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Killam postdoc's bright future

Profile of physicist Doug Staple

- July 31, 2012

Doug Staple, solar-ready. (Nick Pearce photo)
Doug Staple, solar-ready. (Nick Pearce photo)

This summer has been a homecoming in more than one sense for Doug Staple.

The Dartmouth native, who did his BSc and masters degrees in physics at Dalhousie, has recently returned to Canada after completing his PhD in Germany to take up a prestigious Killam Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science. The Killam is a prestigious award only given to three post-doctoral fellows at 窪蹋勛圖厙per year.

Describing himself as extremely happy to have received the fellowship, Dr. Staple will be researching more efficient ways to build solar cell panels.

He didnt initially see renewable energy as a career path; up until two summers ago, he mostly studied biological physics. But after attending a summer institute in computational chemistry and materials science in California, as well as a meeting of Nobel Laureates in Germany, he became interested in the subject.

It seemed to me that everyone at that meeting was wondering how to supply the world with clean, abundant energy, he says, explaining that its an opportunity to get involved in something people can understand and relate to and also offers huge potential to improve both the economy and the environment.

Changing directions


But pursuing this path necessitated a change in his field of study a daunting prospect after spending most of his academic career doing something else.

Fortunately, Dr. Staple is not afraid of a challenge. He finished his masters degree in one year, his PhD in three and a half, and even began working on a second MSc in mathematics while working on his PhD. I found I was the most productive and happy if I had several different things to think about, he explains.

Dr. Staple also has a long list of awards to his name, including the University Medal in Physics for his BSc, the Governor Generals Gold Medal for his masters, three NSERC awards (one for each level of study), a Killam Predoctoral Scholarship, and now a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship.

So once he knew that he wanted to switch fields, 窪蹋勛圖厙became the obvious choice for his postdoc. The world-class expertise necessary to stage the research was here, he explains, and I would be able to get the support that I needed from people that I trusted in order to make it work.

Advice to future scientists


While he isnt sure yet where his career will take him in the future, he advises fellow scientists starting out in academia to remember that there is more to life than science, and that balance is important. His time in Germany, for instance, sparked an interest in politics.

When I was 18 I thought physics was the only interesting subject in school and everything else was trivial, he says. I learned the hard way that there are interesting things all over the place.

And he has words of wisdom for other graduate students. Life as a scientist is not rosy, he warns. Expect to move a lot.

He also advises students to start thinking about careers outside of academia from the beginning, saying that being single-minded about working in a university can lead to disappointment down the road. You need to think of several appropriate career choices and make sure you are taking steps to move into any of those careers.

Dr. Staple doesnt know whether hell end up in academia, but he is satisfied with his experience so far and credits his experiences at Dal, particularly his time working on his masters degree with J羹rgen Kreuzer, with giving him the necessary training to succeed.

[Doing my masters here] was the best return on investment of anything Ive done in my career, he says.

窪蹋勛圖厙has been a constant part of my development as a scientist during the past nine years, and I am very happy to be working here again full-time.