Steven K. Ayer and Bryan Franz
Professerror
This podcast is aimed at providing honest experiences about challenges, failures, and possibly a few success stories related to life in academia.
Author
Steven K. Ayer and Bryan Franz
Category
Podcast website
Latest episode
May 22, 2026
Where to listen?
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Episodes
Academia for non-academics 19.02.2022 53:44
Bryan and Steve discuss experiences and challenges in explaining their academic lives to those outside of academia. Hopefully what it lacks in practicality, it makes up for in relatability. Enjoy!
Why papers get rejected 05.02.2022 1:04:15
Bryan and Steve talk about some of the reasons they have observed, and experienced through their own failures, that led to rejected journal papers. Enjoy!
Why is networking not working? 04.12.2021 58:13
Bryan and Steve discuss lessons learned related to building professional networks at conferences. Enjoy!
Conference Presentations 06.11.2021 58:52
Bryan and Steve discuss what to expect during and after academic conference presentations. Hopefully it helps you avoid some of our mistakes for your first conference!
Conference "Do's" and "Don't's" 08.10.2021 1:06:13
Bryan and Steve discuss academic conferences, what to expect, what to do, and what to avoid when attending. Enjoy!
Imposter Syndrome 10.09.2021 51:00
Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences with Imposter Syndrome in academia and strategies for dealing with it.
Building and Submitting Your Promotion & Tenure Package 27.08.2021 1:01:06
Bryan and Steve chat about the process of developing and submitting their promotion and tenure packages. They discuss what worked well and where they might have done things differently with the benefit of hindsight.
Building and fostering industry collaborations with Dr. Sinem Mollaoglu 13.08.2021 1:00:34
Sinem Mollaoglu (Michigan State University) joins Bryan and Steve to discuss her experiences and challenges in building, sustaining, and growing industry collaborations to support her research.
Work and Family Balance with Prof. Carrie Sturts Dossick 30.07.2021 1:01:47
Carrie Sturts Dossick (University of Washington) stops by to discuss lessons she learned when balancing family and work responsibilities.
Life After Tenure with Professor Wei Wu 14.07.2021 55:50
Wei Wu (Fresno State University) talks about his experience in transitioning from an Associate Professor to Fresno's Construction Management Department Chair.
Managing your Advisor with Dr. Jad Chalhoub 12.06.2021 54:01
Dr. Jad Chalhoub talks about his experience as Steve's PhD student to highlight some of the good (and not so good) aspects of their working relationship.
Podcast about a podcast? 08.05.2021 42:48
Bryan and Steve discuss successes and failures from their first academic year of recording Professerror. Also, they welcome your feedback on how to improve the podcast moving forward. We look forward to hearing from you!
Communicating for Impact in Academia with Professor Fernanda Leite 23.04.2021 1:07:01
Fernanda Leite (University of Texas, Austin) discusses some of the strategies she has employed to effectively communicate with students, colleagues, and others in order to maximize her impact.
Challenges Faced by Female Professors in Engineering with Professor Andrea Richa 10.04.2021 57:19
Professor Andrea Richa (Arizona State University) joins us to discuss some of the challenges female professors face in engineering.
Work Life Balance with Professor Matthew Hallowell 19.03.2021 56:09
Prof. Matt Hallowell (University of Colorado, Boulder) discusses lessons learned related to managing work responsibilities with the rest of life's responsibilities.
NSF CAREER Success (and some failures) with Professor Jeremi London 12.03.2021 1:10:50
Dr. Jeremi London (Virginia Tech) discusses her recently awarded NSF CAREER grant, but also some of the challenges she experienced leading up to this success.
Maximizing Your Impact 30.01.2021 1:11:12
Professor Mikhail Chester (Arizona State University) discusses how to maximize impact while reducing time spent doing non-value-added tasks.
Applying for Faculty Positions - On-Campus Interviews 16.01.2021 1:02:28
We discuss on-campus interviews and share some experiences of what to do (and not do) during this process.
Research group start-up (with Katherine Madson) 29.12.2020 53:47
Katherine Madson (Iowa State University) joins us again to discuss challenges and lessons learned associated with starting up a research group during the first semester of a first faculty position.
Surviving your first semester of teaching (with Katherine Madson) 12.12.2020 1:02:36
Professor Katherine Madson (Iowa State University) stops in to share some of her successes and failures that she experienced in teaching during her first semester as a faculty member.
Applying for Faculty Positions - Phone Interviews 21.11.2020 45:17
We discuss the process of phone interviews for faculty positions and share some of our own lessons learned related to this.
Transitioning from industry to academia with Anne Anderson 14.11.2020 46:04
Prof. Anne Anderson joins in for the discussion to cover lessons learned when she transitioned from her industry career to one in academia.
Applying for Faculty Positions - Preparing your application materials 23.10.2020 1:19:18
We discuss the process of preparing your materials for applying to faculty positions. Hopefully you avoid some of the mistakes we made!
Managing Your Time 10.10.2020 58:17
Bryan and Steve cover lessons learned, as well as continued struggles, with time management in academic careers.
Getting Feedback on Your Research Proposals 26.09.2020 1:08:35
Bryan and Steve discuss lessons learned through the feedback that their proposals have received.
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