Hello PhD

It’s no secret that biomedical research relies heavily on animal models. Our mammalian cousins share so many common genes and pathways that we can often make breakthrough advances in human medicine through the use of animal proxies.

But animal research is neither easy nor fun. Experiments are expensive, time consuming, and it’s often dirty, smelly work. Many scientists balk at the ethical implications of making animals suffer for human health, and no matter your views, the work imposes a psychic cost.

This week we hear from a PhD student who needs to choose a lab, and it seem like her options include animal work, or finding another field of research entirely.

Brooke is a first-year student finishing up rotations. She needs to choose a thesis lab, and she has her heart set on studying neuroscience. The trouble is, most of the labs with openings for grad students focus on animal models, and Brooke is uncomfortable doing that research.

Besides probably committing to a longer PhD since mouse work takes a while, I also just don’t feel comfortable working with the mice yet and how dirty and archaic it seems. Everyone has been telling me you get used to it. I’ve gotten a lot better at handling them over time, and people have told me I’ve already improved so much with working with them. But, I just still prefer working in tissue culture hoods or in vitro settings.

Unfortunately for Brooke, animal models are a core part of many neuroscience programs. And while there are great labs using tissue culture, stem cells, or alternative systems like fruit flies, there are fewer opportunities at her university.

We take this week to discuss the world of animal research, the benefits and drawbacks. It is challenging work, and can take a mental toll on any scientist. But if you have an extreme aversion to working with animals either for ethical or sanitary reasons, we recommend finding another course of study.

We advise Brooke to explore other options. She may find opportunities that are neuroscience-adjacent in other departments. Through collaborations or PIs with dual-appointments, she may be able to find a project that utilizes tissue culture or simply collects samples from another laboratory that maintains an animal colony.

She can also explore other branches of biomedical research. There’s no requirement that you stay inside a single field for your entire career. A grad student studying cell biology, genetics, or pathology can easily find a postdoc in neuroscience, and at that phase, you won’t be limited by just the labs in one university.

That’s all for this week! You can tell us your ideas about animal research by leaving a comment below, or emailing us at [email protected].

Dr. Jimena Giudice has all the traits of a promising new faculty member.

Through her training and early career, she has earned more than a dozen grants and awards. She’s co-authored two dozen papers. And she has trained students and postdocs, gaining a reputation as a highly effective mentor.

You’d expect that Dr. Giudice’s undeniable success was the natural result of an early immersion in science and a dogged adherence to the well-worn path through college, grad school, and postdoc.

But of course, you’d be wrong. Before discovering a love for scientific research, Dr. Giudice spent ten years answering a different calling.

Changing Focus

Dr. Jimena Giudice

Growing up in Argentina, Jimena didn’t know that her eventual career in science was even an option.

“My parents are architects, my sister is an architect, my cousins are architects, uncles are architects or graphic designers. So I really didn’t have anyone close that I could imagine you could do science as a career,” she recalls.

So after high school, she enrolled in college to study industrial engineering.

Four years into a six year degree, she put her studies on hold and made a personal decision.

“I changed my path, and that’s when I started considering being a nun. I entered a congregation when I was 21.”

Jimena knew that after three years in the congregation, she’d have the opportunity get back to school to continue her studies. Her congregation was focused on education, which gave her valuable experience.

“I was teaching at different levels. Primary school, kindergarten, secondary school, people in the street, rural schools. I was full time working and teaching,” she says.

As her fourth year of service approached, she started to think about what she could study during the next three years that would help in her congregation. She visited the university to explore the available courses, and found that her options expanded well beyond the architecture and engineering paths she had known as a child.

“I remember the first image I have in my head is seeing students with white lab coats and the labs with glass windows and walls. And I have that image in my mind. I said ‘That’s what I want. I want to do that. I want to be with a white lab coat doing what they were doing.'”

That moment was transformative. Afterwards, she says, “I always had the dream of doing experiments, even though I liked education and teaching. Thats when I saw for the first time that science is something where you can study and work and have a career.”

One Good Turn

With her passion for science ignited, Jimena had a new problem. A chemistry degree in Argentina takes six years, but her congregation allowed just three years to pursue a degree while also working during the day.

She did the majority her classes at night, and traveled an hour and a half between the community where she lived and the university.

“I had to multi-task a lot of things. My philosophy was: when I am in classes, I am in classes, and I have to get as much as I can from here because I don’t have a lot of time to study at home,” she remembers.

This week, we open the mailbag to answer listener questions about getting extra research experience as an undergrad, and making a difficult choice between Master’s programs.

Stay with us!

Could Great be Perfect?

