It was always assumed I would be a professor. I grew up thinking it. ~ Danny Kahneman, thinking slow
Every now and then, it re-dawns on me that the person in the street does not know what a college/university professor does. How could they and why should they? Yet, when they let it transpire that they think profs do nothing for half a year and during the rest their work entirely consists of standing in front of a blackboard, or perhaps behind a powerpoint projector, I get a sinking feeling that we fail at public relations. To remedy these misconceptions, I now offer a partial list of our doings for the 300+ readers who will click on this post.
What we do:
Teach large courses on broad topics; prepare lectures and deliver them
Teach small seminars on special topics; lead discussions and challenge students to think and debate
Train students in deliverable skills (e.g., computation and communication)
Entertain while teaching
Run lab meetings
Mentor individual students
Write innumerable letters of recommendation
Read large amounts of scholarly writing in our field of expertise and beyond
Think of new research
Plan and design experiments or other types of study
Write grant proposals
Find money to do the research
Conduct the research
Analyze data
Write research reports
Submit reports to competitive journals
Get papers published and cited
Review other researchers' work
Edit journals, special issues, books (or write the whole thing)
Promote own research beyond the peer-reviewed sphere of own field
Go to conferences and give presentations; organize symposia
Strike up and maintain research collaborations in own department, country, and international
Participate in administration of department, university, and professional field
Committees, committees, committees
Oh, I know the man in the photo. It is not Danny Kahneman, but one of my colleagues, and he is legen---dary.