Lectures & Tutorials
Life & Lessons as a Scientist in “Real Life” (career talk)
Part of the series Career & Outreach; each deck is cited on its own.
A personal, informal talk for students about building a career in science. It traces a path from undergraduate physics to a Ph.D. and industry research, then draws out lessons from the quantum-jumps story: ask good questions, take criticism and leap, learn widely, and have some fun along the way.
- Career timeline from B.A. in physics to Ph.D. in applied physics and quantum computing research
- Founding and leading teams such as Qiskit Metal and Qiskit Leap Research, plus outreach roles like Open Labs
- Lessons from the quantum-jumps research: question-driven work, believing in your ideas, hearing criticism
- Learning across disciplinary boundaries, teaching to learn, and giving back
Summary and key points drafted by a language model from the slides, not yet reviewed by me. The slides are the source.
Cite
@misc{minev2025lifelessons,
author = {Zlatko K. Minev},
title = {{Life \& Lessons as a Scientist in “Real Life” (career talk)}},
howpublished = {Talk, Qubit x Qubit Capstone},
year = {2025},
url = {https://zlatko-minev.github.io/zlatko-minev-quantum-repository/items/2025-life-and-lessons-as-a-scientist-in-real-life/},
note = {Slides}
}Reuse
Unless a deck says otherwise, the slides and notes here are © Zlatko K. Minev and shared under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: you're welcome to read, download and share them, unchanged and non-commercially, with credit and a link back. Commercial use or a reworked slide or figure in your own talk, course or paper needs permission; please ask, the answer is usually yes. If you use something in teaching or a publication, I'd love a short note telling me where.
Some slides include figures, photos, logos or excerpts from other people and institutions, credited where they appear. Those aren't mine to license, so please ask the original source. Spotted a missing credit? Tell me and I'll fix it.
