Professerror
Episodes
That's it! I'm outta here!
17 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss aspects of academic jobs that they do NOT like and if these aspects of their job were to expand in scope (hypothetically) woul...
Bend but don't break - When to allow failures for impactful graduate student learning
03 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss experiences where they allow graduate students to struggle through certain professional experiences to support long term learn...
Guest: Dan Aukes - Leaving a tenured faculty position? But why??
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Formerly "Professor" Dan Aukes of Arizona State University talks about his journey into academia, succeeding in academia, and ultimately cho...
Life After Tenure: What do we do after the game of tenure is over?
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in finding professional purpose after tenure. The post-tenure life undoubtedly comes with high levels of fre...
a policy? The Policy? Any policy?
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss challenges with following unclear, conflicting, or unchecked policies in academic environments. They discuss difficulties with...
Advisors and Advisees: Setting Expectations
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss challenges and ramifications of instances of poorly set expectations between graduate students (i.e., advisees) and faculty (i...
What if federally-funded research ended?
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss the hypothetical scenario of federal funding for research suddenly drying up. What might happen at universities? How would fac...
Decoding Faculty Excuses
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in receiving (and sometimes making) excuses related to working with others. When is a "yes" a &quo...
Peer Review Problems
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their concerns with the peer review process that research papers currently follow and offer some food-for-thought suggestions ...
Sharing Ideas: ♫You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em; know when to disclose ‘em♫
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their thoughts on sharing research ideas or not. They talk about risks associated with both sharing and withholding ideas. Enj...
"FOIA'd" with Denise Simmons
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Professor and Associate Dean Denise Simmons of the University of Florida joins us to discuss her experiences with being “FOIA’d” (Freedom of Inf...
Rebuilding new careers (and more) with Matt Morris
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Matt Morris (University of Colorado Boulder) joins us to discuss his journey to academia via a first career in the military and second caree...
Can the professor come out and play???
20 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss the value of playfulness in academic discussions. They talk about the benefits they’ve observed in having playful conversati...
Moving from a teaching-focused to research-focused institution
06 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Vineeth Dharmapalan (Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa) talks about his recent move from a mostly teaching-focused institut...
Cold Emails
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in receiving and sending cold emails (emails to people you do not yet know). They discuss what works well an...
Kristen Parrish discusses writing P&T letters
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Kristen Parrish (Arizona State University) joins us to talk about challenges with writing letters for other individuals' promotion and t...
Research Projects: Finishing Strong
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss challenges and lessons learned when wrapping up research projects. They discuss what is often involved at the end of projects,...
Summer Summer Summertime
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their plans for the upcoming summer and how their summer work experience differs from the rest of the academic year.
Administration... Bryan goes to the Dark Side!
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan discusses his new position as a PhD Program Director and challenges and lessons learned in this administration role. Enjoy!
Publishing with AI and the future of research output
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss how generative AI is impacting processes for generating and reviewing research manuscripts. They also offer some food for thou...
Bryan and Steve struggle to teach new courses
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences in teaching courses that are new to them. They talk about the moments that were especially ...
'Unfundable' with Fred Sherratt
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fred Sherratt joins us to discuss her experiences in struggling to get academic funding and surviving as a qualitative researchers in a quantitative w...
Risky Business with John Gambatese
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Professor John Gambatese (Oregon State University) joins us to discuss taking risks in academia and some that he took that worked out, and some that d...
Bryan's Sabbatical Reflection
05 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan discusses his sabbatical and shares what went well and what could have been better. Enjoy!
Working Abroad with guest Daniel Hall
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Daniel Hall (TU Delft) joins Bryan and Steve to discuss his experience of growing up and studying in the US, but deciding to launch his acad...
Bryan cancels the pie chart
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss successes and failures in developing graphics in academia. An audio discussion about visual communication - maybe this wasn...
Burcu Akinci - Imposter Sydrome
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Burcu Akinci, a full Professor and Department Head at Carnegie Mellon University, a National Academy of Construction member, and most recently a P...
Moving Institutions
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Steve's moving - and we're talking about it. We discuss what went well in the job application, interview, and moving processes and what didn&#...
The Daily Routine of an Academic
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their typical days as academics. They talk about the fun and not-so-fun parts of their professional lives. Enjoy!
Failure in leading
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their struggles with serving in leadership positions - especially when leading individuals who do not directly report to them....
Working in a National Lab with Dr. Kieren McCord
31 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kieren McCord joins us to discuss her experience in transitioning from a PhD student to a full time researcher in a national lab. Enjoy!
Shedding 'Leicht' on Sabbaticals with Rob Leicht
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan, Steve, and guest Professor Rob Leicht (Penn State) discuss sabbatical do's and don't's. Hopefully you enjoy learning from Rob's experience as m...
Faculty "Tropes" in Academia
27 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss "tropes", or common patterns of behavior in pop culture storytelling, within academic settings. We talk about these patt...
