How does this oil degrade in the coastal ocean?
Profile of an Engineering Professor: Dr. Natalie Mladenov
“How does this oil degrade in the coastal ocean?” “Is this stuff sticking around?” “Are the restoration efforts at Alvarado Creek making a difference for the water quality?” “Is this all helping?” These are the types of questions that environmental engineering professor, Dr. Natalie Mladenov has found to be intriguing and much of the reason why she chose a career path in academia. Her passion for water reuse, sanitation, and sustainability has led her to a career with the freedom to explore her curiosity and develop creative solutions in order to address global water challenges, which is something that I aspire to do one day.
After achieving her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of South Florida, Dr. Mladenov went on to work in the industry sector for a few years. However, she soon decided to go back to school to earn her Master’s and a PhD at the University of Colorado because she had a drive to do research that could influence policy making decisions. As a result, she landed her position as an assistant professor at San Diego State University for the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department. As of today, her main responsibilities consist of performing research alongside her students in the Water Innovation and Reuse Lab, teaching several upper division water treatment classes, and working on possible future publications. Due to her heavy workload, it is reasonable that the most stressful part of her job is trying to meet deadlines and working with uncooperative people. However, being able to see her students achieve in their own research or academics are worth all the stresses that come with the job.
Although Dr. Mladenov would rather spend her days out in the field taking samples from a polluted stream for contaminant testing or in the lab analyzing the interactions between Natural Organic Matter (NOM) and microorganisms, more than 50 percent of her time is devoted to some form of technical and/or persuasive writing. Her job entails writing research project grant proposals to government funding agencies, reports and journal articles to the scientific community, and presentations and professional emails to students and colleagues. “Proposals are typically 15 pages, single spaced and that’s all me, but journal articles are usually 40 pages, double spaced with feedback from other individuals.” This shows that the length of time that Dr. Mladenov spends on each form of writing varies due to the great amount of information that must be covered and the type of audience that she is addressing it to. When referring to the way in which her writing is designed, she states “it is almost always in 12 point font, Times New Roman, and double spaced with one inch margins.” Dr. Mladenov stresses the importance of having this specific formatting when it comes to writing grant proposals because it can determine whether agencies will even begin to read her paper.
In order to have a well-organized writing piece in this career field, it is necessary to include an abundant amount of description, explanation, and details because every aspect of her work must be laid out in great depth. In terms of content, practically all of her writing uses knowledge that is specific in that engineering discipline. In addition, with proposals being her most frequent type of writing, it is crucial to that she includes the preliminary work, purpose, methods used, expected outcomes, and the plan used for managing her data. Dr. Mladenov finds that this form of writing is an effective way to get funding agencies to determine if there can be a potential future with the specific research study based on all that is known. The overall type of style that Dr. Mladenov uses in her writing is a formal tone and a precise word choice. “You have to find the right word, not even the close word.” This shows that there is a need to be very particular about the word that is chosen because how the word is used scientifically could be far different from its everyday use. “For example, you say, ‘That was a significant amount of material.’ Well the reviewer will say, ‘Well did you do a test of significance? Did you do any statistics test?’” This example that Dr. Mladenov gives shows the difficulty in writing a paper worthy of publishing. Although Dr. Mladenov took a graduate level course to develop the writing skills for her profession, her years of reading relatable works and nonstop writing has helped her to become a better writer today.
For students entering this field of engineering, Dr. Mladenov recommends a lot of practice with writing because it becomes extremely important both in academia and in industry. “To write a good proposal or scientific paper, it’s a craft.” This illustrates just how much independent work and time Dr. Mladenov believes there needs to be to become a successful writer. The aim is to try to get reviewers to want to read the writing so that they could take an interest in funding the research project behind it. Aside from writing, it is advised that students be proactive. “Students should take initiative and not wait for someone to tell them what to do.” Dr. Mladenov explains how these motivation driven individuals are what companies are looking for. In addition, when it comes to those students that are greatly interested in attending graduate school, they should investigate the environmental research projects that are currently going on at certain universities. Dr. Mladenov advises emailing the professor in charge of the research project that they are interested in even while they are still completing their undergraduate degree so that the professor can keep them in mind. This could increase the likelihood of getting into that graduate program simply because they were being proactive.
Reflecting on the information given to me by Dr. Natalie Mladenov, I have decided that I want to follow her career path in earning a PhD and becoming an assistant professor. Due to the fact that I am already a student research assistant for Dr. Mladenov, I have had some practice with certain forms of writing that must be done, such as professional emails and presentations. Furthermore, I am already conducting my own research pertaining to the study of caffeine concentrations in wastewater sources that affect water quality. This research project is one that I hope will be worthy of publishing. Therefore, if I keep on pursuing this path of research, I know that I must get comfortable with writing a substantial amount in order to improve my writing over time. Many engineering students who choose this career path do so because they are strong in math and science, but it should not be misunderstood that writing is not just as important. As an engineering student, you may have difficulty or face harsh criticism when it comes to your writing, but you must not get discouraged. The key is to simply keep on practicing because that is the only way for improvement. Despite what engineering career path you take, writing will always be the one non-technical skill that future employers will greatly take into consideration.
Directions: Read the 2 student samples on Canvas and answer the following questions for each profile.
Student Sample #1: Inside the Exciting Life of a Veterinarian
What kind of introduction was used? Do you believe it was effective in grabbing the target audience’s attention?
For each paragraph, write a word or phrase that describes the topic and/or purpose of that paragraph.
