Scientific activity. Low start

What ideally should begin the scientific activities of a young and curious person?


The post was inspired by a question about the essence of graduate school.

Ideally, the career of a young scientist should begin in high school. You can certainly cite the example of geeks who prove Fermat's theorems at a junior school age, but, as a rule, in science they for some reason “do not live to see” solid results. Although everything is possible. Nevertheless, in accordance with the laws of dialectics, science moves both by the masses of people and by brilliant singles at the same time. Until relatively recently (the industrial revolution of the 19th century), science moved mainly as lonely fanatics, but only the development of science as a separate type of human professional activity provided mankind with the rapid progress that we are seeing now. Below are the first steps that are useful to do, if there is an interest in doing exactly scientific work.
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So, usually students on the whole begin to actively look for work from the 2nd to the 3rd year, because a couple of sessions are already in the background, priorities in learning are slowly becoming more or less understandable, such as “going to the labs is necessary, you can“ score ”at the lectures, practical ones through time, we will do the coursework for a month (at best), and then two weeks before delivery, "etc. That is, the person has adapted and realized that there are opportunities to make time for things other than study.

If the issue of material survival is not very serious, i.e. roughly speaking - there are enough scholarships for beer, and mom and dad will feed and feed, then you can spend your time a little more far-sighted than just working at a company (and even more so than hanging around without work) - try your hand at science. Again, I repeat that all the recommendations given below are advisable only if it is really interesting for a person to pick something new and not standard. In Soviet times, the informal definition of science was just that - “the satisfaction of personal curiosity at public expense” .

If such a desire is present, then the first serious step should be taken:
Find a supervisor in the university or outside (for example, the institutes of the Academy of Sciences) and try to understand the problem that HP and its team solves (if there is one, of course).

There is one nuance. Students of the 2nd and 3rd courses are still not very familiar with the teachers of their graduating department - usually they have 2-3 specials by this time. subject, the rest - general education. Therefore, it is difficult to find a scientific adviser to a person who has little idea of ​​what and why in science. Sometimes an announcement is made on a stream that a professor or an assistant professor invites interested students to cooperate on such and such topics. Sometimes a similar announcement can be found on the department bulletin board. This is the perfect case.
In practice, this is quite rare. So you have to take the initiative.

The algorithm of steps may be as follows:

1. We specify (in case we still do not know) which department is graduating in your specialty. In principle, you can search for HP in other departments, but it is better to try it first on your own, and only then outside.
2. We look at the department bulletin board. If there is no necessary information there, then we look at the composition of the department - which professors and which associate professors in the department are available. Then you can either go straight to a specific person (calculate it on a schedule - no problem), or come first to the teacher from your department, which you have already led something or leads. In the second case, you should just ask him what kind of scientific work is being done at the department and who among its members attracts students to work. If everything is all right with your progress, you can ask the teacher to recommend you to a specific professor or assistant professor as interested in scientific work. Perhaps this will give a result, maybe not, but you will get some information.
3. If the conversation with the teacher did not lead us to the meeting with the potential HP, then we are looking for contacts among the undergraduates (- forums, dormitories, just go to the streaming audience and catch someone) and conduct reconnaissance - specify which one or another professor / associate expert is in his subject. If the answers are like: “a demanding bastard, but he knows his own business, ” then you can go directly to the little name itself and take the bull by the horns. If the answers are “the dofinist, he doesn’t know, but doesn’t demand,” then I personally don’t see any sense in being a graduate student with such an HP. Knowing the name and surname of the professor, you can search his works in the internet - see the subject, at least. In principle, in the internet you can see everything now, but for a deeper analysis of information you need to have experience of scientific work, which you do not yet have.
4. Approach the selected professor / associate professor with something like this: “Good afternoon, Ivan Petrovich. I am a student of the 2nd (3rd year) of such a specialty. I am interested in science (scientific activity) and I would like to clarify whether you need students for work on any subject. When can I meet with you and talk about it in more detail? ”
   Either Ivan Petrovich will immediately say, “No, he doesn’t care” (which is unlikely), or he will set the time for the conversation.
   If he answers “No, not interested”, then you can not immediately give up, but ask if he will tell who of his colleagues are actively working with students in the department. In this case, point 4 will have to be repeated.
5. At the meeting itself, the main questions that Ivan Petrovich is likely to ask are:
   a) Why do you need this young man / girl?
   b) What do you know how (or what success have you had in special subjects)?
   c) What is the situation with English?

