I typically don't add Newscripts items to the Monday C&EN review, but a NHL general manager makes the cut, I think (article by Chris Gorski):
What if I told you a researcher found a way to spend more time solving problems instead of going to meetings, writing grants, and performing administrative tasks? For Eric Tulsky, what made that possible was going to work for a hockey team.
And now, he says, “I’m probably the first person in the history of the [National Hockey League] to be interviewed by C&E News.” In June, he was named the general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team, responsible for overseeing hockey operations.
How does a chemist land that kind of job?
After completing his PhD and a postdoctoral fellowship, Tulsky worked on nanotechnology for multiple companies. As much as he enjoyed that work, his interest in another analytical pursuit grew: interpreting hockey data. After spending many years doing science by day and hockey projects on the side, Tulsky joined Carolina in 2014...
Good article - read the whole thing. I imagine that technical people from all fields are tempted to get into professional sports analytics, but to move all the way to GM probably points to skills that were present before graduate school in the sciences...
Talk about a non-traditional career!
ReplyDeleteOne of my childhood classmates earned a PhD in physics and ended up working as a quant at some investment company. If you're a math whiz, there are better ways of earning a living than doing science.
ReplyDeleteDepends on how you define "better"
DeleteTrue! I doubt this is his dream job, but he's got a wife and kids, and he cares more about being a good provider than about doing interesting science.
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