ask sciencewomen
sciencewoman | November 12, 2009From the mailbag:
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…
sciencewoman | September 17, 2009While I'm loving @nparmalee, I thought I'd repost a short series of tweets where she asks a really good question, and one that I don't have an answer to.
There's a lot of talk re: women in science and accepting alternate timelines, & I think this is great. I am very anachronistic.
That reqs explanation in acad interviews. The explanation is family. Saying that enters fam into career disc, which I would prefer not 2 do
Were I to say 'I had another career' (which I did) it wld imply lack of focus, which was never true.
Bringing up fam can suggest I want special consideration, which I don't…
skookumchick | September 6, 2009A reader recently sent in the following question:
Hi Ladies --
I've been reading your blog for most of my graduate career, and am currently beginning my first post-doc position. I've got a question for your readers, and I'm dying to know if anyone's really come up with a good solution for it. How can you become a (nearly) paper free academic (with the exception of lab notebooks)?
I ask this because after moving from my rather large (by grad school standards) office to a rather restricted lab space, I've been forced to realize that I can no longer keep all my printed and scribbled on pdfs. I'm…
sciencewoman | July 22, 2009Another letter from my inbox:
Dear Sciencewoman,
I am a mom of 3 just starting my own lab. I have been thinking hard about how to recruit good postdoc talent despite the fact that I have no track record as an independent investigator. And then I remembered an article about an organization to help mentors and mentees who would like to return to science after a break (for taking care of children, family, whatever) to find each other. I was psyched about using such an organization because juggling three kids during my training taught me pretty quickly that productivity is often more about…
sciencewoman | July 21, 2009Time to move hairy Ethan off the top of the page. Fortunately, there's a couple of great questions from readers qued up in my email account. And maybe by the time they get posted, I'll be ready to get back to my course design series. First up, loyal commenter GymLabRab wonders how to mentor a new colleague. GLR writes:
Hi ScienceWoman,
Thanks for your blog!
I just became department chair on July 1. Too bad it means more work but no more pay!
I'm wondering...what makes a good department chair? It seems from your conversation about your review, your chair is fairly hands-off and doesn't do…
sciencewoman | July 6, 2009Reader science newbie poses a great question to me and asks for the collective wisdom of our readers:
Dear Sciencewoman,
I have been reading & loving you blog for some time now. Thanks! You rock!
Ok, I have a question....
I have interviewed for, and been given a verbal offer for my first assistant professor position. We are negotiating startup funds, salary, etc right now. Due to state budgetary constraints, I have been informed that all of my startup funds (excluding salary) will have to originate from the department's funds, not university or state money. I have found some information…
skookumchick | July 6, 2009I recently got this email from Nikitha Sambamurthy, blogger at Diff-EQ (tweeting here) and undergrad at Purdue who regularly attends my department's seminar series. Nikitha is looking for some advice, and agreed to let me ask her question to teh blogosphere (below the fold).
Nikitha writes:
I'm currently in the process of studying for the GRE and researching graduate schools and was wondering if you had any advice and tips on what I should do to get the process started. I'm interested in educational technology and am not quite sure how to find schools to apply to since different universities…
sciencewoman | July 1, 2009In January 2008, a reader (Serious Scientist) sent me a query about dealing with inlaws who thought she should give up on her scientific career when her baby arrived. They wanted her to go to a baby shower across the country, without her husband, and she was dreading the trip and the questions and judgements that would certainly arrive during the party. I encourage you all to look back into the archives and read her original letter, and the wonderful advice everyone offered to Serious Scientist.
Serious's letter, even buried back in the archives, has generated a couple of recent comments.…
sciencewoman | June 12, 2009The following email appeared in my inbox yesterday, and I thought some of you might have some more thoughts to share.
