Showing posts with label communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label communication. Show all posts

Friday, July 30, 2010

Choosing a PhD advisor

A recent blog thread prompted me to read an article by Bruce Alberts, Editor-in-Chief of Science "On Becoming a Scientist" and post some thought on choosing a PhD advisor here.

He starts: “The exact project pursued for a Ph.D. degree is not nearly as important as finding the best place for learning how to push forward the frontier of knowledge as an independent investigator.” How true. Some advice summarized from the article:

1) Choose a research group led by a person with high scientific and ethical standards. Have they published frequently and in prestigious journals? Do they have NSF-supported research projects? Search for their name on the NSF awards web site;

2) Find an advisor who will pay close attention to your development as a scientist (a small research group is perhaps better than a large group in which your interests can get lost). Talk to current students in that group and discover whether they have had conversations with their advisor about their future career. Have they been encouraged to present their research at conferences, write papers and grant proposals? Are there multiple faculty doing research in related fields? That could create a supportive community of faculty and grad students in which you might thrive. Are there regular departmental seminars on topics of interest to you by visiting scientists? Does the research group meet regularly to discuss research progress, etc.? The upshot: is there a community that will provide an intellectually-stimulating and supportive environment?;

3) Choose an advisor that will provide you with enough guidance to prevent you from wasting time on nonproductive pursuits, while giving you the freedom to innovate and learn from your own mistakes. How hands-on or hands-off is s/he as an advisor? Is there a chance that you might become enslaved as the mass spec repair dude during your PhD or will you get lots of hands-on experience in the lab while you're doing your research and walk away 5 years later with important skills;

4) Choose your research project well (this is a tricky one as it's hard to see the forest for the trees when you're fresh out of your undergraduate studies): “ambitious enough to be important and exciting, innovative enough to make unique contributions likely, and nevertheless have a good chance of producing valuable results”. Have this conversation with your advisor when you're choosing your project.

5) The choice of a postdoctoral research group is the place to establish yourself with your long-term career in mind – you should choose a lab where you can acquire skills that complement those you already have.

6) Finally, I'll add that you should consider whether the faculty member is near retirement or whether they are just starting to grow their research program (what year did they get their PhD and do some math) - are they actively doing exciting research? have they published recently? do they have active grants through NSF? Some mid- or late-career faculty might drift into administrative roles that take them away from their research. Very new/young faculty might be sinking all of their time into starting up a new lab or teaching brand new courses and not have much time for advising, they might not have external grant funding yet to support their research, or their research groups might be nonexistent or very small (perhaps not the most supportive environment). At the same time, very new/young faculty might feel more energized by their research and still have a fire in their belly that could lead you down exciting research roads (at the very least, if they are pre-tenure [Assistant Professors in their first 6 years of their positions] they will still have to work very hard to be productive...).

There is an awful lot of luck, knowing the right people, and being in the right place at the right time in becoming a successful scientist. You can control who you know - your research mentors. Choose well.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Mentor-mentee relationships

I just spotted this blog on Sciencewomen that discusses the job of a mentor and being a mentee. I like this passage, paraphrased from a talk SciWo attended, in particular:

"Dr. Cassell also talked about the characteristics of a good mentor, qualities that included accessibility, empathy, honesty, savvy, humility (most important), consistency, open-mindedness, and understanding of the current/new research/academic/professional environment. Mentors should be providing networking opportunities, offering moral support, and encouraging creative thinking. In turn, good mentees are proactive, probing, gracious, and humble in accepting critical feedback.

Of course, you are not going to meet all of your mentoring needs in a single relationship, so Cassell suggests to never let go of old mentors, establish both official and informal mentors and also find a set of confidants. She urges mentees to keep meetings professional."