• Why do you need it - you must decide for yourself. I gave a list of reasons why people go to graduate school in the article , as well as readers in the comments to it.
  I recommend speaking as it is - they say there is interest, but there is no certainty that this is your vocation, I want to try, than to regret about lost opportunities. You can also say that I want to become a general - that is, a professor - “like, I like this title” :). In the end, the courier from the film of the same name by Karen Shakhnazarov was a very likeable hero precisely because of his non-standard straightness :).
• What you can do is not the worst. Of course, it’s better to be able to do something within the framework of your specialty, but you can also refer to the school (physical-mat, if you have), olympiads (if you have). But even if there was nothing - it is also not scary, usually the majority of graduate students do not shine anything special.
  May ask the average score. Although it is also not an indicator - the beginning of study is not rarely blurred (subjects are not interesting, the situation is new, etc.) - then the student leveled off and even ahead of some ardent honors pupils.
  
• With English - this is more significant. Most scientific publications are in English. I advise you to learn it. If you can - sign up for courses. As a rule, there is a shortage of school knowledge (unless it is a specialist in English language) and university education.

Further, most likely, there will be some “incubation period” within which you will be given the task to study something on their own and deal with something. Half of those willing fall off at this stage. Those who have done something go to the next level - working in tighter contact with HP.

Yes, I almost forgot, unlike your friends who work at firms and have their money for beer, nobody in the university will pay you anything for your efforts. On the face, full charity on your part :).

Now the main question: what does the scientific work in the university give?

1. You can touch the science from the inside and decide whether it is interesting or not. It may be interesting with science in general, but not interesting with the subject. Then you can define your interests earlier and find the one who works on this topic. If there is no interest in science, then you can not waste time on the master's and postgraduate studies - go to work for the company immediately after the diploma (or even earlier).
2. Some things in the specialty you will learn before your classmates. Therefore, some specials. subjects for you will not cause problems on exams, and moreover, if you really have a normal work with your professor / associate professor, he can put in a word for you and exam / test even for other teachers (not to mention already about their own) turn into a formality.
3. You gain experience in writing your first publications, as well as the publications themselves.
4. You have the opportunity to write and defend not a thesis project, but a scientific work. It is possible, however, that this rule is not fulfilled in all universities, but it is worth asking about it. Scientific work differs from a diploma in that you design all your research results for 2-3 previous courses in the form of a single work (very similar to a master's work) and report it to the state. commission instead of a diploma. Details need to be clarified in your department.
5. You get a recommendation for admission to graduate school / magistracy.
6. You get the opportunity to participate in research projects (including for a salary) even before graduation.
7. A money-free start in science (i.e., a period in which you still don’t know anything and do not include you in any projects / grants) falls on relatively carefree student time. The material side of the issue doesn’t worry so much yet, while it’s much harder to live on one postgraduate scholarship without support from the outside.
8. And finally, the most important thing - YOU WINNING TIME .
   If you start working on the 3rd year, then by the 3rd year of graduate school to get a finished dissertation at the exit and defend it much more likely than, after coming to graduate school after high school, start everything from scratch.
   As a result, getting a candidate's degree at 25 is much more pleasant than at 28-30. As well as the chances of a solid career - and not only in science, but also in firms, state. enterprises, etc.

Examples of life are available. One of my colleagues (Vitya, hello :)) starting science at the 3rd year of university was one of the rare examples of a postgraduate student at an academic research institution who presented and defended a thesis before graduating from graduate school. Less than a year later, the R & D center of a large Korean company with a worldwide reputation took him to the position of the head of the development team. In a sense, this is also an ideal career option.
Let's talk about realities in the next posts.