How travelling can help prepare you for a successful research career

Travelling has enhanced my scientific networks and social awareness, and prepared me to work in an international setting.

Guest contributor Andy Tay

As science becomes more inter-disciplinary, scientists increasingly need to travel to promote their work and build collaborations. Whilst it’s common for professors to travel frequently, graduate students or post-docs may not be aware of the importance of travelling in building a career. Here’s how travelling has helped me — and how it might help you.

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Counting all the ways connections matter

New research shows that the size of a faculty member’s network predicts productivity, promotion, and probability of winning an NIH R01 grant.

Guest contributor Viviane Callier

Connections matter – in terms of productivity, in terms of obtaining grants, in terms of promotion and advancement, and in terms of retention in academic positions, a new Harvard-based study shows. Women and underrepresented minorities (URMs) have a smaller “reach” – a measure of second-order connections – and the discrepancy between the reach of women & URMs and that of white men is greatest at the junior faculty level. This discrepancy may account for differences in productivity, promotion, and retention of women and URMs in academia.

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CREDIT: CC-BY-SA Atos/Flickr

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