Heading East, Harvard here we come!

My long journey started around this time last year, and it ended this morning, at least officially. After many department visits, phone conversations and family meetings, the Johnsons will be heading East to Cambridge, MA this summer. I'm joining the Harvard faculty as a full professor!

There were myriad reasons for this change in my career path. At Caltech, over the 3.5 years that I've been there I've come to recognize a fundamental mismatch between what I value (i.e. what I blog about most frequently) and what the institute values. This is not a statement about which side is right, per se. It's just a statement of fact about the nature of different people's values.

There a scene from the TV miniseries The Wire that has been playing on loop for about the past year, which nicely sums up what I've been experiencing:



I've wanted it to be one way in the department I'm a part of. But it had been made abundantly clear to me that it isn't one way. It's the other way. Whether that is absolutely good or absolutely bad, or a mix of both, is a separate discussion. But the fact of the matter is that Caltech is structured to be a lean, mean research machine. To be sure, I have benefited greatly from that structure on the research side of things. The downside is that their small size and elite status constricts their ability to prioritize diversity and makes it difficult to put a meaningful focus on education, especially on teaching innovation. The key is that while this structure works for most people here, it is simply not a good match for me.

Fortunately, I have a choice. If I don't like it the other way, I can go out and find the one way elsewhere. This decision to choose didn't come easily or quickly. For a long time I felt stuck in place, unable to move because of things like the dependence of my research on the Keck telescopes. However, it isn't a machine that has made my career. I did my dissertation on a 0.6m telescope that no one else cared much about. At Hawaii I used the smallest telescope on the mountain. My career has been built on my own creativity and hard work, along with the creativity and hard work of the group I've gathered around me. That's portable, and so am I.

Don't get me wrong, making the decision to leave Pasadena was an option available to me, but the decision was far from easy. At this time last year, the notion of moving was largely a non-starter with Erin, and understandably so. Moving isn't trivial, especially when it involves an entire family. We came to Caltech anticipating it being our last stop and the decision to move had to fold in considerations about my family, not just my research.

However, my job and my family are coupled. If I'm stressed out and unhappy at work, that comes home with me. I started out happy, but gradually my mood faded. This was pointed out to me last year by a very astute graduate student: "When you came here, you smiled all the time. You smile less now." Erin and I realized that change was necessary not just for my happiness at work, but also for my family's wellbeing.

But, wait, isn't this just a case of seeing greener grass on the other side of the fence? Aren't there problems in every department? Isn't it unreasonable to ask that a department meet my specific needs?

Well, if my time at Caltech has taught me one thing, it has taught me what questions to ask and what to look out for. During my many visits to other universities and departments I brought with me a list of very specific, blunt questions to ask those in power. At Harvard, I had the unusual privilege of posing these blunt questions to the president of the university, Drew Faust. Her answers and those of others certainly weighed heavily in my decision.

When it comes to the things I value, I don't need an entire department on my side. I just need a forum to air my opinion, a faculty that respects and listens to my point of view, and a group of colleagues that can work together to identify and address problems---and successes---within the department. I need a team. The rest comes down to leadership and hard work. Fortunately  I will be brought into the Harvard Astronomy Department in a position of leadership. Tenure ain't cheap, and not everyone gets it, especially at Harvard. I'm beyond honored by their decision to award me tenure, three years ahead of schedule at that!

I'll write more about some of the details of the process later, but for now I'll just say that I am thrilled and I'm looking forward to an array of new opportunities in my new astronomy department. Chief among the things I look forward to is the opportunity to be a university professor in the fullest sense. Some people around me have raised concerns about how outspoken I am about teaching innovation, and especially my writing on mental health on this blog and elsewhere. I'm happy and proud to report that I was not hired despite what I've been advocating in the past few years. I was awarded tenure at Harvard in part because of being so outspoken on these things. I'm proud to be a part of a progressive community where something like this can happen, and it buoys my spirits for addressing the problems that remain.

Thus, I feel like I'm going to Harvard with a mandate to continue what I've started here at Caltech. I look forward to joining an academic community that over the past few years has really put its money where its mouth is when it comes to education and diversity/inclusion. Is it perfect? Nope. But the conversation has been started and the gears are in motion. I look forward to joining the effort and leading parts of it in the near future.

On the home front, Erin and the boys are excited, too. We're looking forward to a cross-country road trip this Summer, and we are currently planning on arriving in Cambridge, MA sometime in August. This is going to be another great chapter in the grand adventure of the Johnson family. Stay tuned!