{"id":46610,"date":"2024-08-16T13:43:03","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T17:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/?post_type=news&p=46610"},"modified":"2024-08-16T13:43:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T17:43:03","slug":"alumni-spotlight-phd-student-to-professor","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/alumni-spotlight-phd-student-to-professor\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Spotlight: PhD Student to Professor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gregory Wiedman<\/span><\/a>, Engr \u201915 (PhD) is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Seton Hall University. He reflects on his time at Hopkins, preparing for a career in academia, and his sources of inspiration. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did you pursue this career path? What motivated and attracted you to it?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A<\/span>fter <\/span>graduating from UPenn<\/span>, I knew my goal was to continue conducting research and working on an academic level. <\/span>Attending Hopkins for graduate school and b<\/span>eing part of the Preparing Future Faculty for Teaching (PFFT) Academy<\/span> helped me<\/span> apply my analytical skills in the classroom<\/span>, which is <\/span>something that I<\/span> have carried <\/span>on in<\/span> my career<\/span>.<\/span> I built on what I learned from my mentors at <\/span>Hopkins as a postdoc at the Public Health Research Institute at Rutgers<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the main factors that attracted me to an academic career was the freedom I\u2019d have to pursue my ideas and research interests.\u00a0 Being a professor gives me the opportunity to explore my passion for science in an environment that my students and I can create.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also really enjoy the mentoring aspect of being a professor.\u00a0 I love seeing that \u201clightbulb moment\u201d when one of my students makes a realization in the classroom or comes up with a new idea in the lab.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to be a part of some amazing projects and having this ability to foster creativity is unparalleled in nearly any other profession.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What attributes, skills, or knowledge are needed to be successful as a professor?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d say time management is one of the main skills a professor needs.\u00a0 There are so many draws on our time in academia, be it teaching classes, researching in the lab, administrative work, applying for external funding, and more.\u00a0 Discerning what tasks are most important is crucial to success as a professor, and I\u2019d struggle without it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second aspect I believe is that you need to be a little bit crazy.\u00a0 Not \u201cmad scientist Dr Frankenstein\u201d kind of crazy, though.\u00a0 There are very few things that go exactly as planned in science.\u00a0 If you weren\u2019t already crazy, research will probably drive you to it.\u00a0 But that said, being a bit off-the-wall with ideas leads to the creativity that we all strive for as scientists and even as humans.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Who in MatSci\/other departments inspired you to teach?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I likely would not be where I am today without the support and mentorship of my advisor <\/span>Kalina Hristova<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0If there\u2019s anyone in the world that I know would go to bat for me, it\u2019s Kalina. \u00a0Her mentorship is where I learned much of what I know about managing my time in the lab. \u00a0One of the things I\u2019ll always remember is her telling us why it\u2019s better to spend that extra hour in the lab wrapping something up instead of letting it sit over the weekend. \u00a0She always told us: \u201cThose weekends add up, and soon instead of two or three extra hours of work, it\u2019s days or months when you could have finished much earlier.\u201d That\u2019s an invaluable lesson about managing time that I now impart to my own students.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second person I\u2019d like to highlight is Dr. William Wimley from Tulane University.\u00a0 While I was at Hopkins, I spent a short time interning in Bill\u2019s lab.\u00a0 I learned much of what I know about peptide library synthesis and design from Bill and his students.\u00a0 Much of my approach to understanding the thermodynamics behind biochemical processes comes from the time I spent working with Dr. Wimley.\u00a0 He\u2019s been a great mentor and friend to me as a graduate student and I continue to keep in touch with him as well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The final person I\u2019d like to highlight from Johns Hopkins, who had a large impact on my passion to teach, is the late <\/span>Robert Cammarata<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0Bob was a monumental figure in the department and his passion for teaching helped light the same flame inside of me. \u00a0I\u2019ll never forget his randomly coming into classes taught by other professors and imparting a bit of sometimes non sequitur materials science knowledge. \u00a0Bob had a bit of that \u201ccraziness\u201d that I think we all need as scientists. \u00a0I\u2019ve always hoped that I could embody that quirkiness that he had along with his uncanny ability to inspire my students.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-46610","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-alumni-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlumni Spotlight: PhD Student to Professor - Department of Materials Science & Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/materials\/news\/alumni-spotlight-phd-student-to-professor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumni Spotlight: PhD Student to Professor - Department of Materials Science & Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gregory Wiedman, Engr \u201915 (PhD) is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Seton Hall University. 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