As more drugs come to market and pharma’s business model shifts from selling drugs directly to fostering earlier engagement, companies are looking for highly skilled scientifically- and clinically-trained candidates. Could this be an outlet for the overflowing pool of PhD (and MD) graduates produced every year? Read more
Research is fuelled by the energy of post-graduate students. PhD students contribute 57% of total university research output, according to a 2013 discussion paper from The Group of Eight Universities in Australia. In 2011 Nature published “The PhD factory,” which described the ongoing crisis caused by the oversupply of trained researchers and the inability of academia and industry to soak up the overflow. Read more
A long time ago in a land galaxy far far away, there was a great gathering where those weary of the well-trodden trail of tenureships and grants repaired themselves. The gathering in question was the Naturejobs career expo, a free one-day event organized for students and scientists alike. Featuring some truly inspiring speakers, it gave a much-needed boost to my hope for a career in science that can be both emotionally and financially (yes, $$$) satisfying. Read more
Sometimes I ask people, “if you weren’t studying biology, what would you do?” … Read more
On my first day as a new PhD student, freshly awarded molecular genetics degree in hand, I was sat down at a laptop with an unfamiliar operating system and was encouraged to explore some data using arr. What sounded like pirate speak turned out to be R, a statistical programming language. Yep – for my PhD I swapped pipettes for programming, dilutions for data and spectrophotometers for statistics. Others experienced the opposite, entering the world of biology from a computer science background. Read more
Earth is destabilizing rapidly. Terrorism, conflict, genocide, human displacement, socio-economic disruption, rapid global environmental change, slow emergencies and natural disasters are more common than at any point in history. Consequently, opportunities exist for researchers to investigate the causes, consequences and potential management solutions arising from this instability. For this to happen, we need a well-trained workforce equipped with the skills and capabilities to work with ‘traumatic’ research content, people and places. Read more
Multi-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary, translational, team science. These are the buzzwords for a consensus that transformative science requires collaboration among diverse disciplines. With scientists locked into narrow sub-disciplines, universities are dedicating enormous resources for top-down multi-disciplinary “programs,” “centers,” and “institutes” that attract diverse researchers, with the aim of encouraging more multidisciplinary collaboration. Read more
Here they share their story to support current doctoral students working to navigate and maintain a healthy work/life balance. Read more
In stark contrast to the proliferation of web based start-ups led by young founders, science based start-ups have typically remained the domain of seasoned professors, spinning out breakthrough technology built on years of research. This is changing rapidly, and it’s now more viable than ever to start a science based company straight out of a PhD. In fact, it might just be one of the most sensible career paths that you can take. Read more
Guest contributor Virginia Schutte … Read more
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