Our first letter comes from Owen. He’s a freshman who found a research lab he loves, and is doing some amazing work. He knows already that he wants to pursue a PhD, and he’s making progress on the experience and publications he’ll need to get there.

But he has a few questions about whether there’s greener grass on the other side of the fence…

I will most likely have a very strong recommendation letter from my PI, who has lots of connections, but I have seen lots of sources that recommend multiple “research based” letters of recommendation. I am unsure how to go about this… Is this actually necessary? Would this come from working in another lab? Or from a summer research program at another university?

In other words – does Owen need to stop his productive research experience in the current lab just so he can get more letters of recommendation?

He also wonders what he’s missing in other corners of the scientific universe:

I have been looking into graduate school programs across the country. I am open to studying many different subjects (proteomics, medical physics, structural biology, even particle physics or something else) so I have no idea if I should look for different research experiences in different fields even though my current situation is going so well. How can I make my grad school program search less surface-level? And how can I widen my research experience in the future without lessening the impact of my research at the lab I am currently in?

These are all wonderful questions to be asking before you make the leap into a PhD program, and as a Freshman, Owen is well positioned to do the exploration he needs to find out which type of research will make a compelling career.

Following Advice or Following Your Heart

Next up, Jack has to make a tough decision between two different Master’s programs. One has the training and support he wants. The other comes from a prestigious university that might help his job prospects down the road.

We’ve redacted the program names to protect the innocent…

Initially I was primarily interested in PROGRAM A because I like the available courses and it offered such a unique and focused research experience where participants get to travel the four partner institutions and are awarded diplomas from two of them depending on where they do their research project. Also, I’ve heard that you develop close relations with your cohort in PROGRAM A. But PROGRAM B’s ranking and prestige are so high, and people keep telling me that in the event I choose not to enter academia/pursue a PhD, the ranking of my masters institution is crucial to securing good employment. There is also the argument that since PROGRAM B is ranked higher than any of the schools partnering in PROGRAM A, the teaching and research quality ought to be superior and the faculty more influential in the field so I get a better chance of publishing papers & can make better connections.

So what should Jack do? Join Program A because it sounds like a better fit for the training he’d like to receive, or follow the advice from others and focus on the prestige of Program B?

We have lots of ideas for how to solve this conundrum,

When you think about your day, which events and activities feel the most fulfilling? Which tasks do you tolerate, but would rather avoid?

Maybe your experiments feel like a drag, but you get a lot of satisfaction out of crafting an abstract for your latest research article. Or perhaps you love training new students in lab techniques, even if you don’t love processing samples yourself.

If you find your joy in communicating science more than working at the bench, you may want to explore a career as a medical writer.

This week, we catch back up with Dr. Emma Hinkle. She recently graduated, and landed a job as a medical writer.

We ask what traits a student might look for to know if medical writing is a good career fit, and what they can do to prepare. The good news is that you can start to build a writing portfolio at any stage of your training – you don’t need to wait until graduation!

Emma also dispels some common misconceptions about the field (No, you DON’T need to be a subject matter expert in oncology to get a job writing about oncology!) and shares resources if you want to find a writing club near you.

If you have questions, leave a comment below or find Dr. Hinkle online @geneticginger.

A few months ago, Emma Hinkle was organizing her lab notebooks as she prepared to start a career. She had completed her graduate training, earned a PhD, and had a job lined up that started on Monday.

In those few moments of quiet between her years of graduate school and the career to come, she reflected on the challenges she faced, and how they had changed her as a scientist and a person.

“The five years I spent in grad school have definitely felt long, but as I reflect back on them I have grown so much as a person. I have learned how to deal with failure and get back up on my feet. I have learned how to keep going little by little,” she reflected.

This week, we sit down with Dr. Hinkle to hear more about her path through grad school, which events challenged her resolve, and how she kept moving forward when times got tough.

She discusses the anxiety of being a fourth-year, and not knowing how on earth you’ll ever get enough data to graduate. She shares her strategy for career development as a student, and why not everyone needs more first-author papers.

Stay tuned for our next episode where she’ll discuss her new career and long-time dream of becoming a science writer! You can find her online @geneticginger

It’s time to open the listener mailbag to answer your question about the human side of science, and life in the lab! This week: the importance of lunch, blending art with science, and the dream of a lab-based sitcom.

We didn’t have to dig very deep into to the mailbag this week because we heard from an undergraduate listener Monika. She asked a series of questions that covered so much ground, we devote the entire episode to her!

