Making the Most of Your Invited Seminar
DEAR LABBY: I’m a relatively new assistant professor with my own lab. I have been invited to give a seminar by a scientist at a major university whose research overlaps mine. I’m thrilled at the chance to present my research to people who would appreciate … Read more
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Meetings Large and Small
DEAR LABBY: I am an assistant professor with limited funds for travel to meetings. Although I am a devoted ASCB member, I am torn between going to a large meeting like that hosted by ASCB and EMBO and a smaller one more directed toward my … Read more
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Predators and Prey in Publishing
DEAR LABBY: I’m a mid-career faculty member in a biology department at a large public university. Our department has been fortunate to recruit some really promising new assistant professors within the last few years. I try to check in on the new cell biologists on … Read more
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Is an Academic Career Just a Dream?
Dear Labby, I am a fifth-year cell biology graduate student doing basic research at a major research university. I am ambitious, worked hard during my rotations, and was rewarded by being accepted into the best-known lab in our department. It has been a lot of … Read more
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Tone deaf?
Dear Labby, As a first-year woman medical student, I have appreciated my medical school’s efforts to mitigate unconscious bias. However, today in my pathology lab I had an experience that made me feel belittled and uncomfortable. One of my lab’s preceptors, Dr. XY, an older … Read more
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Balancing demands as a new faculty member
Dear Labby, I am just completing my first semester as an assistant professor. After five years as an international postdoc I thought that this time would never happen. We now live in a relatively rural part of the United States, in contrast to our former … Read more
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How to join the conversation
Dear Labby, I am a second-year PhD student who joined a large lab full of confident and opinionated senior graduate students and postdocs. I find the environment stimulating and my lab-mates interesting and funny, and I love my research project. However, I was raised in … Read more
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What’s next after a PhD?
Dear Labby, I am about 18 months from filing my PhD thesis (finally) and I am considering my post-PhD options. I am thinking not only about a postdoc but also about whether to join a company directly. With a postdoc, I might be competitive for … Read more
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Great expectations
Dear Labby, I have just joined a top research lab for my postdoc. I was very successful in graduate school, where my advisor gave me complete freedom to come and go as I pleased and attend whatever functions I wanted. Now, in the first week, … Read more
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How to tell your department chair you’re leaving
Dear Labby, I was recently promoted to associate professor in an urban private medical school. After celebrating, I had to acknowledge that although I love my current scientific community, the prohibitive cost of city living as the parent of two school-aged kids has meant that … Read more