Professional Development

Faculty mentoring
The Physics Department at Boston University actively mentors new faculty to support and develop their full career in research, teaching and leadership. We assign mentors who have demonstrated excellence in both teaching and research, who have successfully mentored junior faculty in the past, and who are familiar with the new faculty’s research area. We facilitate frequent meetings of the committee and the junior faculty member, with the Chair acting ex officio.

These committee members visit lectures, and share their evaluations with both the new faculty member and the Chair. The mentoring committees meet with the faculty they mentor for discussions of current research, planning for future directions, and in particular, help with prioritization, a notoriously difficult task for young faculty. The mentoring committees also assist the Chair in the preparation of the mid-tenure review, and, if appropriate, in making the departmental case for tenure.

Faculty teaching development
The department supports activities that train young faculty in teaching and science pedagogy in general. In particular, the department encourages attendance of the American Institute of Physics/American Association of Physics Teachers, a two day workshop on the teaching of physics.

Staff professional development
The department also instituted a new approach to staff professional development three years ago. At the end of each academic year, each member of staff is asked to self-reflect and assess their job in three distinct ways, and to provide specific personal goals. These are then reviewed together with the business manager and Chair. The three areas are:

Improving the staff member’s job: This occurs through definition of the job, identification of key elements, methods they could use to measure their own performance, and how they go about setting goals for themselves. They are asked to identify barriers to improvement, and come up with short-term and long-term job-related goals. They are then asked how they see their job interacting with others.
Improving the operations of the department: Staff are asked to take a look beyond their specific jobs, and to examine the broader interaction and work flow of the department, whether in academic programs, finances or research operations. They are asked to address organizational issues that include: improving the flow of information, whether they have clear paths for answering questions and getting assistance, whether staff meetings or structural procedures would improve collective efforts, how to best utilize human and other resources, and how the physical layout could be used to improve the efficiency of the work environment.
Finally, the staff is asked to examine and suggest improvements for the behavior of their constituents. Certain staff support certain constituents – students, faculty, researchers, etc. They are asked how they would modify their constituents’ behavior to best improve the job, and how they would alter student or faculty interactions to best deliver services. These responses and the meetings that follow provide many opportunities for staff development.

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