The Latest Career News.

I was cornered by my prospective department head at LRU (Local Research University) today. The back story is that about 18 months ago, he asked if I was interested in taking an Assistant Professorship at LRU, to be a joint appointment with my current institution. My hospital routinely sets up joint appointments with universities, where researchers will be a few 1/8ths here and a few 1/8ths at the school. And we’re allowed to have the total sum to as many as 12/8ths. So, the deal was that I would remain 8/8ths at my hospital and take on 2/8ths at LRU. I said yes. The faculty approved me.

But there was no money for the position. Seasons of bureaucratic tape ensued. Finally, today, I was told that a big contract for corporate money has been signed by LRU, and that there is money in it for my position. The corporation is expected to sign it today or tomorrow. After that, it will take a few weeks to float the position and hire me. But my prospective boss is confident enough in the process to ask me to come with him to Nashville in a few weeks on a field trip to meet with our new corporate overlords. So I may end up having to list COIs in the future. I can handle that.

So, the way this will work is that I will have a 25% position at LRU. That means it’s just about 15 hours a week, no benefits. Decent pay for that amount of time. But it’s a job. And I will be able to submit grants to the NIH and AHRQ and NSF, finally, which I cannot do from my current position. Which means that my current R01eq that I’m working on may just end up as an honest-to-pete R01.

And I will be able to start designing a course or two, and maybe taking on students, if they have additional % effort to give me. And then, when my current position with my hospital ends, I’ll still have a real world job, with the title “Assistant Professor”. But I also don’t want to get too ahead of myself. This has been dangling for 18 months. I’m dying for it to happen. I really am. But I don’t want to count chickens.

So: To explain. No. There is no time. To Sum Up: It looks very, very hopeful that within a month or so I will actually be 25% time Assistant Professor at LRU. LRU is, as its name suggests, local. No move. From there, I move forward.