickens by Orwell, but saw how it fit right away)...if you have a character who's a college professor, and he doesn't do anything at the college, or doesn't do any professor-y things, you might alienate the readers...

Posted by micmcd (Member # 7977) on :

Not being able to find a job opening in his specialty is very realistic; however if Sam chose to settle down as you're describing, he must have given up ever trying to get a job in what he loved. You can't really take time off of research and expect to get back in, at least not while you're young.

A character like you're describing could easily be a recently minted doctorate in Physics from a place like Indiana University. One key detail - Sam wouldn't have any debt from college. Well, not from grad school. PhD's go to school for free and get paid a stipend.

As a level of comparison, back when I was in grad school, 2002-2007 at U of Penn, the stipend was something like $23K per year in the math department, and you had the chance to teach a summer class for an additional $5K (students would fight over those teaching assignments, and they routinely went to the highest rated TAs, which was always slanted in favor of the Americans).

That salary level would be adjusted for cost of living for wherever Sam graduated, but it wouldn't be that uncommon for him to have saved a little. For a small town like you describe, though, he wouldn't be making much money at all teaching at a community college. I have friends who finished their PhDs and got very prestigious positions at Columbia and were making around 55K (sounds okay, but try living on that in Manhattan). In Nowheresville, USA at a never-heard-of-it college or community college, he'd be lucky to be above 40K at his age (the impression I got from your description was that he was at or under 30). A tenured professor would make considerably more, but he'd have to be 35ish to hit that, unless he was a rock star at his little school. Being a rock star at a little school likely means reforming the curriculum and taking on lots of administrative duties, as opposed to what it would mean at a big school, which is attracting boatloads of grant money and publishing in prestigious journals.

Posted by AstroStewart (Member # 2597) on :

I got my PhD in physics a few years back, so I thought I'd chime in.

I agree with above posts that if this professor is at a small town 4-year college (and not a famous one) he will be teaching basic classes for the most part. Astronomy. Physics. Mathematics. Not Quantum Field Theory or anything else so overly specific.

Also, it is very difficult (at least in physics) for a freshly minted PhD to find a tenure-track faculty job... anywhere. There is simply an overabundance of PhDs who wish to remain in academia, and not enough jobs. So it would be realistic for this professor to have anywhere from 2-6 years of being a postdoctoral researcher (very commonly referred to as "postdoc") which is a sort of middle ground between graduate student and professor. 6 years of postdocs would be a bit on the long side for ending up with a small town, obscure college job. I would go with 2-3 years, since most postdocs last about that long. (So he would have graduated, finished a single 2-3 year temporary postdoc position, then have gotten his current job offer). This would make him roughly 30 years old when he *first* started as a professor. (finish HS at 18, finish college at 22, finish grad school at 27, finish postdoc at 30).

As was mentioned above, he wouldn't have any student loans from graduate school. In case it helps your back-story, grad students typically earn about $20-25k a year, and typical postdoc positions pay about $35-50k, depending on if it's a prestigious fellowship, or if it's a a university or a national lab, etc. Personally, I don't think you would need some elaborate reason for him to be at a small town college. (A 2-year community college, yes, as it's seen as a step "lower" than a 4-year college). Academic (tenure-track) jobs are very hard to get, and maybe he likes the small town feel.

Hope this helps!

Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

Thanks so much everyone for all the help. I think what I have planned will work. I just had to find a way for Sam to have enough knowledge to unlock the secrets of the teleporter and solve the "problem" the story is about.