Viewpoint Cite This: Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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The Academic Office Visit Ronald A. Hites* School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, United States department to discover their background and place in the scientific firmament. There is nothing quite so awkward as the discovery that the visitor is famous (of course, all fame is fleeting) and that the host did not know it. Many visitors take pride in their humility, but there is a limit. If the visitor has recently won a national or international award, the host should congratulate him or her. If the visitor is a fellow of a major scientific society (such as the American Chemical Society), the host should know about it. If the visitor is an editor of a journal (such as Environmental Science & Technology) to which the host plans to submit one or more papers, the office visit would be a great time to learn some of the inside scoop on the journal in question. Depending on the length of the overall visit, it may include one or more meals with the host and his or her colleagues or students. Usually these meals are more successful if the host asks one or two other colleagues to join them. Four people at a table have a better chance of having fun than just two people (the host and visitor). If the visitor gets sent off with a group of students, one of them should plan to lead the conversation. Like anything, this system of invitations can be gamed. Occasionally, younger people may make a deal (perhaps not explicitly) with someone to come to their institution to give a seminar if the invitee agrees to invite the host to their own t has become common for many of us to invite colleagues to institution. Thus, two people get to list an invited seminar on visit our institution to present a seminar. In fact, the number of their CVs. This is not necessarily bad if this two-way exchange of seminars one is invited to present, especially at prestigious science is balanced. However, no one should have to listen to a institutions, is sometimes used as part of the tenure and bad seminar or endure a pointless office visit just because the host promotion evaluation process. Usually, these guest speakers are is repaying the visitor for a previous invitation. invited to spend the day in the department to which they are After the visitor has returned home it is a nice thing to send speaking, and their day is filled with a series of 30−45 min visits handwritten thank-you notes to everyone who gave of their time to the offices of the department’s faculty, students, and staff. We during the visit. Of course, no one knows what “handwritten” have all been reasonably well trained on how to present an means anymore, but even a semipersonalized e-mail would do. interesting and intelligible seminar, but few of us have any experience with the office visit until it is too late. Based on my ASSOCIATED CONTENT experience as both a visitor and as a host, I have a few suggestions. R * Related Articles Some hosts, once they get a listener in their office, proceed to This is the second in a series of articles on the daily tasks of life in give a mini-seminar on their most recent researchoften academia. The first was “How to give a scientific talk, present a accompanied by a full set of PowerPoint slides. They do this with poster, and write a research paper or proposal” (Environ. Sci. little regard for the visitor’s intellectual background or interest in Technol., 2014, 48, 9960−9964). hearing about a potentially arcane topic. Do not do this unless you have some reason to believe that the visitor really, really AUTHOR INFORMATION wants to hear about this topic. Even if you do venture in this Corresponding Author direction, be sure to give the visitor a chance to talk, to ask *E-mail:
[email protected]. questions, and to contribute their thoughts. That is pretty much ORCID the point of the office visit. Ronald A. Hites: 0000-0003-0975-5058 Perhaps at the other end of the scale is the host, who has done no homework whatsoever and who has no idea what the visitor is Notes suddenly doing in their office. Given that most of us are The author declares no competing financial interest. introverts (An old joke: An introverted chemist or engineer looks at his or her own shoes when talking to you, but an extroverted chemist or engineer looks at your shoes when talking to you), a conversation with an unprepared host can proceed badly. The Received: March 6, 2018 well-prepared host may have googled the visitor and his or her
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b01242 Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
