Ever wish you could talk to someone you admire, who's also been where you are?

I can't wait to share my interview with Dr. Ramu Ramachandran, Associate Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Louisiana Tech University.

Dr. Ramu has pursued grants for over 30 years.

He's won, he's lost, and he told me all about it!

Welcome to our conversation.

Can you give me a brief history of your work, especially related to grant projects?

Yes, I was hired at Louisiana Tech in 1989 with the specific expectation that I'll be research active in the Chemistry department. Back then, the College of Arts and Sciences was not particularly research active. And when President Reneau came on board, he decided that the university was going to become a research university; so all tenure track hires had to be research active. I was one of the first people hired with that new mandate.

It may be hard to believe now, but when I joined Louisiana Tech, we did not have Internet. It was a shock when I came on board and I said, "Okay, how do you get email?" And somebody said, "What's email?"

I arrived a little bit before Labor Day weekend. After the initial faculty meetings, I was given a Louisiana Board of Regents solicitation for research proposals, with a letter of intent due within three or four days. There was no preparation, nothing. And basically I was told that, well, you better submit a proposal to this program.

So I started my research activity right off the bat. And it was crazy, because you have to teach classes, you have to prepare for classes. Your first teaching job, and you have to write a proposal.

Somehow I got it done. It was a disaster. I knew it was a disaster before I submitted. And the reviews confirmed that.

But I tried again, second year. This time I was more prepared and got good reviews, but unfortunately, no money. And then tried again a third year, and this time I was successful. Got my grant funded.

So it took three tries to get money from the Board of Regents, but it was a good experience. With each proposal, I got better at addressing what the reviewers were looking for and responding to the concerns. I just wish the Chemistry Department leadership had prepared me for this proposal before I came in, because they hired me in May. I had all summer to talk about this, but nothing was mentioned.

So that's how I got started. Then after that Board of Regents grant, I submitted my first proposal to National Science Foundation; and to my amazement, that was successful. 

So, yeah, it's been a series of proposals, rejections, and successes from that point on.

What do you like about working on funded projects? 

The biggest satisfaction I get is its validation - that somebody else thinks that this work is important. The sponsor, the agency, considers it worthy of funding. So that's validation.

And the other thing is that it's an opportunity to fund students who will then work with me. It's been extremely rewarding. I don't want people to work for free, so it's good to have money to pay them when they do research. That's the other most satisfying aspect of having a research grant.

What is the smallest grant you've been awarded?

The smallest grant I've received is actually $7,000 from the Louisiana EPSCoR office. That was my very first summer at Louisiana Tech. It was a three page proposal, so that was not hard to put together; and it allowed me to spend the summer in Austin doing a series of computations. Because remember, back then we did not have Internet. Back then, UT Austin had some of the most advanced computing facilities, I would say, in the world. That's still true today, but even back then, and they've steadily upgraded those.

So I was able to spend the summer in Austin. It was a very intense summer. I worked almost continuously; but it helped me get enough work done to strengthen my research proposals, write a couple of papers, and I think it basically got me going on my research career. So that $7,000 made a huge difference in my career.

What is the largest grant you've been awarded?

Well, there have been three of them. Each of them at $20 million, for five years each.

On two of them, I acted as the Co-PI. When the third one came around, I thought that I need to get out of the way and let someone younger have a shot at it. Fortunately, Arden Moore was here, a highly accomplished and capable Co-PI for the third one. That is the LAMDA grant that is currently active. I was involved in developing the proposal, editing it, finalizing it, all of that. I like doing that kind of thing; but I also think that at some point, the old people need to get out of the way.

So, yeah, those were the biggest grants that I've received. The first one was almost exclusively computational material science research. The next two had equal mix of experimental and computational work done by different people. Of course, my own specialty is all computational, but the second and third grants had more of an experimental aspect to them, but all were focused on material science and manufacturing.

What has been your favorite grant project and why? 

