Career Paths

Kate
Sleeth

Scientific Integrity

The Hippocratic Oath is historically taken by doctors swearing to practice medicine ethically.  There is no such oath that we scientists swear, but we are expected to perform research responsibly and to publish scientific truth.  As we cannot know everyone within our area of interest, gene...


Christine
Crumbley

Effective Presentations

As I’ve started receiving replies to my inquiries about postdoctoral positions and discussing the replies with friends, a common thing for interviews is to present your research.  We shifted the conversation from the request for a presentation to what makes a presentation interesting and effe...


Mandy
Kendrick

Done with the Bench?

Done with the bench…or do you just need a change of scenery instead? At the end of graduate school, I remember thinking, “I am tired of doing research; can I really handle a postdoc?”  My graduate work entailed using the model plant Arabidopsis to investigate the molecular cascade of event...


Clement
Weinberger

Deadlines? We have plenty of ‘em.

Facing deadlines and having to meet them starts early in life – mostly in school and mostly not that difficult to deal with because they are pretty ordinary. Besides, you and all your buddies are dealing with pretty much the same ones. No problems for years. Go to class, do the assignments, study ...


Xiaoli
Du

Pink Ribbon Bow in Marketing

Did you ever see a pink ribbon bow design on a T-shirt, stickers on the back of a car or on a pink balloon? Did you feel overwhelmed by this pink bow? Do you know what the pink bow stands for? Yes, it represents breast cancer awareness. Today, I am going to talk about the story of pink ribbon bow.


Christine
Crumbley

The PostDoc Search

After gathering pieces of advice from various people over the last several weeks, I’ve finally started emailing faculty members. I updated my CV, and then wrote a two-page summary of my research experience that explains my contributions to the publications listed on my CV. I also checked with seve...


Jason
Sherwin

The Hot Word Today

Information seems to be the hot word today. It’s one of those slippery concepts that exists in a somewhat definable way in mathematics and science – particularly in information theory – but it is a hot item with or without a precise way to define it. Just look at finance, media, or a zillion o...


Kate
Sleeth

The PhD Comics Movie

I was excited to receive a personal invitation to attend the premiere screening of the first live action film based on PhD Comics!  They had spotted this very blog and thought I would be interested in the film and also letting everyone know about it.  


Jason
Sherwin

Having a little bit of fun

This posting is about having a little bit of fun – but serious “fun” – in neuroscience. The reason it is fun is because we get to use the pop song “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor (featured in Rocky III) as a stimulus set for experiments in neuroscience. 


Kate
Sleeth

The Deaths of Two Important Pioneers: Lessons to Learn

The week beginning from the 30th September 2011 has been a sad one in the worlds of science and technology.  The passing of Ralph Steinman and Steve Jobs, both pioneers in their own fields, have brought a few things into perspective.  Strangely both men succumbed to the same disease – pa...