Are all aspects of the prompt addressed? Which aspects of the prompt are covered in depth? Which aspects could be expanded on?
Which written genre was described in detail in this sample? Write features under each DOCS category with information you get from the student sample.
Genre described in most Depth in Student Sample #1:_____________
Design:
Organization:
Content:
Style:
How is the profile article concluded? Do you think it leaves a lasting impression on its readers?
Directions: Read the 2 student samples on Canvas and answer the following questions for each profile.
Student Sample #2: Profile of an Engineering Professor: Dr. Natalie Mladenov
What kind of introduction was used? Do you believe it was effective in grabbing the target audience’s attention?
For each paragraph, write a word or phrase that describes the topic and/or purpose of that paragraph.
Are all aspects of the prompt addressed? Which aspects of the prompt are covered in depth? Which aspects could be expanded on?
Which written genre was described in detail in this sample? Write features under each DOCS category with information you get from the student sample.
Genre described in most Depth in Student Sample #2:_____________
Design:
Organization:
Content:
Style:
How is the profile article concluded? Do you think it leaves a lasting impression on its readers?
1 STUDENT Project #2 INSIDE THE EXCITING LIFE OF A VETERINARIAN I arrived 15 minutes prior to my interview with Dr. David Lee. When I went through the front doors of Mission Gorge Animal Hospital, I saw that the animal hospital was in full function: vet technicians running around getting blood samples, helping clients with their pets, and I saw Dr. Lee walking from one examination room to the other. I could easily describe it as organized chaos. I calmly sat down on of the chairs in the reception area where a client’s pit bull greeted me. It didn’t take too long for one of the vet technicians to notice me. She politely told me they were running a bit behind on appointments and invited me to sit in the examination room where the interview was to be held. I just waited until Dr. Lee came in and he said “okay, let’s do this, but please it needs to be quick, okay?” Immediately, I knew that time was very important to veterinarians. So I got right to it. Dr. Lee has been practicing veterinary medicine at Mission Gorge Animal Hospital for the past 22 years. Prior to moving to San Diego, he was a licensed veterinarian in South Korea, where he was born and grew up. He initially wanted to go to medical school, but because he loves animals and enjoys the diversity of the animal kingdom, he decided to go ahead and pursue a career in veterinary medicine. Dr. Lee’s success in the veterinary field is not only attributed to his medical abilities, but mostly to his attention and care for clients, “My core value is to serve the client through the animal service. Good client communication is important.” Another very important part of being a veterinarian is writing, specifically, writing on charts (patients’ medical records). Most of the time, Dr. Lee writes about one or two lines, but depending on the severity of the case, it could take up to two pages. Regardless of how short or long the passage he needs to write, he always follows a special format: S.O.A.P. S stands for Subjective Finding. These are usually what you can perceive with your eyes, typically, if the animal is in pain. O stands for Objective Finding. These refer to test results such as blood tests, x-rays, urinalysis etc. Objective meaning, everybody agrees. A stands for Assessment. This is where you would write how you evaluate the situation and diagnose the problem. And finally, P stands for Plan, what do you want to do?
2 What kind of antibody do you want to use? According to Dr. Lee, S.O.A.P. is the general method for chart writing and he has to use it for every single case he works on so it is definitely the most important. Chart writing is used so that Dr. Lee can be reminded of what he did the last time the patient was in the hospital. It can also be used for cross-doctor communication. In the event the client wants to take her pet to another hospital or they are relocating to another city and will have to change hospitals, they can obtain a copy of the chart so the new doctor will know what issues the pet has had in the past. “And also, this is very important when the legal issues break out. Legal issues such as some client not happy with something, they have the chart to refer to”. Of course, that doesn’t happen a lot! ____________________________________________ “To be a veterinarian or vet technician, you should be an animal lover. That is #1. If you don’t like the animals, you can’t take care of them and you shouldn’t be afraid of the animal.” _________________________________ When asked for advice for students just starting out in the field, Dr. Lee says, “you have to have experience in any hospital, shelter, or humane society. And you have to start the volunteer shift over there and get exposed to the OR [operating room] to see if you are feasible in the field. Sometimes, the veterinary field is not as romantic as you imagine it to be.” According to Dr. Lee, he’s had a few employees in the past who like the job at first, “but when I am in surgery, the blood is popping out and they get scared and leave the next day,” he laughed, “sometimes they faint with the blood.” So it is very important that you experience being in the OR. Dr. Lee has three pets of his own. One chihuahua named Chili and two domestic cats named Banksy and Boots. As much as he enjoys being in the hospital and treating animals, he always looks forward to going home to see his pets. With a smile he said “So I treat a lot of different clients’ animals, but they don’t give me pleasure; my own pets give me pleasure. So when I’m at home, Chili greets me. [My pet is] never angry with me, my wife maybe angry a lot,” he chuckled, “but [my pets are] never angry with me.” But of course, with everything, there is always a downside. In the veterinary field, you have to deal with euthanasia. Dr. Lee said, “sometimes euthanasia is hard. It is a very sensitive part, but that is part of my job.” He always wants to make it as comfortable and smooth and more acceptable for the animal and their owners. But aside from this, “the veterinary field is very promising and right now the tendency is, more students are now occupying the field.” Dr. David J. Lee, DVM Mission Gorge Animal Hospital 6690 Mission Gorge Rd, Suite M, San Diego, CA 92120 Website: http://missiongorgeanimalhospital.weebly.com/ A special thank you to Dr. Lee and the staff of Mission Gorge Animal Hospital for taking the time out of their busy schedule to accommodate for this interview.
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