There has always been an emphasis on the generation of novel data in science. Being a scientist involves progressing from observation to hypothesis to experiment to output. In the past, a combination of scarce data to look at and low throughput machinery to make more has led to limited experimental outcomes.
Atma Ivancevic
{credit}Photo credit: Todd Druley{/credit}
What did you do in preparation for your job application?
It was 10 years of watching, observing, following advice, and soaking up any mentorship and guidance on how to become a faculty member. Collecting these experiences really helped. It was interesting to see that many people didn’t take a traditional trajectory into a faculty position.
When I came to the end of graduate school, a friend told me about a workshop at Harvard Medical School about faculty positions, so I dropped everything and ran there! There were 300 postdocs in the session, which was terrifying when you’re thinking about applying for a position because they’re the competition!
What was your job application strategy?
I thought I should apply to everything so I applied for 33 positions and interviewed for 15. By seeing different institutions side-by-side I was able to decide more clearly on what I was looking for. It slowly emerged that the places I was most excited about were the ones that had medical schools and close connections to clinicians. Washington University in St Louis certainly has that: many clinicians here are closely connected to the research enterprise. Continue reading
{credit}Photo credit: Robert Boston, Washington University School of Medicine {/credit}
As head of the genetics department at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis (WUSTL), what do you look for in new faculty members?
As a genetics department we’re very interested in computational approaches and new technologies because I think they’ve driven the genomic revolution. So we’re interested in finding people that are either utilising or developing new technologies to study fundamental disease pathways, with the hope that they will collaborate with more clinical people at Washington University to translate some of their discoveries into something that would benefit human kind.
What was the position you were trying to fill?
Essentially, we were looking for young, energetic, creative and accomplished scientists that are going to fulfil the dream of being able to study basic disease mechanisms using genomic technologies across two departments: genetics and developmental biology.
The fundamental role of the new faculty member is to do world-class research. There is not a huge teaching burden and there is a minimal administrative burden. The position was designed for someone to develop their laboratory, to obtain external grant funding, attract students and postdocs to the lab to help with the exciting work described by the candidates. Continue reading
{credit}Robin McGregor{/credit}
Robin McGregor worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Auckland in New Zealand on a portfolio of projects related to nutrition and healthy ageing. “I set up clinical trials in middle-aged men to assess post-prandial changes in muscle protein synthesis in response to different dairy formulations,” he says. But being in a small country with only eight universities means that options are limited. Although he had a fixed term contract and had plans to stay, “there was no opportunity to move to a permanent university position. So if I wanted to persue a career in research I’d have to look elsewhere.” So he did. His previous experience as a postdoc in Korea meant that he could work with connections he had made, and eventually accepted a job with a well funded research group at Inje University in South Korea. But making a move like that doesn’t come without its challenges. “Rarely are you offered any help towards relocation expenses as an early career researcher,” he says. “The practicalities of setting up new research studies are always difficult in a new country and more so when you’re not fluent in the local language.” Despite the challenges, McGregor started his new role as a Research Professor in the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease research centre, in the College of Medicine in March. “I’m enjoying the new challenge as there are many exciting opportunities here particularly as a foreign researcher to get involved in a wide variety of projects,” he says. Continue reading
Claire Haworth and Oliver Davis{credit}Image credit: Jan MacDonald at Blenheim Photography{/credit}
Claire Haworth and Oliver Davis, who both work in behavioural and statistical genetics, met whilst they were studying for a PhD at the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King’s College London and “managed to squeeze in getting married between submitting our PhDs and starting fellowships!” After graduating from their PhDs in the summer of 2009, Oliver started a Wellcome Trust funded postdoc in Oxford and Claire, funded by the MRS and ESRC, stayed in London. After her second fellowship Claire moved to the University of Warwick to set up her own lab and Oliver moved to UCL to start his own group in January 2013. After years of long commutes to see each other, both Oliver and Claire will now be working in the same laboratory for the first time since they finished their PhDs. “We are moving to the new MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) at the University of Bristol to establish our joint Dynamic Genetics Lab. Oliver will be Associate Professor in Statistical Genetics, and I will be Associate Professor in Behavioural Genetics.” Oliver has already started his position, and Claire will begin in April. the biggest challenge for them is that whilst they are moving and settling into Bristol, they are both still fulfilling promises to UCL and Warwick by “providing the teaching we committed to at the start of the academic year. It’s an understatement to say we’re a little stretched by these commitments at the moment, but we’re looking forward to focusing on our new roles from the summer.”
{credit}image credit: Alpana Dave{/credit}
Meru Sheel was doing pre-clinical, lab-based studies of parasite immunology at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia, when she got itchy feet. “While my lab-based research was very exciting and challenging, it lacked the big picture scenario that I was after,” she says. This, combined with the long hours spent on failing experiments and the lack of grant funding, meant that she wanted to make a switch. For Sheel, the most challenging part of leaving her position was that she was going to miss the research. “That feeling that maybe I will crack the mechanism of action with this experiment,” she says. Now, Sheel is the senior research officer for Group A Streptococcal diseases at the Telethon Kids Institute in Western Australia, and while she isn’t in the lab doing research, she is “reading and hunting for ideas and technologies that we can use to advance the development of vaccines and improve an old antibiotic to treat the same bug!” The role of a senior research officer involves coordinating research, analysing data and generating ideas and while gaining some management skills. “I have learnt to transfer my skills and now I love what I am doing.” Continue reading