Paul Filmer
BS '85, Geophysics

How did you transition from your studies at Caltech to your current position?

I left Caltech in the summer of 1985 with a freshly minted BS in geophysics, and drove across the country to go to graduate school at MIT in Massachusetts. I remember that as the last carefree summer in my life. From then on, I would be involved in year-round activities: work at sea collecting data for my thesis, endless days programming code to analyze and display the data, trips to scientific meetings to give presentations and meet with colleagues, and the eventual writing of my PhD dissertation in marine geophysics. That work led to a post- doctoral position at MIT, and eventually to a position at the Universities Space Research Association working with NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. In that position I worked on all sorts of issues, ranging from data policy in distributed computing systems, through international treaties for instruments on satellites, to intellectual property law. Certainly, it was a far cry from marine geophysics. After just over one year there, I left for a position at the National Science Foundation (NSF), where I have worked ever since as a Program Director.

Describe a "day in the life." What do you encounter in a typical day on the job?

I spend almost a quarter of my time traveling, since I deal with international scientific research programs. So far, I have been fortunate enough to visit six out of seven continents, and a total of forty-two countries. It is not as glamorous as it might sound - most of the time I am in meetings, in hotels, or in airports. There are countries I have been to multiple times, but in each of them I have only seen a single hotel! Other times I have been able to get away and see things like Angel Falls or the Terra Cotta Army. In the office, along with international agreements and organizations, I deal with proposals from U.S. scientists who want to carry out research in two main areas: climate change and evolution. I get to decide whether to fund a lot of exciting ideas - who knew that we might be able to get T. rex protein sequences out of fossils, or that lake sediments in a meteorite crater in far eastern Siberia might hold three-and-a-half million years' worth of climate information?

What are your "extra-curricular" activities? What do you do outside of work?

I have a ten-year old son, so that takes up a fair bit of my time off - homework, reading, shuttling him here and there to sports and his mother's house, and doing fun things like going camping in the Appalachians, to movies and to theme parks. My wife and I enjoy cycling (mountain and road), and we travel together when we can. I do a lot of non-technical reading in all sorts of areas, and I enjoy surfing the web, photography, and writing. Since I live in the Washington, DC area, we sometimes get to very interesting talks - the last one was by the Chairman of Lloyd's of London.

What's your best advice to Caltech students, or to alumni who want to switch to a career like yours?

There are usually several positions open at the NSF at any one time, either as permanent employees or as rotators. Most of the positions require a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline - but not always. Science and engineering portfolio management is an interesting career, but on the funding and selection side, you should remember that most of the time you will be saying "no" to people - there simply is not enough money to fund every good idea, so a great deal of time and effort goes into documenting the decision process. You also have to be able to face people whose career and livelihood you may have just compromised. That is not an easy aspect, but one which is absolutely necessary for any manager. I would highly recommend that scientists and engineers interested in academia seriously consider spending some portion of their career in government as a rotator - it is a valuable experience that gives one a great deal of exposure to different areas of one's own discipline, and to other disciplines that have a completely different approach to problem solving.

 

 

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