That's a little bit like asking which of your kids is your favorite!

But I think LA-SiGMA, and you may remember that one, the very first $20 million grant. I would say that, not just that it was my first big grant, but it was that I did some work on lithium ion battery electrode materials. It really kick started my collaborations with Collin Wick, which we still continue to do to this day. It also allowed me to interact with experimentalists at Xavier University who were working on fabricating and making measurements on the materials that we were studying computationally. For the first time in my life, I could see the interplay between theory and experiment, and that was a great experience. So I would say that's my favorite.

How have you changed as a PI? What's the biggest thing you've learned? 

Wow, that is a great question. The biggest change over time, somewhat forced by the nature of the projects and my own changing role at Louisiana Tech, is shifting from a narrow focus on what I want to do or what I think is interesting to somewhat broader perspectives.

So these $20 million grants, you have to have a large enough research theme to justify that much money, and also have to focus on statewide education and workforce development programs. So the focus is not just on your research and your own graduate students. The focus becomes a little bit broader. So that has happened to me over the years.

And working with many researchers, both at Tech and other universities, you learn how other people do things; and they're not always the same way I do things. So I've broadened my perspectives in that regard as well.

Finally, writing these big grant proposals has made me a better writer in terms of how to communicate to a broader audience, because many of the times these review panels are not going to be just focused on what I know, my specialty. So you have to write to a scientifically literate but non-specialist audience. That's an acquired skill. I would like to think that I've gotten better at it over time. 

I like sharing about the long game of grant funding, especially with newer PIs. With that in mind, what is your advice for up-and-coming PIs or researchers? 

Starting out in this business as a tenure track Assistant Professor is kind of daunting. Your first few proposals may not get funding. You may get critical reviews, and you've got to have some resilience. I think, to keep going in spite of that, you have to have some faith in what you're proposing to do.

Or you may change. You might say, okay, there is no interest in funding what I want to do. So let's see what else is interesting where I can compete usefully with the skills that I have. I think that really has to be at the top of any junior faculty member's mind.

Then once you've reached a certain stage of success, let's say you have tenure, you're now an Associate Professor, I think at that point, the long game is you have to shift your focus to helping the newer hires, the junior faculty. Bring them along, share your experiences and whatever you've learned from your successes and failures to make their path maybe just a little bit easier than perhaps you had it for yourself.

So I think that's my advice for up and coming PIs. Take care of your business first. Don't get discouraged. But once you've achieved some success, be sure to help others. 

That is so wise. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, those are the end of my questions. Is there anything else that you would want to share?

Yes, only one thing. For senior researchers, and I would put myself in that category, I really think it's extremely important to share credit. Be generous with credit.

So I mentioned to you that I had two grants with my name on the cover page, $20 million each. And folks at LSU really wanted me to be on the third one too - on the cover page - partly because I had the reputation for having managed the first two.

But I thought, no, another $20 million grant is not really going to advance my career as already a full professor and administrator. But on the other hand, there are people for whom it would make a big difference. So I took myself out of the game in that sense, just having my name on the cover page. But I continued to help with the proposal, and I'm still playing a big role in that project in terms of project management and research, project management more than anything else.

So I think it's important for senior faculty to share, be generous with credit, especially when talking to administrators. Giving credit to a younger colleague when you talk to an administrator could make a big difference for them in their career, because this person, the administrator, may remember that when it comes to pay raises or promotions, and it makes a big difference for them. And it's not really taking anything away from you because you've already achieved a certain degree of success. So I would say you need to be comfortable in your success and confident enough to give credit. 

Sometimes I run across people who are so ambitious that they steal credit or they claim credit for things that they shouldn't, and they certainly are not willing to share credit. That is something I feel strongly about.

That's huge. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Ramu. This has been so good, and I feel like I've learned just from listening to you!

What about you, what have you learned from Dr. Ramu? Let me know!

And if you're ready to find and submit your first grant, I hope you'll use my Complete Grant System!