Explosions, Exoplanets, Lasers, and Lessons Learned at a National Lab
Richard Kraus, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
As a graduate student and fellow, I was so focused on the detailed technical aspects of my research that I didn’t spend much time thinking about the softer skills involved in a scientific career. Moving from the protected atmosphere of a graduate student to a post-doc and now staff scientist, I stumbled through some important failures and reflected on what contributed to most of my successes. In this talk I will discuss the importance of ownership, team building, and a lab-first mentality through examples of those mistakes and how I am trying to implement these three themes in my current projects. Hopefully you can skip some of the stumbles I’ve had and move right into a successful and enjoyable career at a national lab.
Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Abstract Author(s): Richard Kraus