Awesome Things About Life in Research

Doing Research / Faculty Life / Trainees

Building a list of awesome things that come with life in research, one quirky, funny, inspiring piece at a time. Missing your favorite awesomeness? Or have The perfect image? Add in comments or tweet @edgeforscholars to share your personal twist on why science rocks. #JoyOfScience

142. Having your NIH Program Officer say, “I am cautiously optimistic about funding your application.”

141. Meeting new incredibly smart people

140. My hypothesis was right

139. p<.05

138. The code runs with no errors!

137. When you actually learn something new

136. Getting to hear about others knowledge

135. Implementing evidence-based practice

134. Collaborating with amazing students who then become amazing friends

133. Seeing your mentees present at the Translational Research Forum

132. My RN6 colleagues/friends

131. Groundbreaking results

130. When your hypothesis was right

129. Learning the coolest stuff first

128. Developing new research ideas from clinical observations

127. Near peer mentoring

126. Training the next generation

125. Adding a new study site

124. Making new collaborations

123. Vortex machines

122. Talking to smart people all the time

121. Mentoring

120. Watching students & trainees develop & succeed

119. Assays (like ELISA’s) that change color

118. Working with smart trainees

117. Traveling the world in the name of science

116. Building a research team

115. Being on the cutting edge of discovery

114. Seeing the innovation of new researchers

113. The excitement of new findings

112. When the code has no bugs

111. When the data definitively disproves your hypothesis in a new and interesting way

110. Being surrounded by amazing minds

109. Watching participants grow up & change

108. Solving interesting problems with smart people

107. Putting complex data into human communication

106. Understanding the complex web of factors affecting the outcome

105. Answering the big question and getting answers

104. Spending my life’s work pursuing something other than the bottom line in a society that is solely obsessed with the bottom line what’s more punk than publicly funded science?

103. Having your NIH Program Officer say, “I am cautiously optimistic about funding your application”

102. Coming up with crazy ideas with my friends and then actually getting them funded!

101. Making a difference for people and advancing care/improving outcomes

100. Vortexing

99. Working with trainees/students

98. Travel!!

97. I get paid to read and think about cool stuff

96. I’m my own boss

95. Pipetting is fun

94. Things change color

93. Holiday gift baskets in the break room

92. Lab holiday spirit

91. Funny tweets from serious scientists

90. Uploading grades at the end of the course

89. Discussing a new project with a person who challenges the way I think

88. Embracing the unpredictable

87. Having the exact number of pipette tips left that you need

86. Using lasers as light sabers

85. Mice don’t page you at 3 AM

84. Flexible time

83. Mother Nature telling you a secret before anyone else

82. Community that comes to the rescue

81. Dry ice in Eppendorf tubes

80. Collaborations

79. It is the most rewarding job

78. Having the whole lab to yourself

77. Hearing patient perspectives

76. Getting paid to ask ‘why?’

75. New & immediately useful info in journal club

74. End of a semester

73. Start of a semester

72. Having lab animals in my life

71. Reward for being ADHD

70. Chairs who go to bat for faculty

69. NIH supplements

68. Congratulations from a distant colleague

Spontaneous science nerd discussions over lunch.

