The long and winding road for training scientists to engage the general public
“Short cuts make long delays.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring … Read more
“Short cuts make long delays.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring … Read more
This week, one researcher was compelled to write to Nature, to suggest that senior scientists avoid berating their juniors during a conference presentation. Sound advice, but a shame it’s somehow a point of discussion — watching a junior scientist be shouted down at a conference shouldn’t be familiar to most when there are a thousand other, more constructive ways to engage a colleague. Read more
Last year, a friend of mine was applying for highly competitive PhD scholarships at Oxford, Cambridge and EMBL-EBI. She spent countless hours filling in applications, going through interviews, getting rejected and trying again. This process was tough – especially because she almost always made it into the final round. It was a learning experience for all of us. Read more
Attending a large conference is often accompanied by a flurry of excitement – daily news releases, early access to abstracts, lanyards and conference bags suddenly becoming ubiquitous citywide. Read more
Recently the House of Representatives essentially voted to destroy graduate education in the United States. By taxing tuition waivers as income — and therefore treating their taxable income as two to three times the amount graduate students are actually paid — the Republican tax bill would effectively put graduate study outside of the reach of all but the independently wealthy. While the Senate version of the tax bill does not include this provision, it is far from certain what the final bill after the reconciliation process will look like. Read more
A recent editorial in Nature described the harm that newly proposed changes to the United States tax code will have on graduate student finances. If passed, these regulations — ostensibly designed to simplify tax calculations — will eliminate benefits previously given to students. Of particular harm to graduate students and the scientific world would be the elimination of the tax-free status of tuition waivers. Read more
Congratulations on your faculty position at a newly established college! You think you know what the job entails: teaching, research, and some administrative service. As you read job advice, you wonder why so many pieces include the phrase “survival tips.” “Surviving” was your most-commonly-used word during your PhD and postdoc. Surely, there‘s no more surviving to be had in a brand new college? Read more
As a graduate student in astrophysics, I know graduate school can be a stressful experience. By some estimates, about half of all graduate students will experience psychological distress, and approximately the same number won’t finish their degree program. Academics, teaching, and research present significant challenges, and many of us turn to non-academic activities as a coping strategy. For some it’s video games, for others it’s imbibing adult beverages. For me, it’s picking 1.5 times my bodyweight off the floor in a sport that’s known as powerlifting. Read more