There is no typical day-there are always new challenges. I have the freedom to structure my time pretty much as I please. Responsibilities shift, depending upon the time of the year (some duties occur annually) and the needs of the moment. Also, my responsibilities depend on my current interests. I interact with a broad variety of people, from the most scientifically sophisticated Nobel Prize laureate to the youngest and most enthusiastic airplane mechanic, the occasional politician, all levels of military war fighters, folks from the financial, contracting, and legal worlds, people from industry, movie directors, and toy makers. Some are very bright and some are not. Some are flexible, and some are rigid.
All in all, I interact with a much greater variety of people than I ever would have if I had stayed in a more traditional scientist's job. This is both exhilarating and a challenge. I cannot expect most of the folks with whom I interact to understand the experiences that shape my thinking and decisions; their backgrounds and interests are very different from mine. I enjoy this, but establishing a common ground for communication is not always easy.
I spend some days at the computer, sending e-mail to my principal investigators (PIs), answering e-mail requests about my program from prospective PIs, designing briefings to explain and defend my program to those above or to try to sell a new program, answering numerous requests for information from a variety of Air Force management layers and oversight groups at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and sometimes handling requests from Congressional staffers.
Other days I go to meetings. I attend from 2 to 5 scientific conferences a year, some very specific to the subject matter of my current program, and some tangential and/or more general, or even related to new areas about which I'm curious and that I'm considering adding to the focus of our program. Every year I attend a variety of coordination meetings with my counterparts at other funding agencies to find out about their programs and to exchange ideas. Sometimes these meetings are actually turf battles. Of course, I also attend a number of nonscientific meetings. For example, this year, I am the organization's representative to a review board related to the reorganization of the Air Force Laboratories.
Yes, managing a program of research for any of the military branches requires a large amount of travel-to scientific meetings, to university laboratories, to Air Force operational bases, and to Air Force research and development facilities. Many of the program managers here at AFOSR travel 2 or 3 times per month; some of this is discretionary and some is required travel.
And most important, it is a requirement that I present my program at the meetings of a number of review boards, sometimes scientific, sometimes operational, sometimes both. The purpose of these meetings may be to determine whether the Air Force will continue to fund research in this area, or it may be to convince the Department of Defense (DOD) that the three military services have complementary rather than duplicative programs in an area.
I also organize my own meetings. Once a year or so, I have my grantees present their research to a review board I've set up to evaluate the program on the basis of the science, as well as for possible long-term Air Force application. Twice a year, I hold a working group composed of scientists and Air Force operational types to exchange information. I want the scientists to develop an in-depth understanding of relevant Air Force issues, and I encourage the operational folk to take advantage of advice to be gained from the brilliant minds of my researchers. It is also possible that I will put together a conference about a new area we are thinking of developing.
Some days I read proposals and proposal reviews, make decisions about who to fund, and then write the documentation necessary for our contracting people to write a grant. Some days I read scientific journals and textbooks. Other days I spend the whole day on the telephone, putting out fires, keeping in touch, making arrangements.
There are also other projects that arise because of current management interest in the topic. For example, this year our organization is very concerned with expenditure rates on grants. Expenditure is defined as the point at which the Defense Accounting and Finance System actually cuts the check in response to an invoice sent in by the grantee's institution. An understanding of this process was not part of my job before, but now it is. So I investigate. I track down how the process works, where the kinks are, who has the relevant information, who can fix the problems, and how I get to them. I'd hate to have to spend a whole lot of time on these financial details, but it is interesting to come to understand it and to solve the problems of concern to my management.
A couple of years ago, I was selected by the Director of AFOSR to investigate and improve our agency's relationships, interactions, and image in all Air Force Laboratories. The first year, I visited all the Air Force Labs and made myself available for personal and/or small group discussions with as many of the scientists and managers as possible. I met a lot of people from a number of disciplines and I listened and took notes. I learned a tremendous amount of science and application, and management and interpersonal issues. I wrote up and presented my findings and recommendations to senior management at all the labs and to management and all the PMs at AFOSR.
AFOSR implemented my recommendations and our relationships with the labs have never been better. And I found myself with the additional duty of visiting these labs every year to make myself available to listen to problems.
Required Skills
You need to be analytical, creative, able to handle interpersonal interactions, able to deal with computers and applications and more. You bring what you are as well as who you are to this, as to any job, and you use all of your talents and skills. What am I good at? Well, I think I am a very good listener. And I'm pretty good at seeing the world from another person's point of view. This helps me figure out the best examples and the most appropriate kinds of arguments to convey my point. I am extremely curious about new things and I like change and challenges. Repetition bores me and when I am bored, I get mean. I am a pretty good briefer, especially if I have time to really prepare. I am able to take risks, make decisions, and live with the consequences.
Training
This is on-the-job training. I am always training and learning new things, and I started more-or-less productive work my first day on the job. The Air Force is very generous about providing both part-time and full-time continuing education. I've been to War College, I have almost enough credits for an MBA, and I am able to attend scientific and management workshops and short courses pretty much as often as I like. Other program managers have taken sabbaticals to spend a year doing full-time research, to write books, and to become involved in diverse special projects.
