By bringing together experts from different disciplines we can find the solutions for today’s global challenges. Having spent a year in a multidisciplinary research group, Mit Bhavsar shares his thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of multidisciplinary research in science. Read more
A recent cancer research symposium displayed a familiar asymmetry. 90% of the attendees were PhD students or postdocs sitting obsequiously in the rear and asking 10% of the questions. 10% of the attendees were front-sitting faculty providing 90% of the inquiries. Read more
In this podcast we hear from Burcu Anil Kirmizitas, who describes the struggle to find affordable housing for her and her family in three of the world’s most expensive cities. We also hear from Ibukun Akinrinade, a neuroscience PhD student at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in Oerias, Portugal. Ibukun needed to access training that was not available in her home country of Nigeria and had to leave her husband and young son behind. This month’s career expert is James Gould, Director for the Office for Postdoctoral Fellows at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. James answers a question about transferable skills from Simon Peyda, a research assistant at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Submit your question to the Naturejobs editor here. Read more
Are you one of the many PhDs considering a career in data science? I completed a PhD in neuroscience at Stanford three years ago; now I’m a data scientist at Uber. During my time in industry, I’ve found that the skills we develop in graduate school, such as analytical thinking, statistics, communication skills, and – oh yes – tenacity in the face of adversity, make us a great fit for the role. Read more
India has recently been portrayed as a land of abundant opportunity in academia, investing seriously in research and development to attract skilled scientists. The government has introduced several attractive funding opportunities, with the aim of bringing back scientists working abroad to establish a long-term career here, and improving the overall research infrastructure. Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance (WT/DBT) fellowships, for example, have no age or nationality restrictions, relying on qualifications, research experience, career trajectory and the candidate’s determination to establish their own independent research. Read more
PhD students are the backbone of the research industry, often responsible for compiling precious datasets for their lab and learning the cutting-edge techniques required for analysis. But completing a PhD is hard, and getting harder as scientific standards creep steadily upwards. It takes over a year longer for current students to publish their first scientific paper than those 30 years ago because of the increasing data requirements of top journals. Across Europe and Australia, this is one reason why students are taking an average of four to six years (or longer) to complete their PhDs, despite candidature contracts usually being a maximum of four years, and government scholarships lasting at most three and a half years. Read more
Thomas Prigg is a brain cell circuitry researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. Now he’s using his science skills to fuel his campaign for Congress in 2018. He talks to Nikki Forrester. Read more
This photo was taken during field work in Sabah, Malaysia where Prof. Menno Schilthuizen, his PhD student Mohd Zacaery bin Khalik and I went to explore caves and hunt for new species of cave invertebrates. We spent many days around a small village on the Kinabatangan River, trying to locate caves in numerous limestone hills and gather information about the organisms that live there. Read more
Since the advent of life 3.6 billion years ago, the survival of all species has depended on rapid innovation at the genetic level. As a consequence, our planet has grown rich with evolved technologies. Read more
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