67. Spontaneous science nerd discussions over lunch

66. JIT requests

65. Media coverage that gets it right

64. Perfectionist biostatisticians

63. Travel funds

62. Color coding OCD is normal

61. Upgrade of computing power

60. Invitation to serve on grant review panel

59. Seeing the twinkle of understanding in a student’s eyes

58. (Safe) lab pranks…dry ice in eppendorf tube under you labmate’s chair

57. Genuine breakthroughs

56. Your own brand-new lab equipment

55. Your first student’s first publication

54. Desk copies of textbooks

53. Cures

52. Labs that believe in parties

51. Reviewing an amazing and well-written paper

50. Academic kindness

49. Upbeat program officers

48. New knock out/in created in record time

Cat-o-meter via @icedarkroast47. Science communication

46. Science advocacy

45. Congratulations on your science received in public

44. New data visualization tools

43. Playing with the infrared thermometer.

42. Catching up with old lab buddies at meetings.

41. Coming home inspired.

40. Going to scientific meetings.

39. Fellow post docs starting their own labs.

38. Science & umbrella drinks (aka destination conferences)

37. Anticipation before settling down to analyze data set. Christmas for adults!

36. Minor revisions to resubmit

35. Gorgeous results from immunofluorescence assays

34. Finding your ‘invisible’ splinter under the microscope

33. Getting to draw on the windows

32. Dunkin Donuts naming scientists #1 consumers of coffee

31. Cold room on a sweltering day

30. Celebration stickers for lab notebooks when folks crush their experiments

29. Fact that scientists actively rebel against meetings

28. Dancing and pipetting with headphones

27. Seeing science in everything

26. Joys of liquid nitrogen and latex gloves

25. Being in charge of my own schedule (and not just because I don’t have an assistant).

24. Celebrating null findings

23. Finishing the last analysis for a paper

22. NOGAs

21. A tweet about your recently published paper

20. Running with slides

19. On time participant who holds their breath for their MRI

18. Permission to ask incessant questions

17. Curing cancer in mice

16. Mass spec works for seven days straight

15. Big donor (where are these?)

14. Grant funding

13. Confirming the drug binds the target in humans

12. Drying my shoes in a dessicator

11. Creating science fiction tools in real life

10. Statistical significance

9. Unlimited access to dry ice

8. Free lunch/dinners with strangers (aka applicants)

7. Working outside in the sunshine

6. Isoflurane contact high

5. Quoting your favorite science tweeps

4. The fume hood is free

3. Seeing the microscopic world

2. The model converges

1. Zillion uses for Parafil

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Tools for Making Progress in Academic Life

Productivity / Trainees

This post is particularly focused for the population I work with – graduate students and postdocs – but can be helpful for any stage of an academic career – whether as the person struggling or someone trying to help them.

Academia attracts bright, ambitious high achievers capable of great work.  But graduate school and postdoc positions can challenge a person in ways to which they are not accustomed.  Large swaths of unstructured time, unending projects with no instruction manual while also learning how best to establish, maintain and grow working relationships with faculty and colleagues.  As Vanderbilt University Graduate School’s Academic Life Coach, I have been working with graduate students and postdocs through a host of concerns for the past three years.  I would like to share some of the things I have learned with you in hopes that you will find it helpful in your own journey.  

“I feel stuck!”

This is a common refrain I hear from graduate students and postdocs alike.  Through our coaching conversations, we usually find that incorrect goal setting, not tracking actual progress and self-criticism are interfering with the ability to establish progress and build momentum. A likely culprit can be found in perfectionism (“fear of failure”), which can contribute to procrastination.  This is such a common issue that it has a name: The Perfectionism-Procrastination Cycle. (Google it… you’ll see!)

You need to find a new way of making progress.  The bad news is that perfectionism, like its relative Imposter Syndrome, never really goes away.  The good news, however, is that once you learn to recognize it, you can start to establish ways of managing it and re-employ those techniques every time it returns to derail your progress.  

The prescription for such an ailment includes some of the hardest things for perfectionists:

    • set SMART (read: small!) goals
    • short, focused work sessions (try the Pomodoro technique and turn off all notifications on phone and computer – these distractions are commonly used as procrastination techniques)
    • track progress and celebrate wins – cross off those small goals on your list to show progress and build momentum
    • practice self-compassion – negativity leads to lower productivity!
    • share your work (early and often) and get feedback
    • establish accountability partnerships

I hope to share more tidbits in the coming months on common topics like  the importance of mindset and self-compassion, navigating academic relationships and managing up.  Let me know if you have questions or concerns you think would be good to include.  You can reach me at stacey.satchell@vanderbilt.edu.

More Resources:

The Best of You

Finding Your Science Flow: Yoga Lessons to Increase Productivity!

Professional Success in Social Media

Acting on the Essential

 

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Designing Your Career

Faculty Life / Mentoring / Trainees

This post condenses a talk by Mark Denison, MD, at a Vanderbilt Translational Bridge meeting.

For many trainees, and occasionally even the senior faculty who mentor them, career development is a black box: You put in papers, grants, teaching, research, and other career-helping things, and out comes a postdoc, a faculty position, research independence, a deanship, or whatever you’re aiming for.  You’re not quite sure which conferences you should plan to attend, or when you want to have that paper submitted, but it’ll probably all work out somehow.  Right?

Wrong.  A bunch of random experiments do not a Nature paper make (unless you’re really lucky).  Similarly, a bunch of loosely related posters, papers, and grant proposals do not equal a career development plan.  Much as you start an experiment or grant proposal with what you want to test, you should start your career plan with where you want to end up.

Knowing your desired goal (a great fellowship? faculty position? R01?) lets you decide what you need to achieve that goal.  If most K awardees in your field have X publications when they submit their grant, you know how many papers you need to get out.  If you know you need to submit your first R01 no later than the third year of your K to avoid a gap in funding, you realize which application cycles you have to target.

Plotting all the steps on a career timeline, ideally about nine years out, makes them concrete and demonstrates exactly how much time each is going to take.  (Rather like another timeline process…)  Dr. Denison calls this “positive disillusionment,” as timelines often put into vivid relief exactly how long it takes to write a paper, dissertation, or grant.

Timelines benefit you also as a tool for mentor committee meetings.  Once mentors know your career goal and what you think will get you there, they can reel optimistic timelines back to reality or suggest specific conferences to attend or colleagues to meet to advance your career.

Finally, if you’re at that stage, timelines make a great addition to a career development award.

Example timelines:

A possible postdoctoral career timeline. Make full size.

Another potential career timeline for a postdoc. Make full size.

Download the template to make your own and share it with your mentors.

More Resources

Grant Funding Strategy: Which Grants to Apply For?

Tales of Career Development Awards

Tales of Developing a National Reputation

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