My name is Jacob Boes, I am a Ph.D. in Chemical engineering who writes from the perspective of an atheistic socialist.
When I was young, I didn’t have a good sense of what I wanted to do with my career. I wanted to help others, but my initial choice to study Chemical Engineering at Michigan Technological University was probably primarily motivated by money. While an undergraduate, my most memorable experiences where of working at the chemistry learning center, inspiring me to pursue teaching. I went on to a Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University in my home state of Pennsylvania. Originally intending to study process control, I instead switched to computational catalysis out of interest in helping with the energy crisis; graduate school was a wonderful time of growth and exploration in my life.
After graduating in 2017, I went on to do post-doctoral studies at Stanford. While there, repeated disturbing an disheartening experiences made it increasingly difficult to motivate myself to continue; Two years later, feeling completely drained of will, I felt I had no choice but to leave the academic career path and distance myself from chemical engineering all together. I’ve spent the last few years doing python programming, consulting, and general IT work.
About Sustaining Search
Over my life, I have cultivated and interest in plants, cycling, open-source programming, and teaching. After leaving academia I had a lot more time for reading on a broad range of topics and self-reflection; time needed to puzzle out why I had become so disaffected. My original intention for this blog was to record some of those revelations made through reading and my own experiences and try to make them accessible to others; I have found that one of the best ways to learn is through the attempt to teach others.
My primary interest in this blog is thus to search for understanding about the nature of sustainability. During my academic career that would have entailed means of creating a “sustainable civilization” - a phrase that I would now consider an oxymoron. Primary topics of interest will likely be the science, philosophy, politics, and personal health as they relate to an ecological view of sustainability.
With luck, this can be the first steps to cultivating community interested in a deeper understanding of what it means to live well in the Anthroposene. If you’re interested in contacting me, I can be reached at this email address.
Credentials
A list of my peer-reviewed publications can be found on my Google Scholar Page.