Advice to young researchers

A new researcher in any discipline is often at sea without a compass. He may have demonstrated tremendous skill already as a graduate student in the ability to achieve new results in research, but is unaware of the ethical requirements of research or of many activities that can improve the quality of his work and protect that work to a degree from serious errors. I am sorry to say that too many supposedly seasoned researchers are unaware of these errors or choose to ignore them. For the engineer there is the additional requirement that his research should have some connection to the real world, particularly on how one finds research problems in it. The present essay is not intended as a survivor's manual. It has loftier goals for those young creative researchers who, to steal a phrase from Faulkner [1], will not only survive but prevail, whether in industry, government, or academia. The present article is adapted from part of an earlier article [2].