4

My questions is different from this post.

Suppose a math's PhD is

1) not very successful in his PhD program research and fails to find an ideal postdoc.(But he is still eligible to gain a PhD degree) or,

2) not very successful in his research as a postdoc and fails to find a tenure-track position like an assistant professor.

and he chooses to be a lecturer for a couple of years just to get rid of the heavy pressure of publishing papers but he is still ambitious about becoming a mathematician. My question is, is it extremely difficult for a teaching-oriented lecturer to get a tenure-track position in mathematics(assistant professor at least)?

BTW, the only example I know about this is Yitang Zhang, whose experience was so special. But in general, I don't know any other examples of a lecturer becoming an assistant/associate professor in U.S.

Community
  • 1
No One
  • 1,543
  • 6
    This might be a better fit for http://academia.stackexchange.com – Nate Eldredge Sep 03 '16 at 20:17
  • 3
    @NateEldredge I believe that math has its own characteristics(we don't have to to study math in labs) and many(if not most) mathematicians are not active in ASE. – No One Sep 03 '16 at 20:24
  • 1
    The OP is clearly misinformed about ths US teaching job market. To become more informed pick a US college at random, say at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_American_institutions_of_higher_education, find a list of professors and see how much they have published and where. Voting to close because the OP should have done the above before asking the question. – Igor Belegradek Sep 03 '16 at 21:28
  • 1
    @IgorBelegradek Sorry, I don't understand what you are saying. I think I have looked at every TOP50 math department's webpage and more than one hundred professors' webpages. If you think the person I described in my question is the one who would "randomly" choose a school in the wikipedia list to teach, you might have not understood what I meant by "but he is still ambitious about becoming a mathematician". – No One Sep 03 '16 at 21:38
  • I think Top50, or Top100 research universities do have some lecturer positions, and a PhD would prefer to work there rather than some small liberal arts schools. – No One Sep 03 '16 at 21:42
  • 1
    Is the Bern patent office hiring? – Gerry Myerson Sep 03 '16 at 22:13
  • 2
    @TiWen: Top50 schools have very high research expectations, and the next 50 have substantial ones. These places are not for those wishing to avoid "heavy pressure of publishing papers". – Igor Belegradek Sep 03 '16 at 22:13
  • @IgorBelegradek Even for those who want to work as lecturers there? I think Top50 don't have research expectations for lecturers. – No One Sep 03 '16 at 22:33
  • 1
    @TiWen: sorry I must have misunderstood your question. You asked "is it extremely difficult for a teaching-oriented lecturer to get a tenure-track position in mathematics?", and to this I replied that one has to look beyond Top100 places. Now you ask about becoming a lecturer at Top50 schools, for which I have no comments. I know that we (Georgia Tech math) do not normally hire lecturers. – Igor Belegradek Sep 03 '16 at 22:45
  • @IgorBelegradek It does vary from school to school. A Top20 department like UTaustin's seems to have a couple of lecturers. – No One Sep 03 '16 at 23:03
  • 2
    The academic job market in the US is far more diverse than is being described in the question and the comments to this question. – Joel David Hamkins Sep 04 '16 at 00:32

2 Answers2

7

Not all tenure-track positions have research expectations (e.g. at schools where research is not a focus), but most do. And in such cases, one of the hiring requirements is usually something like "evidence of potential for success in research". By far the best evidence of future potential is evidence of recent past success.

So the "lecturer" title isn't necessarily the obstacle, but if this person has not been doing or publishing research during that time, and their research record prior to that is not impressive, what reason does a hiring committee have to expect that they would be successful in research in a tenure-track job?

If the person has been doing successful research during their time as lecturer, that is a different story. But that seems counter to your suggestion that they took the job to escape the pressure of research. It's also a difficult thing to accomplish in general, even for someone who is highly motivated: a lecturer job will not typically leave one much free time for research, and it may not include the sort of research support that a tenure-track job might (travel funding, graduate students, etc).

Nate Eldredge
  • 29,204
  • Do lecturers' papers have a smaller opportunity to get accepted by journals due to their titles? – No One Sep 03 '16 at 20:22
  • 8
    No. The reviewer sees the name of the author, but not the job title. It is unlikely that a reviewer would take the time to do a google search to see the job title, and would likely be impressed by the motivation shown if it did become clear the paper was written by a Lecturer. Referees may have internal biases in favour of well-known researchers in the field, but papers written by authors unknown to the referee will all be treated alike. – Anthony Quas Sep 03 '16 at 20:36
5

There are a lot of 2-year and 4-year colleges in the US where nowadays the mathematics department prefers to hire Ph.D.s, but where no research is required for promotion and tenure. So I may disagree with Nate's "most" assertion.

Now, if you still intend to do research, though: Such places probably have greater teaching duties than a research university, leaving you less time to do research.

Gerald Edgar
  • 40,238