Alice Pawley is an assistant professor of engineering education at Purdue University. She blogs at the intersection of women's studies and engineering, a pretty empty space but with potential to grow. She wants to be a feminist-but-tenured professor when she grows up.
SciWo is an assistant professor of geosciences. She blogs about the intersection of science and real life - primarily based on her first-hand experiences. Her older posts can be found here.
I am not in charge of SciWo's Storytime. Sure, it might look like I'm the one reading the books and operating the video camera, but Minnow exerts the ultimate executive authority as editor-in-chief. Some weeks no videos whatsoever are allowed to be made, some weeks she's content to let me pick the book, and some weeks she is quite happy to make a whole string of videos, so long as she chooses the content.
With that proviso, Minnow presents this week's edition of SciWo's Storytime featuring the book Little Squire the Fire Engine by Catherine Kenworthy and illustrated by Nina Barbaresi.
Anyways, I was in the process of contemplating Minnow's enthusiasm for fire truck books and wondering how I was going to get her to see a real-life fire truck when one came to us. Literally. Here's a photo of a fire truck parked at our house a few days after this video was made. No one had a fire, but an elderly neighbor fell and hurt himself and the firefighters/first responders were dispatched to help him up and to the hospital.
Minnow was very impressed, and also very relieved that the fire truck did not sound its siren on our tiny quiet street. When she was 1, the firefighters had come to her daycare for a demo and had sounded the siren for the kids. Minnow still talks about how scared she was.
We've got a wonderful book about pillbugs that I really want to make a video about, and we're still trying to track down some of the other great books requested by our DonorsChoose friends, so check back next week for another edition of SciWo's (and Minnow's) Storytime.
Recently I had the opportunity to attend a talk by Gail Cassell, a member of the National Academies' Institute of Medicine, and one of the authors of the NAS report Rising Above the Gathering Storm. Dr. Cassell is currently Vice President of Infectious Diseases for Eli Lilly. She was previously the chair of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Alabama Schools of Medicine and Dentistry at Birmingham.
Dr. Cassell has also done a great deal of thinking about the importance of mentoring, networking, and professional development opportunities in academia and industry. Here are some snippets of what she had to say in the opening part of her remarks, advice for navigating the new environment faced by junior scientists:
• There is no substitute for tenaciousness and perseverance.
• Always be open to new opportunities.
• Treat your colleagues well.
• Establish integrity of institutions. What you do is important, but how you do it is more important.
Dr. Cassell also talked about the characteristics of a good mentor, qualities that included accessibility, empathy, honesty, savvy, humility (most important), consistency, open-mindedness, and understanding of the current/new research/academic/professional environment. Mentors should be providing networking opportunities, offering moral support, and encouraging creative thinking. In turn, good mentees are proactive, probing, gracious, and humble in accepting critical feedback.
Of course, you are not going to meet all of your mentoring needs in a single relationship, so Cassell suggests to never let go of old mentors, establish both official and informal mentors and also find a set of confidants. She urges mentees to keep meetings professional.
Cassell also spoke about the differences in the way mentoring and professional development occurs in industry versus academia. She thinks they used to be quite different, but maybe not so much anymore. In her view, strengths in industry include: constant feedback and peer review; objective [and clearly defined?] performance measures; yearly development plans, treating human capital as the greatest asset; considering the sum of team and individual performance in evaluating success; and doing good succession planning. She talked about specific programs aimed at supporting scientists at Eli Lilly, including a women's network, on-site childcare, generous maternity leave, job sharing, flex time, remote sites of work, and a VP of Diversity. By the time she was done, I was almost ready to ask for a job application.
Dr. Cassell suggested that to make mentoring meaningful is to make it part of the institution's culture. To do that, it needs to be factored into performance evaluations, because the organization needs to put its money where its mouth is. She told us that bad mentors at Lilly get sent to "charm school." In my mind, this making mentoring part of the institutional culture, by rewarding good mentoring, is one of the biggest challenges to mentoring programs aimed at young faculty at universities. Most universities already place low value on service, and if mentoring is just one tiny component of a low value activity, then there's little way to provide incentives and rewards to good mentors. Of course, some would argue that seeing junior faculty succeed is its own reward. But over the course of busy work days, weeks, semesters, years... is that enough of a reward to actually motivate senior faculty to devote significant time and energy to mentoring those climbing the tenure ladder? Or will it only be enough to provide a twinge of regret when some young faculty are denied tenure?
