Faculty Facilitator

Topic

Career Development

A collection of 15 issues

The Importance of Department Seminars

Many trainees underestimate the importance of attending department seminars. It is very easy to get wrapped up in doing experiments, and there are lab meetings, meetings with faculty, and other events that all demand time. The topics presented can seem at best tangentially related to your project, research interests and

Picking a Good Project

Being the primary on a good project is essential for your career. A good project is fundable, will yield multiple publications, instigate new areas of research, and give you something interesting to talk about both personally and professionally. A good project has two key features: funding and interest. Funding Without

How to apply to graduate school in the United States

In the United States, you apply to a PhD program, not to an individual PI as is common in many other countries. Most graduate school applications are due in late fall or early winter. Applications are reviewed by a committee of faculty who then invite a subset of applicants for

Communicating Research

In order for research to be impactful, your findings and their significance must be understood. Such communications can take a variety of forms, some traditional and some more unusual. Traditional Channels Peer-reviewed publications Peer-reviewed publications are a non-negotiable component of running a successful research program. Research findings must be published

Developing a Writing Practice

The ability to write quickly and well is essential for success in biomedical research. There is a constant need to produce protocols, grants, manuscripts, letters of recommendation, lay summaries, abstracts, and other documents, along with the high volume of professional emails requiring a response. Fortunately, writing is a skill that

How and when to contact your NIH program officer

“Talk to your program officer” is an oft-repeated recommendation to scientists engaging with the NIH grants progress, however when and how to engage this person can be confusing. The NIH has an excellent guide to staff available, which I’ll explain along with some additional context. Program Officer or Scientific

ORCID: Get One

Starting in May 2025, all senior and key personnel on an NIH grant must have an ORCID linked to their eRA Commons profile. Many publishing groups including Springer Nature, Science Journals, PLoS, and EMBO Press also require ORCIDs when submitting a manuscript. If you don’t already have one, setting

“The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson

This book by Mark Manson is designed to impact your outlook and how you view your position in the world. Its central hypothesis is that happiness is not meant to be the default, constant state, and that struggle and the desire to improve are where happiness comes from. It emphasizes

Change What You Can

Academics are the nexus of a university. They interact with other academics at all levels, administration, parents, donors, funding agencies, and corporate partners. These interactions can be helpful and productive, or they can be a source of frustration. While the ability to work with (or around) these groups is a

Surviving and Thriving after Switching Labs mid PhD

I switched to a new research group and dissertation project in the 5th year of my basic biomedical research PhD. Three years later I graduated with multiple first authored papers and a much improved resume that included a teaching fellowship. I went on to complete a successful fellowship-funded postdoc in