Blue Lab Coats

Just to keep you updated on the paper rejection situation that was detailed in my earlier post, and in Physioprof’s post on Drugmonkey (and then Drugmonkey had one about quality of data). I had no idea that this topic would touch off so many useful posts and informative comments on this topic.

After thinking through the reviewers’ comments and writing a point-by-point rebuttal just for myself… considering everything that had been written in those posts above and all the comments Continue reading ‘Letter to the Editor’

Mad Hatter had a post yesterday about ‘fit’ of personnel hired into the lab on which I made a comment about a habit I have of sitting my employees down on the first day, and laying out a few of my expectations for professional behavior in the lab. A couple of people (CAE and Schlupp) wondered in the comments what I say during this meeting… hence this post…

Why do I do this? Well- I have found over my years as an employee and an employer that you just can’t assume that people who come to work for you (or with you) will behave like professionals, considerate Continue reading ‘Great Expectations…’

So most people who become junior faculty and set up their own labs have no management experience what-so-ever. Personnel management, resource management… time management - (although we may have the most experience with this last one). You go from one day, running your own project and maybe a rotating student or undergraduate… to running the whole show… with no instruction manual. It’s a little like having a baby- from one day to the next you are gifted with a whole new set of circumstances and you are just supposed to ‘know’ how to work the thing. This can either go ok, or it can go very, very wrong. Continue reading ‘Beginner’s Mistakes: Lab Management’

I will continue the ‘Job Search’ series shortly… but we are coming up to interviewing and I have a lot to say about that… so stay tuned… in the meantime …

I had to write a couple of letters of recommendation recently, so I have been thinking about all that these students have accomplished in the last year. I realized just how far they have both come in their projects and development as scientists during this time, and this despite often challenging family circumstances. I remembered a period of time recently when one of them had several big educational milestones to take care of, one of which was her qualifying exam. As usual, everything was crashing at the same time- one of her children was sick, her significant other out of town, and she had the stomach flu herself a couple of times. But she took care of business, gritted her teeth and passed all milestones and with flying colors.

What makes this particular situation even more remarkable is that this student very nearly quit graduate school, thinking that her family situation precluded her from being able to do the work required to finish graduate school. Where did she get this idea- well, she learned it with the help of some less-than-perfect mentoring. When I met her- I realized what a bright, organized, and great student she was- and the prospect of her quitting school was heartbreaking for me. She changed labs, things turned around, and she is learning to balance the challenges of doctoral work with the challenges of home.

Don’t get the mistaken impression that things have been easy for her, and I have seen her come back to the lab many nights after her kids are in bed, when she has a big experiment going. She doesn’t do this because of external pressure to spend hours in the lab, but instead from a genuine desire to see the experiment through so she can know the answer. I celebrate this. She was taught that she couldn’t do it … and she persevered, and proved to herself that despite difficulty she could get it done, and get it done well.

Needless to say, I had the pleasure of writing a great letter for her!

As I wrote a few days ago- I submitted that paper. Its been 18 days…. nothing happens very quickly- hurry up and wait. In the online submission system - when you log in to look at the progress of your manuscript- you have got a folder there marked ‘live manuscript’… I suppose when they send it back rejected another folder appears marked ‘dead manuscript’- or ‘dead manuscript, that might be revived after a miracle’ ? Maybe I’ll have one of those in a few days.

In the meantime though- I am continuously thinking about with the next series of experiments to follow that paper, and I’m drowning in literature. Would it be too obsessive to take my laptop to the soccer games tomorrow…? (my daughter doesn’t like me yelling encouragement from the sidelines anyway)… NO WAIT, don’t answer that. I vaguely recall saying something about real life a few posts ago. Forgot to mention that there are three soccer games, and one birthday party-… which, as luck would have it, overlaps the presentation times of my two students’ talks at the meeting they are attending. I am forcing the family…. yes, including myself…. to take a break on Sunday with moratorium on obligations, appointments and work.