On Being a Graduate Student

Abstract: Being a graduate student is different.  Different than being an undergraduate student and different than being a graduated professional.  But in many ways it is more like the latter than the former; graduate school should be the beginning of your professional career.  Are you attacking graduate school in that way?  This talk will provide some suggestions you may find helpful as you try to steer your way towards fame and fortune.

Bio: Tom Jackson is the Robert E. Kirby Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering at Penn State University.  He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1980 and joined the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center where he worked on a variety of exploratory semiconductor devices.  Jackson joined the faculty in the Electrical Engineering Department at Penn State University in 1992 where his research group has focused on active thin film devices including a-Si:H, organic, and oxide semiconductor TFTs, ferroelectric and piezoelectric thin film devices, nanobiomotors, and biosensors. Jackson hates grading, but enjoys teaching both undergraduate and graduate students.  Jackson has been married for more than 46 years, has two sons, and is active in his local church.  He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, has a Google Scholar h-index of 74, and is the author or co-author of more than 450 journal and conference publications and 36 issued U.S. patents.