- Even More Cranky
Since the holy trinity important things have come in threes—listen up. Not all beautiful things are functional or practical. Think white upholstery, stiletto heels in the lab, bilateral justification of your grants. Bilateral justification is from the devil. It’s a cognitive drai...
- Don’t Let Your Research Questions Go Out Without PICOTS
All the best aims are wearing PICOTS (pronounced “peacoats”). Specification of your PICOTS* is the minimum outerwear required to prevent your research question from being caught in a downpour of questions. Having these details tucked in gets you ready to have a meaningful convers...
- Sharpen Your Research Skills, Boost Your Career with a Mini-sabbatical
Dr. Courtney Peterson, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), is having a very good year.
Her pioneering work on early time-restricted feeding (eTRF) in humans, shown to improve health even in the absence of we...
- Getting Your Ducks in a Row for that First Big Grant Submission
So you are sailing high with your K career development award ready to pounce on your next grant submission! But what do you need to reach that next milestone, i.e. “independent” funding such as a R01—the currency of academic medical research? Well, you better start thinking abo...
- Not that Kind of Decision: Tales of Debating a Pre-Tenure Switch
One of the hardest questions that has recently come up in my professional life is debating changing institutions pre-tenure. I came to my medical school not that long ago. Over the past year and change, I have set up my laboratory, hired personnel, committed to thesis committees,...
- Not that Kind of Investment: Tales of Time Commitment
One of the biggest adjustments in being a principal investigator (PI) running a research lab has been the near constant, usually urgent, demands on my time. Some of these demands are enjoyable (new data!) some less so (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee protocols, blah...
- Have Pump, Will Travel
What every breastfeeding and pumping mom needs to know BEFORE attending a conference.
Travel Tip #1: If it’s a small conference or training, let work colleagues or training administrators know you are a nursing mother and will need to take breaks to pump during the conference or...
- Publishing Null Results
Nearly every scientist has felt the frustration of pouring effort, money and (sometimes) tears into a project only to get null results. The elusive p<0.05 decides whether results get published or not—the oft-mentioned file drawer problem. Others have explained better than I ca...
- Awesome Science Videos for Kids (and Grown-Up Kids Too)
Inspire your young scientists with some amazing STEM-centered videos on YouTube. (You can enjoy them too, because really, who DOESN'T want to see the world's largest lemon battery, or learn how oxygen almost destroyed the world?)
Great channels to follow:
PBS Eons. This series...
- Conveying Institutional Support
Grant reviewers want to invest in success. If you’re applying for a career development award, you must convey the support of your institution. If your chair doesn’t want to invest in you, why should the NIH or other funding agencies?
Dr. Nancy J. Brown, chair of the Departme...
