Friday, June 17, 2011

hiring blind

Working with undergraduate researchers at a SLAC, I generally only get to have the same person in my lab for about two years (and at least one semester of that is pure training with almost zero productivity - understandably). But every summer there is a glorious opportunity to attract one or more Presidential Fellows who could potentially be working with me for the next four years. The obvious downside, of course, is that they haven't yet had any college-level science courses or lab experience. But the bigger worry for me is that I need to make a decision about whether to hire them sight unseen, generally on the basis of a couple of brief email exchanges.

This summer, for example, I have three contenders. One wrote to ask some questions about my lab's research - so far, so good! - but then responded to my email in a way that showed s/he had conflated two completely different projects (which I had taken care to describe in separate paragraphs and everything). Another described his/her academic strengths and asked about the "qualifications" for working with me. I responded by describing some of the skills that it would be helpful to have - not technical ones, but rather things like the ability to ask questions, respond to constructive criticism, follow directions, and work in a team. I then asked pointedly if s/he had any questions for me about my lab, our research, etc. To which s/he replied that no, s/he couldn't think of any! *SIGH*. Is this the big red flag that I think it is?

I have no doubt that these are all bright, accomplished kids. Unfortunately I have learned the hard way that the best students don't always make the best scientists - often they give research a lower priority than grades, they are discouraged by the inevitable failures of experimental science, either they are terrified of making mistakes or they are too arrogant to ask questions when they don't understand something or to take direction or criticism... the list goes on. (Confession: I was an excellent student. And in retrospect I can't believe that my undergraduate research advisor didn't strangle me when I demonstrated my priorities by, for example, abruptly dumping all of my experiments on him at the end of the quarter because I had more important things to do like study for finals.)

Any advice for me as I seek to sort the grain from the chaff would be very welcome.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Evolutionary Confectionary Biology

One of our revered senior faculty members is retiring, and a research symposium has been organized in his honor. It's quite wonderful to see how many former undergraduates have returned for the occasion, in addition to ex-postdocs and collaborators. It's especially great to hear that this grant-getting machine (not just by SLAC standards) was also a beloved mentor to so many - something that was not said of my own brilliant postdoc advisor on retirement!

For me, the highlight of the past few days was a talent show with singing, dancing, and comedy routines, my favorite of which was a talk on the important discoveries our colleague had made in "Evolutionary Confectionary Biology." The speaker used a variety of commercial candies (Muetmu ordinalis, Almondus jocularis, etc) to illustrate sexual dimorphism, trade-offs, Mendelian genetics, etc. Hilarious! I bet that his undergraduates love him if he puts that kind of creativity and humor into his lectures. Hmm. Maybe I should be taking something away from this.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Disempowered

To the folks over at Facilities: When the power goes out unexpectedly, there is a reason why you get a series of frantic emails from our department. It's not just because we're personally uncomfortable when the A/C fails in 95 degree weather. It's actually because we have irreplaceable samples and reagents that need to be kept very very cold as well as animals who develop, behave, and even survive differentially when they aren't maintained at the proper temperature. We realize that the students pay an enormous amount of money to be here while we are mere employees, but please, please consider making our building more of a priority in these situations. Thank you.

To the administration: YES WE DO NEED BACK-UP GENERATORS FOR OUR EXPENSIVE LAB EQUIPMENT, GODDAMMIT.

Monday, June 06, 2011

My favorite subject is Science

I was on my way to lab on Sunday morning when three little girls, ranging between perhaps five and eight years old, tore past me in the hallway to jump up and down for joy in front of our display cases. Two middle-aged women were following them and stopped me to ask whether I was "a real science student." (This is nothing new, even though I recently celebrated my 37th birthday.) I replied that I was a real science professor, and one of the women called her daughter to meet me as though I were some kind of celebrity. "My favorite subject in school is Science," she told me proudly. (Remember the days when there was no Physics, Chemistry, or Biology, only Science?)

I ended up inviting them to come see my lab (accompanied by stern warnings from their mothers not to touch anything lest they blow themselves up) and took some pictures with them, surrounded by all kinds of exciting Science stuff.

It was pretty damned awesome.