W&M Featured Events
[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium - Julia Phillips
Access & Features
- Open to the public
Dr. Julia Phillips, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (Retired) Sandia Nat'l Laboratories, Title of talk: Lessons from a Life in Science & Engineering outside of Academia
Abstract:
I have been most fortunate to have had, and to continue to have, a fascinating, rewarding, and varied career and life. While my career has always centered on science, it has not taken many of the paths that students probably first consider as they plot their own careers. I will give a very brief overview of my career, factors affecting the choices I made, and circumstances that made certain opportunities open to me. This will lead me to pose questions that every individual has to answer for themselves about their personal priorities that may guide them in their career decisions. I will then discuss general advice about things that make a student or postdoc a desirable candidate (especially in a non-academic position) and that continue to open doors for them throughout their career. I will illustrate some of these thoughts with examples from my career or from the development of young scientists and engineers I have mentored.