Jose Garcia-Tirado

Subtitle
Attaining a Faculty Position during a Pandemic
Biography Paragraphs
Dr. Jose Garcia-Tirado
Jose Garcia-Tirado, PhD

Dr. Jose F. Garcia-Tirado (he/him) is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Diabetes Technology (CDT) at UVA. Jose completed his postdoctoral research with the CDT in March 2021, in which he developed a novel state estimator for uncertain linear systems that can include constraints (a priori information) in estimation problems. This type of tool is commonly used in engineering to get information about important variables that cannot be measured through real sensors. His research interests include systems identification, estimation theory, receding-horizon control and estimation, and modeling of the glucose homeostasis. In his current work, Dr. Garcia-Tirado is mainly devoted to the refinement of a fully automated insulin delivery system (a.k.a. the artificial pancreas) to tackle automatically meaningful glycemic disturbances caused by meal intake and physical activity. 

Jose is a graduate of the PhD Plus STEM Future Faculty series.  

Q. What are your career aspirations? 

I aimed to receive a faculty position prior to completing my postdoctoral researching. Having achieved that goal, I'd like to consolidate my own research path towards pursuing a tenured faculty position. 

Q. Please summarize your experience in the Future Faculty Program 

Well, I found the program very inspirational and useful to pursue my faculty position. First, I chose to participate in the STEM Future Faculty series because as a senior postdoc I was working hard to move on in my career. Through the program, I got to know firsthand, the full experience of getting a faculty position in the US. In spite of the pandemic, we were walked beautifully through different important steps, like getting used to the academic job market, the job and chalk talk, the interviews with the possible faculty in your host department, and the like. Moreover, we had the chance to discuss relevant topics like diversity and inclusion, gender-bias, and racism, among others. 

Q. What professional skills did you develop through this experience? 

I developed skills in communication to a specialized audience, communication to a broader audience, design and preparation of slides for the job talk, and strategy. I definitely applied those concepts in my job hunt. I also worked on developing different communications strategies like the well-known elevator pitch (tailored to the academic area). I also prepared my talks with enough time so that my peers were able to provide valuable feedback. As a non-native speaker, I try to work hard on my accent and fluency of speech such that it is more clear to the audience. 

Q. What is your advice or recommendations to peers on how to best leverage the Future Faculty PhD Plus series? 

Definitely analyze the market. Enlarge your network through social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter (although I only use the former). Speak with colleagues that already have the job you seek for specific tips that are useful in your area. Although I was fortunate enough to get a job on the first shot, do not put all your eggs in the same basket and try to have different options running in parallel. If you get to do some prior research, you'll get used to the process and then you'll have important questions to ask the experts when invited to the faculty program.  

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