I'll let that speak for itself.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Writing a professional e-mail

The subject of how to write an e-mail to a professor or other senior scientist came up in our research group today. I'd like to add my two cents to some resources I found online here, here, and here (that you should spend five minutes to read). While the suggestions on these two websites are most relevant for students in a large enrollment general education course, many of the same pieces of advice should be followed when you want to contact a scientist at another university or lab. Basically, a professional e-mail should be treated more like a formal letter and not a text message to your BFF. And make sure you avoid common pitfalls (that will annoy the very person you're trying to impress).

1) First, can your question be answered by information available on their website (or on iLearn), elsewhere on the web, or by simply looking at their schedule posted outside their office door? Even senior students and grad students still ask me questions they can answer themselves. A good example from two weeks ago: A geology major graduating this semester who missed class to attend an optional geology field trip not related to any course he was taking asked "Did we miss the X lab while we were on the X field trip?". My response: "I don't know. Did you check iLearn?". I spend a lot of time maintaining course web sites to make things more convenient for both me and students. Use those resources.

2) Always (always) address the e-mail to "Dr. X" or "Prof. X". And don't forget to identify yourself: "My name is John Smith and I'm a graduate student working with Prof. Jane Doe at State University". Likewise, close your e-mail "Regards" or "Best Regards" and not "Thanks!" or nothing at all. Include a sensible subject line and keep the e-mail short, but provide enough information so that a response is easy. Don't write "May I have a copy of your 2008 paper?", write "May I have a copy of your Johnson et al. (2008) paper that appeared in the Journal of Important Scientific Discoveries"? Consider whether their response requires knowing more about the context of your question - what kinds of rocks are you working on? where did you collect your rocks? etc. It also can't hurt to start off with a compliment: "I very much enjoyed your recent paper in EPSL. May I ask a question about your EBSD results?".

3) It's always best to use your university e-mail account to send these kinds of e-mails. That makes it very clear you're actually a student at that university and not spam or some random wacko.

4) Get a professional e-mail address. "sillybear714@sfsu.edu" or "toadjuice@gmail.com" should be reserved for personal e-mail communication (if you must). Ideally, grab a firstname.lastname@univeristy.edu account, or (if it's too late for that) a firstname.lastname@gmail.com account.

5) Punctuate, capitalize appropriately, check your spelling, and write in complete sentences. A no-brainer really.

6) If you get a response to your e-mail, you need to take time to say "Thanks!". It's annoying to spend the time to answer questions, etc. and just have it disappear into the ether.

And if you're not sure how to write a tricky e-mail, run it past your advisor first... Particularly if there might be intellectual property issues with your e-mail or if there is any chance you might step on someone's research toes. Not sure? Ask your advisor.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Making an effective poster

Creating an effective poster is part art and part understanding the purpose of your poster. Tell a story with your poster and be prepared to have a 2-minute “elevator conversation” telling that story ready to give meeting attendees. This is your chance to highlight your work and get constructive feedback from famous scientists interested in your work! It is important to make your poster look attractive (i.e., not filled with text or data tables) and make it easy to read (can someone actually read the text from 3 feet away?).

The format
Create a 6’ x 3’ (poster sizes vary) landscape layout template in Adobe Illustrator or PowerPoint (check physical limitations on the maximum poster size that can be plotted and how much space you will be allotted at the conference – often a maximum of 36” height on plotters, sometimes you will be allowed as much as an 8’-wide poster).


The different elements of a poster

Use layers in Illustrator to make making changes to your poster less problematic. Create a layer (a box) to fill that template and lock that layer; you can choose a background color or gradient later. In a new layer, place the title of your paper (abstract) prominently at the top of the poster board to allow viewers to identify your paper easily. Include 1) the title, 2) the author(s) names, and 3) their affiliations (addresses) centered underneath. The title should be the largest type size (a minimum of 72 point type, and perhaps as much as 120 point type depending on the font), but also highlight the authors' names and address information in decreasing font sizes in case the viewer is interested in contacting you for more information. Lock that layer. Create white boxes on which you will group text and figures of related content. Put your text and figures in yet another layer on top of those boxes.