Her first question is about disordered eating, and how lab schedules might interfere with getting three square meals each day. She writes:

For the past year, I’ve been working in a lab with a grad student advisor, and was working there over the summer over 40 hours a week. However, in that entire time, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my advisor eat a meal, and I found that a lot of the time when I asked to take meal breaks it was seen with a sense of inferiority or “weakness” for taking time away from work. I definitely understand that food is not allowed inside of a lot of lab settings for safety reasons, but it was a bit alarming for me to see how little people in this kind of research slip into some unsettling habits like replacing meals with coffee or just skipping meals entirely. I feel like the grad student trope are just so busy that they don’t have time to consider proper nutrition, but as someone who has struggled with disordered eating and eating disorders, this is something I can’t compensate for, if that makes any sense. What are your thoughts about this?

It can definitely be alarming to see students or faculty ‘working through lunch’ because they’re too busy to stop. Long term, that habit is harmful to your mental and physical health, and no job is worth sacrificing those things.

We do our best to reassure Monika that skipping lunch is not pervasive in research labs. In fact, Dan took extra long lunches everyday just to get out of the lab! More seriously, though, you may not see your lab mates eating for a variety of reasons, but that doesn’t mean they’re not finding time to grab a bite.

Next up, we talk scholarships and fellowships:

What are your thoughts about the big research scholarships during undergrad like Goldwater, or postgrad like Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell, etc.? Are they necessary for getting into grad school? How well would they distinguish an applicant (or not)?

We recently spoke with Elizabeth Somsen about her experience with the Fulbright Scholarship. She studied abroad in Turkey after graduating from college and before entering a PhD program. She’s written a helpful guide to Postbac experiences which is a great place to start your research.

To answer the question more directly, having these experiences on your CV is a wonderful booster, but it’s neither necessary, nor sufficient. Applicants will be judged mostly on their research experience and letters of recommendation.

If you have NO research experience, a postbac is not enough to secure your position. And if you have lots of quality research under your belt, a postbac looks great but is certainly not required.

Next, we discuss the intersection of art and science:

 I am hoping to double major in Film/Media along with a STEM major, as I really love art and science, and want to find a way to do both. I’ve recently been accepted into a study abroad program where I’ll be taking classes at a nationally-ranked film school and doing an entir...

 I feel a little disheartened because I’ve been rejected from many of the places I applied to and haven’t heard back from a number of others. Is it worth it to hold out hope for the ones that haven’t sent out updates?

 I have been rejected from 5 schools and am expecting 3 more rejections soon enough without any invitations for interview. I’ve had my time in regret and disappointment and I’m now thinking about what to do next. 

Should I just give up at the thought of me obtaining a PhD? I feel like a mess right now.

These excerpts are from just three of the many messages we received this year from grad school applicants who were moving through the stages of rejection grief.

Some understood it would be an uphill climb, and half-expected the bad news. For others, it was a surprise because they had followed all the advice on how to craft the perfect application.

For everyone, it was disappointing, demoralizing, and confusing – what can I do if I’ve been pushed off the only path I know to a career in science?

This week, we explore the arcane inner workings of an admissions committee, and detail not only WHY you received that rejection letter, but what you can do about it next year.

Why Not Me?

The first question many applicants have is, “Why did I get rejected?” In many cases, they have experience, grades, and strong letters of recommendation. So what gives?

The answer will be different for every person, of course, but there are some common threads that could lead to rejection. We take a look behind the scenes in an admission committee meeting to learn what makes some applications rise to the top, while others are cast aside.

Fierce Competition

If you only apply to schools your mom has heard of, like the Ivy League Yale, Stanford, or Harvard, then you’re much more likely to receive a rejection letter. The same may be true for schools on the coasts, or in heavily populated areas.

These programs receive thousands of applications from the most qualified students in the world, some of them with first-author papers. If you ONLY applied to extremely competitive programs, odds are, you got a lot of rejections.

Next year, treat grad school the way you did undergrad: with a mix of reach-schools, target-schools, and ‘safety-schools’. Having options is a good thing, and the research training at these other schools will be as good as, or better, than the Ivy League.

Early Birds

They say timing is everything, and that’s true in grad school applications as well.

Applications may arrive in the admissions office between the open date and the deadline, but the admissions committee will review those applications in batches. Their goal is to find the most qualified students to offer interviews, but the staggered nature of the review process presents a few challenges.

Early in the cycle, the committee may offer interviews to a few top-t...

Think about your favorite action movie that kept you on the edge your seat. Did it look certain that the hero would fall, only to emerge at the very last moment to save the day? Now picture a great movie trilogy or TV series. Did each episode introduce a dangerous cliffhanger at the end, enticing you to watch the next installment to see how the tension would resolve?

Those filmmakers know something about storytelling – crafting a narrative arc that brings the audience along for an exciting ride. Within just a few hours, they have to introduce you to the characters, invest you in their stories, and then take you along on a journey of conflict and resolution.

