We’re following in the tradition of open discussions among scientists that has resulted in important advances in both science and society.
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Today we take a look at the third year of graduate school. With Year 1 and Year 2 completed, we’re nearing the halfway point.
The clouds have parted and the sun is out! No classes. No teaching. No exams. The third year is a great one. The qualifying exam likely helped create a well-defined project for you and with all the distractions out of the way, it’s time to focus on making some progress. Finally, you’re doing what you came to grad school to do – research!
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In day two of our series, we profile the second year of grad school. Here’s what to expect after the first year is history.
FINALLY classes are over! This is no small feat – after 20 years of sitting in a classroom, taking exams, you have reached the end. However, the time that was previously filled with classes and rotations will now likely be spent teaching and stressing about the qualifying exam, which looms on the horizon for most second-year students. But overall, it’s a good time and you’re one step closer to performing full-time research.
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All over the country today a new crop of eager young scientists begin their journey of discovery. Graduate school is a great time of learning and exploration, but it can also be stressful – especially the beginning. Perhaps the hardest part about the transition to grad school is the uncertainty involved. When will I graduate? Who should I work for? What’s expected of me? Can I drink the lab ethanol?
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Ligations can be painful. Let’s just get that out of the way up front. When I was first learning them as a grad student they were significantly more painful because I had no idea how sensitive they were to the amount of DNA added. So as a beginner, I thought “I’m having trouble getting this insert to go in, I’ll just add more insert.” Bad call.
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Sundays represent many things to many people. For chemists, this Sunday marks the birthday of physicist E.M. Purcell, discoverer of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Born on August 30, 1912, Purcell discovered NMR in 1945 and shared the Nobel Prize in 1952 with Felix Bloch, who independently discovered it one month after Purcell.
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Training to be a research scientist as a graduate student and postdoc does not mean that our only career options are at the bench. In fact, these days more than ever, Ph.D.s are finding new opportunities to apply their expertise to a diverse range of exciting career paths. We spoke with Nicole Mahoney, Ph.D. about her decision to pursue a position in technology transfer and how the skills she learned in her graduate and postdoctoral work benefit her now.
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Life as a new postdoc is tough. Life as a new postdoc in a new country can be tougher. In Part 2 of our interview with Wesley Straub, Ph.D. (Read Part 1 here) we asked the former postdoc to provide a survival guide for the first six months of the position. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect when starting a foreign postdoc.
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Choosing a postdoc is a very important decision in a scientist’s career. Selecting the P.I., institution and field are all factors in creating the perfect springboard for our careers. However, where you perform the postdoc can be just as important. To help understand the realities of selecting a postdoc outside of the United States, we talked with Wesley McGinn-Straub, Ph.D. about his decision to perform a postdoc in Germany.
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I sometimes feel like there is only one way to learn anything in lab: the hard way. A lot of little details in lab go unmentioned, yet can make or break an experiment, and you won’t know it until things either don’t work, or go horribly awry. Losing a day and a half because you didn’t realize that all plastic is not created equal falls into the latter category. Losing someone else’s day and a half is, well, infinitely worse.
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This is a question that I asked myself a lot through grad school and well into my post-doc. The phrasing was a little different though. The question I asked myself was something more like “why in the hell am I putting myself through this crap?” Everyone figures that the process of becoming an independent scientist will be an academically challenging one, but what one may not count on is that it is also psychologically challenging.
