How to: choose a lab
Welcome to graduate school. You were chosen because of your high likelihood to succeed in the world of science. Now what? 1. Find a lab. 2. Get your Ph.D. 3. Become famous. First, let start with point number one. Several universities have a formal rotation process (others are less formal, but are highly encouraged), where students will "rotate" through three different labs, each for 8-12 weeks. Then, through a stroke-of-genius and profound insight, students will choose the lab they would like to join for their Ph.D. career and then become famous (points number two and three). However, to get to two-and-three, point number one is critically important. And often overlooked. Let's consider a few important points with choosing a lab. Read More...
How to: be a great scientist
Being a scientist is hard. Being a great scientist is even harder. And rare. What does it take to be a great scientist? Unfortunately, this isn't something taught in graduate school. Instead, the focus is often on experiments, classes, exams, teaching, grading, experiments, more experiments, publishing, defending, and hopefully graduating. So then how does a scientist know how to be a star? Read More...