Legibility and sizing of the different elements

Prepare all figures neatly and legibly beforehand in a size sufficient to be read at a distance of 2 meters. Be sure that text and figures pulled from a .pdf, for example, will be legible and of a high resolution when printed at the final size of the poster. Paragraph and figure caption text should be at least 24 point font (0.9 cm height) and headers at least 36 point font (1.2 cm height). Use creativity by using different font sizes and styles, perhaps even color (keep in mind some people are color-blind and have a difficult time distinguishing reds and greens – opt for dark oranges and blue-green hues instead). A serif font (e.g., Times, Helvetica, Palantino) is often easier for reading the main text, and a sans-serif font (e.g., Arial, Geneva, Verdana, Tahoma, Lucidia Sans) for titles, headers, and figure labels. Left-aligned text may be easier to read than justified text.

Organize the paper on the poster board so that it is clear, orderly, and self-explanatory. You have complete freedom in displaying your information in figures, tables, text, photographs, etc. The presentation should cover the same material as the abstract. Use squares, rectangles, circles, etc. to group like ideas (the “white boxes” described above). Don't clutter your poster with too much text and keep data tables to a minimum! Include at least the text of your abstract, captions for all figures, a short geologic background, a summary of results (even prior results) and conclusions, references, and acknowledgments (any funding that supported your work, anyone who helped with analyses or field work who is not an author on your poster, etc.).


Ready to plot?

You should print your poster out on 11” x 17” paper before heading to the plotter to check for mistakes, problems with fonts or special characters, etc. When you’re ready to plot, save the file as a pdf and format the page in Adobe Acrobat to equal the size and orientation of the actual poster.

There are more suggestions at http://www.aapg.org/meetings/instructions/guide.html, but keep in mind this was written before it was common to print out a poster on a large-format plotter…

Thursday, February 26, 2009

How NOT to impress a future advisor/employer

I often get e-mails that are not well crafted or written with care. The result is that 1) I am annoyed (and I remember which individuals have annoyed me in the past) and 2) I have to waste my time to seek additional information that should have been included in the original e-mail. For example, I just received this e-mail:

Hello Mary,

I am currently applying to enter the MS in Geosciences program (starting in the Fall 2009 semester). Last week I met with [an advisor in your department], and she suggested that I set up a meeting with you to discuss the program as well as potential research opportunities. If you are available to meet sometime in the next week or two, please let me know a day and time. If you are really busy right now, but are able to speak briefly over the phone, you can reach me at 415-xxx-xxxx.

Thank you,

[Potential graduate student]

At least he said "Thank you".

What's wrong with this e-mail? First, he starts by using my first name. I'm perfectly happy with students calling me by my first name but that is perhaps unique to geology (the culture is very different in other fields: for example, all students in the Chemistry Department address their professors with "Dr.", even to their principal advisor). Always
(always) default to addressing someone in academia as "Dr." or "Prof." until you are either requested to do otherwise, or you get some other indication that you may comfortably use a person's first name (how do they sign their e-mails?).

Next delightful shortcoming of this e-mail: This potential grad student didn't bother to tell me anything (anything) about their background or research interests, and gave me no indication he'd even bothered to look at my web site to see what my research interests are. For such a wired generation, students fail an impressive number of times to even search Google (or check their syllabus or the course web site) before sending me an e-mail or coming to my office for information.

Then he goes on to request a meeting without telling me when he might be available, and instructs me that "If you are really busy right now" to telephone him.

I am always really busy.

What I wrote back was this:

Hi [Potential graduate student],

Why don't you tell me a bit about your background? Do you have a B.S. in geology? Do you have any research experience in the lab or field? Did you take a traditional 4-6 week field camp? What are your research interests? What is your ultimate career goal once you have an M.S.?

Thanks,
Mary

I'm really not in a hurry to meet with this guy....but you never know....so that's why I even bothered to reply.