Alain Joseph didn't always know he would become passionate about biodiesel fuels and other forms of plant-based renewable energy. But a chance job after his undergraduate studies a decade ago led him to where he is now: working on an interdisciplinary doctoral degree straddling computer engineering, biology and environmental studies.
Mr. Joseph, 33, is doing his degree at Dalhousie University's faculty of graduate studies. But he admits that when he graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with an undergrad degree in biology in 1996, grad school wasn't on the radar. "I didn't know what I was qualified to do," he recalls.
An almost year-long post-graduation road trip to Central America enabled him buy a little time. Returning to his hometown of Sydney, N.S., he looked for work. Cape Breton isn't known as a hub for job-seekers, and when he found a job doing grunt work ("basically picking rocks out of a field"), he jumped at the opportunity. He didn't know it would change the course of his life.
He had found work with an agricultural research project looking at soil quality. The lead researcher, a professor at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro, announced there was new money to fund a master's student. Because Mr. Joseph was already at work on the project, he was offered the opportunity — along with a scholarship of $12,000 a year — to pursue a master of science degree.
It was serendipity, he says: "A research experiment in my hometown led to my graduate degree. They'd pay me to do a master's. It seemed like a good option at a time when you don't have any options."
Money is a huge factor in going to grad school, he notes. "It basically makes or breaks the decision to go back to school," he says, adding that there are generally "two camps" in grad school. Most people "follow the money," meaning they end up tailoring their interests to match funding sources. The other approach — deciding what you'd like to study, then "fishing" for some way to do it — is more unusual, he says. "Those people often don't find the funding they need."
For him, the decision to carry on to doctoral work seemed natural. "With a master's degree, you're basically qualified to help manage other people's research," says Mr. Joseph, who started his PhD in 2003. "I realized that, if I went back to school, I could work on my own."
Though he says funding at the PhD level is more commonplace, securing it can be difficult. He makes about $19,500 a year and can't afford child care, so these days he spends as much time on applesauce as he does on ethanol, caring for his 11-month-old daughter. Ava has claimed the bulk of her father's time since her mother, Amy Soosar-Joseph, went back to work in May.
"A lot of my work is being done in my head these days," he says. "That's where I work out my ideas." His research is squeezed into evenings, weekends and the spaces created by nap times.
"We're used to living dirt poor," he laughs. "When Kraft Dinner goes on sale, I still go kind of crazy and stock up."
