September 21, 2009

Q&A: Cramming for Tenure, Earlier Than Planned

Steve Niedorf

Christy L. Haynes, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, says she was caught off guard when her department chair asked her to compile a tenure packet a year earlier than she expected.

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Steve Niedorf

Christy L. Haynes, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, says she was caught off guard when her department chair asked her to compile a tenure packet a year earlier than she expected.

By Audrey Williams June

Christy L. Haynes, an assistant professor of chemistry, expected to apply for tenure a year from now, or even later. But her department chairman at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities told her that her work was ready and encouraged her to apply this year. Ms. Haynes, who studies nanoparticles and how they affect the way cells communicate with one another, pushed to assemble her tenure dossier and is preparing for a September 29 "tenure talk," a presentation about her research for