Graduate training
Quality vs. Quantity
03/06/10 14:46 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Bloggers Massimo and DrugMonkey have questioned whether it is reasonable to expect graduate student trainees to have multiple publications result from their thesis research. S. Pelech maintains that every effort should be expended for graduate students to publish original research in scientific journals, but they should still be able to receive a graduate degree if their thesis research in a competitive area has been scooped and no longer has sufficient novelty upon its completion to be published. Read More...
Making a Case for Lab Rotations
23/08/10 15:25 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Comrade PhysioProf makes a case for the usefulness of lab rotations for graduate students as part of the selection process for their research supervisor and training. S. Pelech lists a few negatives for long lab rotations and describes how shorter lab rotations are used at the University of British Columbia in the Experimental Medicine Graduate Program. Read More...
'How Not to Get a Postdoc'
21/11/10 18:12 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
At Isis the Scientist's blog, a new faculty principal investigator shared satirical "tips on how NOT to get a postdoc in academia. S. Pelech shares his observations with applications from hundreds of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to his research laboratory over the last 24 years, and offers useful advice on finding and getting the right matches. Read More...
Fine, Be That Way
21/03/11 14:04 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Nathan Ley in the Guardian described the difficulty he and his acquaintances have recently experienced in getting accepted into a PhD training in graduate school due in part to cutbacks in science funding and the stiff competition for limited spots. S. Pelech notes that without any advertisement, last year he has received over 150 enquiries for a graduate student position in his academic lab, the vast majority arising from China, India and Iran. China's higher education institutes had over 31 million students, an increase of some 35% from 2005 levels, so it is not surprising that many of the best and brightest of students from China and other developing countries are looking to the West for graduate and post-graduate training, and probably subsequently permanent jobs. Read More...
Trim or 'Fatten' the Pyramid?
02/11/11 13:58 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Blogger Jennifer Rohn at Mind the Gap summarized a recent round table discussion that highlighted significant structural problems and instabilities in the academic workforce, and differing opinions on how to deal with the issue, including restriction into entry, training graduates better for industry or encouraging early academic career retirement. S. Pelech concurs that there are too many scientists at present and we are training new investigators at a faster rate than ever before, which is exacerbating the problem. However, the solution is not to encourage early retirement of senior scientists, but rather to increase in private-public partnerships to foster the growth of jobs in the biotech/biopharma industry. Read More...
The Changing Roles of 'The Sequencers'
17/05/10 12:49 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Kelly Rae Chi at Nature noted that as the DNA sequencing process becomes more and more automated, the analysis of the data is becoming more challenging and requires increasing bioinformatics expertise. S. Pelech argues that while it is desirable to have in-house programmers to help analyze data, it is necessary to train more graduate students and post-doctoral fellows with a much deeper and broader understanding of biochemistry, systems and molecular biology than what is typically offered today. Read More...
Letting Go of the Details
10/05/10 12:45 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Bloggers Candid Engineer, DrugMonkey and Comrade PhysioProf have suggested that principal investigators should let their trainees have more free rein in the design, execution and interpretation of experiments, and that the PI's should really focus on getting funding, recruiting, training, and trouble-shooting after the fact. S. Pelech argues that a PI should definitely be very familiar with the underlying theory and limitations of technologies that are being used by the trainees under their supervision and take a strong and active lead in guiding the research of their more junior trainees to avoid waste and unnecessarily prolongation of M.Sc. and Ph.D. thesis projects. Read More...