I even stole the title from Lady Scientist, because I am just that original these days.
I spent the week teaching, advising, mothering, and making some progress on my InaDWriMo goals for the month. As of last week the goals stood like this:
Done! Finish revisions on the paper-that-won't-die (goal: November 13)
Done! Internal release time application (due November 18)
Read around proposed grad student topics enough to ensure we're not reinventing the wheel/pursuing proven dead ends (amorphous, I know)
Finish GIS work left-over from 2008 AGU poster.
The paper got re-submitted on Wednesday! May that be the last time I ever see that paper except in proof or preprint. The release time application is fully written, with a colleague for possible critique, and will be submitted tomorrow or Tuesday after a final read-through. It is absolutely at the page limit, so I will have to resist the temptation to add anything. These accomplishments sound more impressive than they really are, however, when you consider that the paper was *so* close to being done before the week and the release application was not long and not technical. I didn't really do anything related to the last two goals, but I did talk with a distinguished person in my field who thought my students' work was interesting and novel, so that was nice and validating.
I did, however, get reminded of two more important and urgent tasks, which I am appending to my list of InaDWriMo goals:
Write the letters of recommendation that have piled up because of graduate fellowship season.
At least I can perk up an otherwise dull post (and week), with a fantastic piece of jewelry one of my readers brought to my attention.
Now, you can have one more way to proudly proclaim your passion for SCIENCE, by wearing this wonderful creation from underoakstudios on Etsy. You gotta love an artisan who make necklaces proudly proclaiming dirty words and who describes her aesthetic as "We make jewelry that showcases beautiful organic shapes and materials. Earrings, necklaces, and bracelets made of wood, shells, glass, stone, bone and seeds send us over the moon!"
That's it. I'm out. Back to my regularly scheduled routine. I've gotta make some fishsticks for Minnow's dinner.
Three weeks ago, I had no idea who Knuffle Bunny was. Then one of our loyal readers and DonorsChoose philanthropists, requested the Mo Willems' book "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." Minnow seemed enthusiastic about the pigeon book, but when I opened up its Amazon page, she got really excited about another book by the same author.
One trip to the public library later, we came home with a book that we'd read 5 times before making it out of the library building. I think she must have read the book at her former daycare, but no matter where the source of her knowledge, Minnow was more than happy to help me record a video of "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale" by Mo Willems.
(Not in the habit of watching the videos? This one features Minnow's adorable interpretation of baby talk.)
While we were at the library, we also discovered a book that made Minnow shout with glee. It turns out that Knuffle Bunny has a sequel, "Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity." And Minnow was only too happy to help me make a video of this one too.
I don't know how he does it but Willems managed to create two books that appeal to kids while capturing the very real emotions and antics of their parents. The scene where Trixie's daddy tries to explain what 2:30 am means is priceless.
After reading the books ~20 times in the first day, Minnow decided that she and I both needed our own Knuffle Bunnies. Fortunately, we had two plus rabbits already in our household, so they got lots of love and attention for the next two days.
But the real Knuffle in our house isn't a bunny at all. Rather the Knuffle Bunny of Minnow's heart is a plush dog by the name of Bobbie. Bobbie is the lovey that Minnow's parents decided she should adopt, and it worked like a charm. The name comes from a daycare teacher's corruption of 1-year-old Minnow saying "puppy" in reference to her toy.
There's another little secret about Bobbie - she's got an identical twin. Wise souls had warned us to procure a duplicate lovey and make sure that both twins got equal love, so that if one went missing, we'd have an identical replacement ready. We followed their advice and for months we fastidiously made sure that the Bobbies were never in each other's presence for fear of a similarity collapse. In a two-story house this was usually accomplished by having one Bobbie upstairs and the other downstairs, and the occasional tossing of a Bobbie over the stair railing.
But the inevitable happened, much like in the Knuffle Bunny. One day, at age 2.5, Minnow discovered that her unique, one-of-a-kind Bobbie was not so unique and one-of-a-kind. I experienced a Moment. Of. Terror.
And then Minnow announced happily, "Another Bobbie," set the two dogs together on her beanbag and continued playing. Since then, there have been occasional instances of two Bobbies, but much like the Large Hadron Collider, their simultaneous operation has not caused the world to end.
