Shawn Seat

I was the youngest person to graduate from Valdosta State (It was "College" rather than "University" then) with a BS degree in Chemistry about a month before I turned 16. Because child labor laws (!) and other things prevented non-academic progress, I started but did not finish a PhD program in Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech. I later worked as a chemist several places, the longest one being working with the Fuels and Lubricants Technology Team for the US Army Tank Automotive and Armaments Command with responsibility for solid film lubricants and silicone brake fluid.

I eventually realized that being a professional chemist was not my best niche, so I began to pursue a teaching certificate for high school science, but became disillusioned by the idea that I might end up teaching middle school -- I'm glad there are people with the right psychological makeup for it, but that was not me! About that time an opening for a temporary full time position came open at ABAC when their chemist took a sabbatical to Dubai. I found that this was something I did enjoy, and I might have been hired except I did not have the post-graduate degree that they needed to do so.

So I went back to Valdosta State to get a MS degree (in Higher Education) and in the meantime took some graduate coursework in mathematics. Then in 2007 I was hired as an Instructor of Mathematics, but because the physics professor here at the time did not return from a vacation in Jordan, I became the emergency replacement for him. I needed one graduate course in physics to qualify to transition to physics, so after a course in nuclear physics from Illinois Tech, I was transitioned to being a physics instructor, and now hold the position of Assistant Professor of Physics.