Surviving the first year of teaching with Prof. Jennifer Lather
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Jennifer Lather (University of Nebraska) stops by to discuss her experience in creating, delivering, and learning from a new course that she...
Attracting Top PhD Students
02 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences and lessons learned in trying to attract top PhD students for their respective research groups.
Academic Freedom
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss academic freedom and how various social and political shifts to impact this freedom can potentially impact students' education...
Teaching - Back to normal??
14 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences and struggles with helping students succeed in their courses now that most have returned to post-COVID modes...
Kasey Faust
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Prof. Kasey Faust (University of Texas, Austin) stops by to talk about finding balance between home life and work life. She offers several practical s...
Social Look-At-Media in Academia
16 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their positive and negative experiences with social media in academia. Enjoy!
Using your startup funding wisely
02 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their experiences (and their hesitancy) with spending their startup funding when they began their faculty careers.
Serving on a Faculty Search Committee
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Steve and Bryan discuss their experiences serving on faculty search committees. They share the types of concerns, debates, and challenges that may eme...
Tenured? How does it feel?
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Masoud Gheisari and our own Dr. Bryan Franz discuss their experiences (and challenges) with pursuing and successfully achieving tenure.
Robert LiKamWa
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Robert LiKamWa (Arizona State University) discusses struggles related to mentoring students and facing rejections on the way to ultimately s...
Transitioning from Engineering to Engineering Education with Professor Logan Perry
10 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Logan Perry (University of Nebraska) joins us to discuss his experience in shifting from a traditional Civil Engineering domain to Engineering Educati...
Poor solutions to poorly structured problems
27 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their failures, and occasional successes, with challenging their undergraduate students to address poorly structured problems....
Becoming a Parent in Academia
13 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After a pause in podcasting, Steve discusses his (admittedly brief) experience with becoming a father during the break. He and Bryan discuss successes...
Returning to In-Person Conferences
18 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss their first major in-person conference since the pandemic began. They discuss various uncomfortable experiences, and how some ...
Returning to academia to run a research group with Professor John Messner
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
John Messner (Penn State) discusses his experience in working in the construction industry for seven years, pausing his research during this time, and...
Academia for non-academics
19 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss experiences and challenges in explaining their academic lives to those outside of academia. Hopefully what it lacks in practic...
Why papers get rejected
05 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve talk about some of the reasons they have observed, and experienced through their own failures, that led to rejected journal papers. En...
Why is networking not working?
04 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss lessons learned related to building professional networks at conferences. Enjoy!
Conference Presentations
06 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss what to expect during and after academic conference presentations. Hopefully it helps you avoid some of our mistakes for your ...
Conference "Do's" and "Don't's"
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss academic conferences, what to expect, what to do, and what to avoid when attending. Enjoy!
Imposter Syndrome
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve chat about the process of developing and submitting their promotion and tenure packages. They discuss what worked well and where they ...
Building and fostering industry collaborations with Dr. Sinem Mollaoglu
13 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sinem Mollaoglu (Michigan State University) joins Bryan and Steve to discuss her experiences and challenges in building, sustaining, and growing indus...
Work and Family Balance with Prof. Carrie Sturts Dossick
30 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Wei Wu (Fresno State University) talks about his experience in transitioning from an Associate Professor to Fresno's Construction Management Departmen...
Managing your Advisor with Dr. Jad Chalhoub
12 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 relationsh...
Podcast about a podcast?
08 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss successes and failures from their first academic year of recording Professerror. Also, they welcome your feedback on how to im...
Communicating for Impact in Academia with Professor Fernanda Leite
23 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Fernanda Leite (University of Texas, Austin) discusses some of the strategies she has employed to effectively communicate with students, colleagues, a...
Challenges Faced by Female Professors in Engineering with Professor Andrea Richa
10 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Prof. Matt Hallowell (University of Colorado, Boulder) discusses lessons learned related to managing work responsibilities with the rest of life's res...
NSF CAREER Success (and some failures) with Professor Jeremi London
12 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Jeremi London (Virginia Tech) discusses her recently awarded NSF CAREER grant, but also some of the challenges she experienced leading up to this ...
Maximizing Your Impact
30 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Katherine Madson (Iowa State University) joins us again to discuss challenges and lessons learned associated with starting up a research group during ...
Surviving your first semester of teaching (with Katherine Madson)
12 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Katherine Madson (Iowa State University) stops in to share some of her successes and failures that she experienced in teaching during her fi...
Applying for Faculty Positions - Phone Interviews
21 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve cover lessons learned, as well as continued struggles, with time management in academic careers.
Getting Feedback on Your Research Proposals
26 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss lessons learned through the feedback that their proposals have received.
Crafting your research proposal
13 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bryan and Steve discuss lessons learned related to generating research proposals to secure external funding. We hope you enjoy it.