The third key to successful research: Professional networking

In previous articles in this column, we introduced seven keys to successful research in academia, and also discussed two of these, i.e., establishing a separate identity as a researcher (May 10) and hiring a good Ph.D. student (May 17) in some detail. This week, we continue with the series by looking at the third of these seven keys: Professional networking.

The third key for any young academic career is to establish a professional network. To the layman, it may seem as if networking is only important in the corporate world. Our own personal experience proves that networking is also a key for success in academia. Some years back, a mentor to one of us (Dominic Foo), Prof. Ramlan Abdul Aziz of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said that “success in your career is not only due to how good you are, but also due to others (friends, colleagues, etc.) whom may have given you a chance to perform, and to prove that you are good.” This is indeed very true. Both of us have indeed enjoyed the benefit of receiving kind help and support from our other academic colleagues in the early, formative years of our respective academic careers. Some of those “benefits” include the appointment as member of international scientific committee of conferences and journal editorial boards, invitation to conduct seminars/workshops, joint research (and, eventually, joint publication), joint application for funding application, etc. These are all aspects of an academic career that one needs to develop, and yet which often prove challenging for young, unproven researchers.

Let us now share some of our tips to creating a strong professional network for the academic world. Perhaps the best way to kick-start is to attend the same conference in the same research area for consecutive years. After a few appearances in the same conference (and after giving an account of one’s own developing work), young academics will then begin to attract the attention of the conference organizer, or some of the more senior “regular attendees” of the conference. Such instances provide excellent opportunities to meet these people (who will often be regarded as the “gurus” of their disciplines) as near-equals (bearing in mind that, at this point, as you are no longer a Ph.D. student, you get to meet and talk to them as colleagues). The immediate benefit that you will enjoy is the appointment of chairperson for some of the conference session. This may then be followed by the invitation to be part of the international scientific committee of the conference. More importantly, knowing some senior colleagues often helps in knowing the latest trend and likely future development of research area, as well as other benefits mentioned earlier. Note that many of these discussions can take place in informal settings (e.g., mealtime, banquets, coffee breaks and, in some countries, “beer parties”) rather than the conference sessions themselves.

Apart from conferences, there are also other means of establishing and reinforcing a professional network. In the Internet age, e-mail, instant messengers (MSN, Yahoo) and social media (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn) have indeed linked many people from various parts of the world together. Although now commonplace, such world-shrinking technology could hardly have been imagined to become so ordinary a generation ago. Nowadays, it is possible to work closely with people on the other side of the planet, while rarely ever meeting them face to face. A good case in point: The two of us are co-editors of a book (due for release in mid-2012) with our colleague, Prof. Mahmoud El-Halwagi of Texas A&M University US. One of us (Dominic Foo) spent several months at Mahmoud’s lab as a visiting researcher about a decade ago (after “talking” to him for two years in e-mail!); on the other hand, one of us (Raymond Tan) has never even met him in person! At the same time, such international contacts working in your field are likely to be encountered again in the future — they will be the people likely to review your papers and read them once they get published, and they may be the people who will become research collaborators at some point in time. 

As a final note on professional networking, please note that getting to know people is only the “entry point” toward becoming an internationally established researcher. A good professional network naturally leads toward offers to collaborate, which in turn can develop into lasting, productive professional partnerships. We will discuss more on what to follow up after having established our network in our next series, i.e. a global research team. 

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Ir. Dr. Dominic C. Y. Foo is a professor of Process Design and Integration at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, and is leading the Center of Excellence for Green Technologies. He is a professional engineer registered with the Board of Engineer Malaysia (BEM). He establishes international collaboration with researchers from various countries in the Asia, Europe, American and Africa. He is an active author, with two forthcoming books, more than 70 journal papers and made more than 120 conference presentations. He served as an International Scientific Committee for several important conferences (CHISA/PRES, FOCAPD, ESCAPE, PSE, etc.). He is the winner of the Innovator of the Year Award 2009 of the Institution of Chemical Engineers UK (IChemE), as well as the 2010 Young Engineer Award of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). He also actively conducts professional training for practicing engineers. 

Prof. Raymond R. Tan is a university fellow and full professor of Chemical Engineering at De La Salle University. He is also the current director of that institution’s Center for Engineering and Sustainable Development Research (CESDR). He is the author of more than 70 process systems engineering (PSE) articles that have been published in chemical, environmental and energy engineering journals. He is member of the editorial boards of the journals Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, Philippine Science Letters and Sustainable Technologies, Systems & Policies, and is co-editor of the forthcoming book Recent Advances in Sustainable Process Design and Optimization. He is also the recipient of multiple awards from the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP). He may be contacted via e-mail ([email protected].).