Dear ScienceWoman,
I recently discovered your blog, and have a question regarding academic publishing. I am just now entering a PhD. program, and plan to get married in about 2 years. Given the nature of my particular field, it is expected I will have at least co-authored one paper before the wedding. After marriage, I plan to take his name, for a number of reasons, including the commonality of my last name compared to his name. My question is this: should I start…
sciencewoman | April 3, 2009This is not a belated April Fool's joke, though I'll admit to having sat on this since Wednesday so that my readers wouldn't think I was making this up. Here is the correspondence I found in my email account on Wednesday morning:
Hi!
I've been reading your blog now for the past 18 months- and love it. Thanks so much for sharing!
I'd just like to say how much it really helped me, as I'm at the same stage as you. Last July, I went from being a post-doc to a faculty member. Your comments about applying for jobs, how the process worked were of great assistance... And it's great reading how you…
sciencewoman | January 21, 2009New blogger Mrs. Comet Hunter is in the latter stages of her Ph.D., and she's at the stage of trying to figure out how to break her work out into discrete publishable chunks. She recently wrote a post about the topic, and she sent me an email to ask some related questions. With her permission, here's the bulk of the email:
Dear ScienceWoman,
I've been reading the Sciencewomen blog for a couple of months now (I know, I'm new to the blog thing) - and find it very interesting! I especially like your shoe posts, and "Ask ScienceWoman". I have a suggestion for an Ask ScienceWoman topic: how to…
sciencewoman | January 6, 2009 Despite being the keeper of a very well organized blogroll, I was surprisingly flummoxed by a request from a friend of a friend of a friend. She's decided to go to graduate school in an environmental science field, but she's unsure whether to go for a M.S. first or straight to a Ph.D. Specifically, she wondered whether I knew of any blogs by women environmental scientists who might have written about their decision making process, choosing a graduate school, etc.
My first thought was Karina at Ruminations of an Aspiring Ecologist (and not just because she's showing off some Sciencewomen…
sciencewoman | September 11, 2008Dear SW and Alice,
I will soon defend my dissertation, and I don't know whether it is customary or acceptable or expected to give an appreciation gift to one's adviser. ...I asked around with colleagues... and there seems to be no consensus - I got, "you could and it would be nice but I don't think it would be expected". Is there a standard of behavior to show appreciation for dissertation advising, or is it part of the job, in your experiences? Did you give gifts? If you did, what did you give? Can you shed any light on this?
Sincerely,
Soontobe PhD
Dear Soontobe,
Congratulations on your…
sciencewoman | June 5, 2008Dear Sciencewoman,
I'm currently in the last 6 months of my PhD, and I have an 8 month old. I love research, but I want more time with my child, and I am curious if there is such a thing as a part time post doc. How did you get that kind of position? Did you have to create the position with your advisor?
Thanks!
Mommy, soon-to-be PhD
Dear Mommy, soon-to-be PhD,
My part-time post-doc began as a full time position, and switched to part-time only for a few months between the birth of my daughter and me leaving for the tenure-track. It worked really well for me, personally and professionally,…
sciencewoman | January 30, 2008A reader recently sent me this email:
I have a question that perhaps you and your readers can help with. I'm currently at a cross-road in my academic career. A year ago I started a Master's program in one of the "ologies" with potential to switch over to the Ph.D if things progressed well over the first year. Well, I've had a very successful and enjoyable first year, so I was thrilled to learn that I could join the 'fast-track' for the Ph.D. Needless to say, this was my goal, since my dream job is to work at a small college/university where I can focus most of my time on teaching. But I've…
sciencewoman | January 16, 2008Dear Sciencewoman:
So, I'm pregnant for the first time. My husband's family is on
the whole really great and loving people. They rarely leave
their "red state world", however. My husband's immediate family
Gets It, they understand that neither I (nor my husband for that
matter, who is also a scientist, same flavor as me) will be
quitting science when we become parents. The extended clan,
however, I am less confident about.
The clan wants to throw me a baby shower, for which I have to
travel across the country and be there by myself. Don't get me
wrong, they want to do this as a nice,…