This week, we talk about how your scientific presentation or job talk can use those same storytelling tools to engage an academic audience, and maybe even land you a new job.

Every graduate trainee has experienced the highs (and lows) of scientific seminars. Typically, your department will host an invited speaker from another University. She’ll take an hour to present her research and then field questions from the audience.

The speakers at these seminars obviously want to make a good impression, as an engaging talk might lead to new collaborations. But there’s one type of seminar where the speaker’s entire future career hangs in the balance…

Of course, we’re talking about the dreaded ‘job talk!’ When a department hires a new faculty member, the search committee might review hundreds of applications, and invite just the four or five best candidates to host a seminar describing their work.

This week, we caught back up with Dr. Andres De Los Reyes, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Maryland. We spoke with him way back in Episodes 135 and 137 about his book The Early Career Researcher’s Toolbox: Insights Into Mentors, Peer Review, and Landing a Faculty Job.

He joins us this time with advice on how to make that fateful transition from postdoc to faculty hire by using the tools of great storytellers to craft your presentation.

He’ll describe his ‘Trilogy Tool’ and tell you how to curate just three pieces of research that you’ll describe in your job talk. Choosing the three elements, and how you link them together, is critical to the narrative structure. In the end, you’ll take your audience on a journey of academic discovery, and help them see all the potential that your future research holds.

We get asked all the time about strategies for more effective time management during graduate school. Not surprisingly, some of our most popular past episodes deal with time management. While we have covered a lot of ground over the years on this evergreen topic, there’s a new expert on the scene who seems to know a whole lot about… well, almost everything! Therefore, we welcome to the show the AI chatbot sensation, ChatGPT, to determine if there’s anything this new technology has up its sleeve (?) for helping us be more effective with our time.

Will ChatGPT replace us as podcast hosts moving forward, or does it instead provide word jumbles that sound nice but lack real substance. We put AI to the test for your benefit, this week on this show!

Check out some of our past (AI-free) episodes on time management tips and strategies:

175. Four Research Traps (And How to Avoid Them)

162. Get More Done with LabScrum w/ Dr. Lisa May

158. Five Strategies for Defeating Distractions

059. Simple Tricks for Time Management – The Focus Funnel

015. Simple Tricks for Time Management: The Pomodoro Technique

Scientific conferences are a great way to meet other scientists and share your research. Perhaps your advisor got lucky and was invited to give a talk. If your research doesn’t get time on stage, how can you make connections and tell others about your project?

The poster session is your ticket to fame and glory. Nearly anyone – from tenured faculty to summer undergraduate – can submit a proposal and tack up a poster.

That unlocks a world of opportunity to share your science, meet like minds, and network your way to a new project, job opportunity, or collaboration.

But creating a poster is more than simply clicking ‘Print’ on a few figures. Crafting your story takes planning, and we’re here to help with advice from real-live poster presenters!

Josh and Dan attended the American Society for Cell Biology’s Cell Bio 2022 conference in Washington, DC. It was a great opportunity to chat with scientists about their work, and life in the lab.

During the poster session, we interviewed some presenters – not about their research – but about how they approached the poster presentation itself.

Their advice is a great introduction to anyone wanting to create their own poster!

Seeing the Structure

Before you start choosing your favorite figures or writing an introduction, you need to give some thought to your poster’s format and layout.

Deborah recommends paying careful attention to the poster dimensions dictated by the conference organizers. She made her entire poster before realizing the sizes she chose wouldn’t work.

I waited until 10:00 PM before I checked and I realized I needed to make these dimensions different, therefore I had to start all over from scratch. So don’t make my mistake!

Sarah from Oglethorpe University used a creative approach to reduce the printing cost and to make transport much easier.

It will cost you less to be able to print it in sections. So instead of having a big 44″ by 40″, you can cut it in half and have it be printed for free, potentially at your University. And that’s what I did with my poster, chopped it up into two sections, and then on my board I pinned it together and it looks great.

Omar thinks about his poster design in sections, as if they were a series of individual figures or statements.

 I “grew up” in the era where when you made posters, each panel was an individual 8 1/2″ by 11″ piece of paper, and I’ve essentially kept that organization for large poster printing. Design it in a way where if you are only reading the section headings, you get the gist of the whole story. So in a sense they’re sort of like topic sentences, but the entire set of section headings on their own tells the full story, and then you can fill in the details later.

Omar’s section headings act as summary statements, and are readable from a distance.

Make It Visual

While you want enough text to help a viewer understand the story if you’re not standing right next to your poster, it shouldn’t be a wall of 10pt text. Posters are a visual format, so make your images vibrant and compelling.

Leia recommends making your own images, rather than cobbling them together from various sources.