I have a Masters in Biology (from a 5 year BS/MS program) and for the past 4 years I've been working as a lab manager/technician. I have my own research project(s) in addition to keeping track of ordering/equipment maintenance/mouse breeding/etc. All-in-all it's a sweet gig and I could see myself doing this or something similar for most of my career. The problem is that there seems to be this culture in biology that one has to get a PhD, and my competitive side kind of feels the need to get one mostly just to show that I can. My practical side can't figure out why it would be worth taking a pay cut for 5+ years of extra stress just to continue doing what I'm already doing. I have no desire to run my own lab, and have little desire to teach.
So on to the concrete questions:
What doors does a PhD open up aside from running a lab and teaching?
What can I do without a PhD?
How does one generally go about choosing a PhD project (assuming I do decide to get one)? The answer I generally get for this last one is to read about the research that other labs are doing and that I will "know it when I see it." But given the large number of labs at even a modest sized university, this is a very daunting task.
Dear _____,
Wow. Great questions. I think the first paragraph really contains the meat of the matter: if you are happy where you are, should you get a PhD just to prove you can?
No.
You sound happy. I have friends with MS degrees with jobs like the one you describe, and they are happy 8+ years on. As you say, you've found a sweet gig where you can see yourself staying. Why put yourself through the economic and academic hardship of a PhD, just to prove to a nebulous someone that you can do it? The scientific culture is also about macho masochism and no matter what you do, there will always be someone who is doing more...better...faster than you. So if you are happy, stay put.
But.
You are asking. Which means you are thinking about it. Maybe you are happy where you are...but you are the one who really wants something more than your current sweet gig for the next 30 years. We are conditioned through school to always be climbing upward and I think it can be disconcerting to find yourself in a job where there aren't obvious opportunities for advancement.
So.
I'd spend some real time reflecting on what you really want from your life and career and exploring the various options you have with an MS if you decide to move on from your current position. I'm a geoscientist, not a bio-med type, so I really can't help you with specifics. (That's my duck around your question on "What can I do without a PhD?")
If...
you do decide to pursue a PhD, make sure that you and your advisor are clear about your non-academic career plans and that he or she is supportive of you. One place to start with searching out alternative careers is with books like "A PhD Is Not Enough" and with "The Alternative Scientist" blog and those of its contributors. Katie at Minor Revisions writes a wonderful candid and metaphor-filled look at life in a bio-related industry job.
Yes.
Your friends are right. Read, ask around, attend conferences until you find the specific field that really, really excites you. You are going to need that excitement to get through ~5 years of the most frustrating and thrilling work you've ever done. But, maybe your friends didn't tell you this....you need to find an advisor whose mentoring style works for you. Is she hands-on or hard to track down? Does she expect 80 hour weeks 52 weeks per year? Are her students happy? Are her graduates successful in getting the sort of jobs you want to get when you are done?
I'm not going to apologize about lack of posting over the last month or so, and I'm not going to make any promises for the future. That said, here's what I'm up to for InaDWriMo this month.
Here's what I wrote at ring-leader Dr. Brazen-Hussy's kickoff post:
Finish revisions on the paper-that-won't-die (goal: November 6)
Internal release time application (due November 15)
NSF proposal (due ~December 1)
After one week, I haven't finished the revisions, but I'm 90% done. No question as to me getting it done this week. I've got 3 pages of first draft of the 5 page release time application. This also will be finished this week, because it has to be finished. And...I've given up on the NSF proposal.
A combination of things (less free-time this month than anticipated, re-reading one of last year's InaDWriMo posts, assessing what I could ask of collaborators) made me realize that the NSF proposal was simply an unreasonable goal for the month. At best, I'd throw together a piece of shit application, give my new collaborators inadequate time to improve it, and get terrible reviews in my first PI NSF application. So, while a 6-month delay in getting this exciting new research plan submitted is a bitter pill to swallow, there's no question that it is a good decision.
Instead, I'd like to take my reasonably available science time this month to actually make sure I am setting my new grad students down reasonable courses for their theses. Any science time left over from that, I'll devote to finishing analyses from my 2008 AGU poster (subject of a InaDWriMo goal last year). This should give me everything I need to start really writing that manuscript next time I have a chance (say, next June).
