simply blood

When I got my PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology over 10 years ago (yikes!), I honestly didn’t really appreciate what I was getting myself into.  I started studying hematology as a graduate student in Dr. Mitch Weiss’s laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania; the idea that trillions of mature blood cells were generated from a self-renewing adult stem cell absolutely fascinated me.  And, to think that this had to occur over an organisms’ life span intrigued me even more.   My love of research didn’t start in graduate school, though.  While my love of science was always present, it really started when I was an undergraduate student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a liberal arts university with a strong focus on engineering and the sciences.  I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with myself after college, but I had a unique experience working and doing research in the laboratory of Dr. Lynne Cassimeris when I was an undergraduate...

Scientific results are important, but can make little impact on the world without scientific communication - an extremely broad field that encompasses scientific lectures, writings, and reports. The increasing reach of social media in the last 10 years has also increased scientists’ abilities to share their discoveries via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and blogging. These platforms are extremely useful and scientists can both share their own research and more importantly explain why these findings matter in an easy and accessible manner. In fact, clear communication, targeted to a lay or broad audience is a key effective strategy for helping your research make the most impact. Whether you aim to share your research with the general public or with other scientists, the more transparent your statement, the more your audience will understand. Tempting as it may be, overusing technical jargon may alienate your audience. When you are immersed in a topic you may forget which w...

For academic research institutions in the United States and Europe, it is common (though not an absolute rule) for faculty interviews to feature two separate visits. The first interview, covered in part 1 and part 2  of this series is typically offered to multiple candidates for a position. It offers students, faculty, division and department heads and other stakeholders at the institution an opportunity to get to know each candidate and evaluate strengths and weaknesses, as well as their “fit” within the particular program, based on individual discussions, a seminar, chalk talk (usually), lunches, dinners and other interactions. Depending on how many candidates are invited, the initial interview process can take weeks to months to resolve from broad public searches geared toward interdisciplinary positions or simply premised on casting a wide ‘net’ to see what sort of talent emerges. In other cases, positions are created and tailored to attract specific individuals. If a single t...

Superwoman woke up at 5am. She’d been up most of the night feeding and settling her three-month old baby, but she didn’t really need much sleep, did she? She jumped out of bed and got ready for her gym session (despite being Superwoman, those last few pounds post-baby were proving difficult to get rid of after having her fourth child). After the gym, she returned home to get the older children fed and ready for school. Her husband, Superman, was heading off to save the world again, so she took care of most things on the home front. After seeing the three oldest safely to school and taking the youngest to childcare, she made her way to the lab to start her work day. Another busy day-- It was grant season, and she was putting two in this round. She also had a manuscript to submit, two manuscripts to review and a draft of a PhD student’s thesis to finish reviewing- they were going to discuss it this afternoon. In between, she needed to pump milk for her baby every three hours, catch u...

For young scientists on the brink of independence, attaining a career development grant can be pivotal for a successful job search.   Establishing a trajectory of external funding early in your career demonstrates not only your capability for grantsmanship, but also your ability to navigate funding opportunities.   In some cases, a career award can bring you to a specific institution or even (back) to a specific country.   It also provides you with an unparalleled opportunity to scope out and define the pathway(s) for your future independent research, and lay out a tentative plan that will prove invaluable when you prepare research statements for job applications.   Although it is arguable that scientists these days spend too much time writing grants, there are definitely benefits to the process. Grant writing provides the rare chance to catch up on relevant literature, formalize research objectives, and think about future directions.   This is particularly tr...

“Eric, I’m going to ask you some hard questions now. Give your nobel prize speech, in 50 words or less. Go.” -Interviewer at an academic institution This post is the second in a series relating to making the leap between postdoc to faculty. The goal is to relate some of my insights into the process based on my experience, both then and now, from the other end of the desk. In this post, we’ll explore some strategies to master the main components of interviews: meetings, the seminar and the chalk talk. Know who you’re meeting with: If you’ve applied to an institution, then it’s a fair bet that you’ve already identified potential collaborators or people of interest who you will want to speak to while you are interviewing. Often (though not always), institutions will ask you if you want to meet with specific people. If they don’t ask you about specific meetings you’d like to have, it doesn’t hurt for you to ask the faculty member or admin handling your visit about some individuals you...

“Hm. Here’s my suit…now where’s my belt??” -Me, at the hotel getting ready for an interview During my job search in 2015, I interviewed at seven academic institutions and one biotech company. In the end I was offered positions at the company as a scientist and at three universities as tenure-track faculty. Each interview was its own unique story. One interview location was a long morning haul to the institution via rental car for a first-thing-in-the morning seminar. A blizzard during a different interview left me stranded in the town the day before I was supposed to fly to Keystone for a conference. The biotech interview was nothing like the academic interviews. Ultimately the process was certainly intense, but also fun and extraordinarily valuable for a young scientist. It’s your first chance to essentially ‘go on tour’ with your own scientific identity. This post is the first in a series relating to making the leap between postdoc to faculty. The goal is to relate some of my ins...