Quote Originally Posted by TT View Post
I never perceived the possible opportunities that crossed my path as obstacles to my academic career, but then I am a poli scientist, not a technologist, so our situations are different. Gov’t work and clearances obviously has not hurt John or Rex’s careers, but by the same token you clearly see career issues given your line of research.
As a technologist my research is highly applied. I don't theorize about the bomb I build it, then I build it better, then I produce the process to mass produce it. Technology faculty do a lot of consulting to various entities and corporations. In many ways that is what we do rather than sponsored research. As a specialist in information technology (networking and security) i look at ways to implement, integrate, adapt, change, model, infuse, fuse, the various disparate hard science disciplines through my research. In my world we do stuff. As a cyber warfare researcher I take all of the above.... and well you don't really want to know.

Because of the highly applied nature rather than basic science nature any knowledge derived and then utilized could in many ways be suspect. The things I know, the techniques, the skills, the methodologies, are what make my knowledge valuable. And, exactly the kind of things that would be classified. My mentors have warned me about this since the first major scholarship I was awarded.