Dr. Mom, My Adventures as a Mommy-Scientist

Discussion of my journey from grad school to postdoc to tenure with two kids, a husband, (and a bit of breast cancer) in tow.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

More on the Uri Alon Videos

So, I was sent the videos in the last post by a colleague who has met Alon and thought that I would enjoy his work. I do. What he talks about is what I have been trying to say and live ever since starting grad school. Academics is more than just the science that we do in the lab. It is about growing the whole person so that we have competent researchers. Students needs to learn how to choose research problems, how to formulate those problems into appropriate proposals, how to manage research groups, how to express research results to maximize their impact, and how to accept rejection (because there will be some). These are generally *not* skills taught as part of the formal graduate education. I think they are intended to be left to the mentor and taught throughout the research execution phase of the Ph.D. (and postdoc), but I know many, many times this does not happen. Why not? Why isn't this a formal part of our research education? These are the truly important skills.

2 Comments:

At 12:51 PM , Blogger Allison said...

I think it's exactly as Prof. Alon says: because science is objective and rational, there's a myth that *scientists* are supposed to be objective and rational. So we are afraid that we will look like bad scientists if we discuss things that are subjective and emotional.

Also, you tend to teach how you were taught.

 
At 12:18 PM , Blogger Reshmi Mitra said...

I cant agree more. I think I am commenting here for the first time. Thanks for such insightful posts.

Can you post the link to the lecture on your blog plz?

~Reshmi

 

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