So, at the end of week one, the score stands like this:
Finish revisions on the paper-that-won't-die (goal: November 6 13)
Internal release time application (due November 15)
NSF proposal (due ~December 1)
Read around proposed grad student topics enough to ensure we're not reinventing the wheel/pursuing proven dead ends (amorphous, I know)
A few days ago I arrived at my office in the morning and was greeted with an unpleasant surprise...someone had scratched a cross into the bulletin board just outside my office door.
(Apologies for the terrible cell-phone picture.)
While I'm able to cover the image with a strategically placed advising schedule, I'm haunted by a terribly icky feeling in the pit of my stomach. Was someone trying to send me a message? Why a cross? Why my board and not the boards of my male colleagues along the corridor?
I'm not offended by images of crosses in general, but it is not something that I want outside my office door. I don't think it's appropriate for a faculty member at a state-sponsored institution to appear to endorse a particular region on state property. I am even more troubled because we've already had anti-semitic and anti-African-American incidents on campus.
But I am afraid that if I raise the issue with my chair or others in the administration, that this will be dismissed as trivial. Maybe it should be? But would the reaction be different if a student had vandalized "Fuck you" or some other swear word? Should I ask for a new bulletin board or just cover up the cross for the next 30 years?
Taking a break from the science-y books and from the donor requests, this week Minnow and I want to share one of our new favorite books. This is the first book that we've checked out of the library that Minnow is still talking about more than a month after we returned it. In fact, she and I love this book so much that our Amazon wish list is delivering a Christmas present early and our very own copy is on its way to us right now.
If you watched through to the end of the video, you saw that at the end of the book, I revealed two pairs of purple socks just the right size for Minnow and I. Here we are the next morning:
Now, everyday that Minnow wears purple socks (and she has several pairs), she talks about her magic socks. Yesterday, Minnow helped me pick out my outfit. So if you saw someone around campus wearing nice black pants and shoes with a hint of an eggplant purple sock underneath, you might have seen me.
If you liked Sally and the Purple Socks, Minnow thinks you might like these books:
The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman - a culturally appropriate retelling of Little Black Sambo, which is truly a sweet story of a little boy outwitting some tigers who want his fine clothes.
Do you have a Hat? by Eileen Spinelli - fancy hats, historical figures, simple rhymes and colorful illustrations make this a fun book for both preschoolers and their parents
Edna's Tale by Lisze Bechtold - We haven't read this, but how can it fail to be at least moderately good when written by the same author.
Folks, I don't know what to tell you. It's like I don't even remember how to blog anymore. I think I've posted 2 real posts in 2 months. I have ideas stacked up in my head for posts - a post from FIE 2009, a post from SWE including the cool "Father Knows Best" episode where Betty decides to be an engineer, a post about talking to my students about sustainability, my favourite holiday Halloween, how I quit my therapist (because I did - and your comments really helped me do so) and so on - but I have absolutely no energy to write them. No motivation. No interest. Just.... overwhelmingness about the work I have to do, and overwhelming guilt about how I'm not blogging.
So here, I'm acknowledging to you that I'm out here, regretting not blogging, but having no interest really in blogging for the moment. Just trying to get through my days in RL. And kind of warning you that I probably won't be blogging for quite a bit still. And a little bit hoping that admission that will help me feel not guilty any maybe I'll feel like blogging again then.
Alice Pawley is an assistant professor of 
SciWo is an assistant professor of geosciences. She blogs about the intersection of science and real life - primarily based on her first-hand experiences. Her older posts can be found 
I am not in charge of SciWo's Storytime. Sure, it might look like I'm the one reading the books and operating the video camera, but Minnow exerts the ultimate executive authority as editor-in-chief. Some weeks no videos whatsoever are allowed to be made, some weeks she's content to let me pick the book, and some weeks she is quite happy to make a whole string of videos, so long as she chooses the content.
Recently I had the opportunity to attend a talk by 
Folks, I don't know what to tell you. It's like I don't even remember how to blog anymore. I think I've posted 2 real posts in 2 months. I have ideas stacked up in my head for posts - a post from FIE 2009, a post from SWE including the cool "Father Knows Best" episode where Betty decides to be an engineer, a post about talking to my students about sustainability, my favourite holiday Halloween, how I quit my therapist (because I did - and your comments really helped me do so) and so on - but I have absolutely no energy to write them. No motivation. No interest. Just.... overwhelmingness about the work I have to do, and overwhelming guilt about how I'm not blogging.
