Author Archives: Ricardo Cortez

Starting and maintaining research collaborations

A successful research career involves a mix of individual and collaborative projects. Areas of mathematics that people used to consider separate are becoming increasingly interconnected and those connections often lead to interesting new approaches to mathematical problems. This is true … Continue reading

Posted in General, Industrial Mathematics, postdocs, Tenure | 5 Comments

What can I expect during my first year of a Ph.D. program?

I wanted to write directly to those students who are about to start graduate school in the fall and to those who are in their first year of graduate work. The transition to graduate school involves so many changes at … Continue reading

Posted in Going to graduate school, Graduate School | 3 Comments

Mentoring at SACNAS

I have been thinking of the many mentoring opportunities that conferences offer. It is usually not the typical long-term mentoring that students look for from their advisors, but it is very important for many reasons. The SACNAS conference took place … Continue reading

Posted in General, Outreach | Leave a comment

Five suggestions to be a successful undergraduate

There are lots of things that undergraduate students can do to be successful. I have written a few here that I find very important and often neglected. See what you think.

Posted in General, Going to graduate school, graduation | 2 Comments

Getting your faculty promotion dossier ready

If you are on a tenure-track faculty position, you will have to go through performance reviews. Most universities implement a third-year review for Assistant Professors, a review for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor during year 6, and later a … Continue reading

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Do you have a research journal?

Now that the new academic year is about to start, I thought it would be a good idea to mention a good way to keep track of research ideas in graduate school and beyond.  Whether you are a graduate student … Continue reading

Posted in Going to graduate school, postdocs, Tenure | Leave a comment

Respect your research time

Most of us who have teaching, advising, and service commitments are guilty of using time we had set aside for research for something else.  We block out some time in our schedule and even post it on the door but … Continue reading

Posted in General, postdocs, Tenure | 1 Comment

Don’t get involved in outreach! … yet

Many of us are passionate about issues that affect our communities. For example, some of us care deeply about increasing the representation of  minority groups in research mathematics. Others have similar interest in increasing the representation of women in academia. … Continue reading

Posted in General, Outreach | 3 Comments

First postdoc —> second postoc —> ?

This is a post that requests comments and advice from the readers.  The issue is the following: Student X finished her PhD in mathematics at a highly-ranked university.  Upon graduating, she was able to get a three-year postdoc position in … Continue reading

Posted in postdocs | 5 Comments

Thoughts on a ‘Teaching Postdoc’ position

I have visited some mathematics departments that offer “teaching postdoc” positions.  Clearly, this is a 2-3 year position that involves more teaching than a ‘standard’ postdoc. So, what exactly are these teaching postdocs positions and what are their benefits? The … Continue reading

Posted in postdocs | 4 Comments