Graduate Now or Later?
Dear Labby, I am entering my sixth year as a graduate student in a PhD program at a top medical school. I am ambitious and want a research career. My advisor allowed me complete freedom to develop interesting projects, but until recently all my projects … Read more
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Labby “Outed” as ASCB Honors Thoru Pederson
Ending ten years of excellent advice and clever misdirection, Thoru Pederson was “outed” Saturday night as Labby, the pseudonymous author of the long-running and extremely popular career column, “Dear Labby,” in the ASCB Newsletter. Pederson was exposed as Labby by 2015 ASCB President Shirley Tilghman … Read more
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Finding Our Way
Dear Labby, We receive mentoring of all kinds, but many of my fellow students and I find it granular: helpful but lacking in broader sweep. Senior members of our department recount tales of their mentors conveying much deeper lessons. You deal each month with a … Read more
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Bombed My Defense!
Dear Labby, My thesis defense started out fine. It was the usual seminar (with my husband, our five-year-old daughter, my parents, and my in-laws all sitting in the back) followed by some easy questions from the audience in this “public” part. After a short break, … Read more
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Innocently Tarnished by Misconduct
Dear Labby, I am a finishing graduate student and my world has collapsed due to acts of research misconduct by a technician in our lab whose materials now turn out to have been deliberately falsified. Specifically, certain plasmids and cell lines were claimed by him … Read more
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An Interloper?
Dear Labby, I am a faculty member at a U.S. medical school with my primary appointment in a department of molecular pharmacology. I am also a member of an intramural drug development research institute at my institution. We recently recruited, to both entities, a stellar … Read more
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My Talk Runneth Over
Dear Labby, I am a fourth-year graduate student getting ready to give my first talk at a meeting. It is supposed to be 12 minutes and then three for discussion. I did a trial run with the lab and it was 25 minutes. That was … Read more
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A Question about Questions
Dear Labby, I just attended a symposium at a well-regarded institution. Whenever I had a question it seemed there were “favorite” people who got chosen even though my hand was up. I did get to meet some of the speakers and had good follow-ups with … Read more