Philseok Kim’s Post

Too many POINTLESS conferences or workshops nowdays. This article says “…some people with plenty of funding attend such conferences just to get in some nice travel without much pressure to actually do anything for the meeting…” Why do you need to participate in the conference? Also, it’s time to think about good conference models such as Gordon Research Conferences or Keystone Symposia.

💡Attention catalysis experts and innovators!    ARPA-E Program Director Dr. Cory Phillips issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking YOUR input to accelerate the development cycle of heterogeneous catalysts. The deadline is approaching fast—this Thursday at 5PM EST!    🔍We’re seeking disruptive techniques or workflows that can: - integrate catalytic material discovery and synthesis with device performance in a rapid, parallel, automated, and/or combinatorial manner; and  - leverage hardware automation and modern data science to manage large quantities of multi-dimensional experimental data.    Ready to contribute to the future of catalysis? Learn more and respond here: https://lnkd.in/e4-RiBcj.

There is an exciting activity underway today and tomorrow at the National Science Foundation! I, along with my co-chairs James Warren (NIST), Benji Maruyama (AFRL), and Charles Yang (DOE), and guidance and support by Lisa E. Friedersdorf , am excited to host 80+ participants across academia, industry, and over 15 Federal Agencies for the “Accelerating Materials Solutions to Meet National and Global Challenges” Workshop in support of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) 2021 Strategic Plan. Over the first decade of the MGI, significant attention has been paid to the ever-increasing predictive power of materials models and their role in accelerating materials design. Now, profound changes are being realized to accelerate materials experimentation (both synthesis and characterization) through human-enhanced artificial intelligence and application of robotics (autonomous experimentation) that can test and verify these models. Building on a series of prior federal government-sponsored workshops, this workshop will focus on the current infrastructure landscape for accelerated materials experimentation within the context of the broader Materials Innovation Infrastructure (MII). Over the next two days, the community will: - Inventory the existing national Autonomous Materials Innovation Infrastructure (AMII). - Identify transformative opportunities and targets within the framing of National and Global Challenges and match the existing AMII capable of addressing these challenges. - Identify gaps in the AMII that must be filled to achieve the goals and targets. I am looking forward to robust engagement by our many participants! And helping enable accelerated materials discovery and translation through autonomous experimentation ensuring we remain at the forefront of materials research! #MGI

It is of paramount importance that the management of a research lab be composed of reputable scientists. Their main jobs are to: 1. Identify, recruit, and retain brilliant and creative people. 2. Give them the environment, resources, and freedom to do their best work. 3. Identify promising research directions (often coming from the researchers themselves) and invest resources in them. Put the scientists in charge and get out of the way. 4. Be really good at detecting BS, not necessarily because scientists are dishonest, but often because they are self-deluded. It's easy to think you've invented the best thing since sliced bread. Encouraging publications and open sourcing is a way to use the research community to help distinguish good work from not-so-good work. 5. Inspire researchers to work on research projects that have ambitious goals. It's too easy and less risky to work on valuable improvements that are incremental. 6. Evaluate people in ways that don't overly focus on short-term impact and simple metrics (e.g. number of publications). Use your judgment. That's why you get paid the big bucks. 7. Insulate rogue-but-promising projects from the scrutiny of upper management. A watched pot never boils. Planned innovation and 6-months milestones never bring breakthroughs. You can't do any of this cat herding jobs unless you are an experienced, talented, and reputable scientist with a research record that buys you at least some legitimacy in the eyes of the scientists in your organization.