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William
Johnson

Science Experts Let Your Voices Be Heard

Lately, much has been made of the issues in Japan dealing with nuclear power generation and safety.  Meanwhile, approximately 20% of United States power generation portfolio is composed of nuclear sources.  In deciding where you stand on nuclear energy, it is very important to keep things ...


Jason
Sherwin

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: Sometimes They Just Screw Up

The theme of this posting is ‘sometimes they just screw up.’  It’s about the students – or otherwise, underlings - who will at some point in your career work for you. They will be doing the things you’ve done, or the things you don’t want to do. But they are expected to do it just a...


Sarah
Pick

Networking at Scientific Conferences

There have been some great posts here about networking. Here, we’ll focus specifically on networking at scientific conferences. Graduate students and postdocs periodically have the opportunity to attend scientific conferences, and while it’s great to present your research, conferences are per...


Xiaoli
Du

Make Your Dream Come True

Different people have different views on the life of being a postdoctoral fellow.  Some people consider it as a very rare opportunity to develop their ability to become an independent member of faculty in the future.  Some people take the advantage of the fellowship to dig out what they re...


Sarah
Pick

Networking at Scientific Conferences – Part 2

My previous post was about networking at scientific conferences. Derek Haseltine, Director for Research Career Development and Co-Director of the  Office of Postdoctoral Scholars at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, gave so many great suggestions, I have presented them in two colum...


Peggy
McKee

The Worst Interview Question of All: “What’s Your Greatest Weakness?”

If you’ve ever been interviewed for a job, you’ve likely been asked this question.  Even though we all hate it, it’s important that we know how to answer it well.  Of course, it’s never a good idea to name a weakness that would be detrimental to our job-worthiness, but it’s just ...


Sarah
Pick

The Science of Comedy

The American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held their annual meeting, and one of the most popular sessions might have been Brian Malow’s talk on “The Science of Comedy: Communicating with Humor.” It was held twice (one of the few repeated sessions) and there was standing-room-o...


Jason
Sherwin

Moving Around and Following One’s Nose

I’ve gotten some requests on this blog to go a little more into my research. Don’t worry! It’s coming. But, for now, I want to focus on a “career-related” issue, since this is a bio career related blog. In particular, this entry is a response to an article that recently appeared in the Wal...


Marielena
Mata

Letter to Andre

Just a few weeks ago, my little brother defended his Ph.D. thesis (OK, so he is not so little and technically he is not my brother).  I wanted to write him a note with some words of wisdom, but decided to actually share that letter with all of you, who perhaps might find value in the learnings ...


Kate
Sleeth

The Benefits of Participation

In my second article I mentioned the benefits of participating in associations and committees.  I thought I should expand on these and give specifics using myself as an example. I was involved in scientific communication for years back in the UK.  While I was a graduate student, I had the pleas...