The Lonely Pipette : helping scientists do better science

You have built your boat, assembled your crew, and navigated the storms. But where exactly are you sailing? 

In this final episode of this ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast limited series, we arrive at the ultimate destination : Success.  But what does success really mean in academia ? Is it the number of papers you publish, the size of your lab, or the awards you collect? 

Jonathan and Renaud bring together four brilliant scientists to challenge the traditional academic compass : Rachael Dangarembizi (University of Cape Town, South Africa), Michaela Fenckova (University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic), Harmit Malik (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, USA), and Srikanth Ramaswamy (Newcastle University, UK). 

This podcast series is a limited-series from The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast, a guide that will help you to adress the difficult issue of transitioning from postdoc to team leader. 

The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast 'From Postdoc to PI' is organized with the support of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), a founding partner of the ALBA Network.

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

Even the best captain cannot control the weather. But they can control how they navigate the storm.

In Episode 4 of the ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast, we sail into the darker waters of academia: power dynamics, bullying, and toxic environments. We often talk about the "dream lab," but what happens when that dream becomes a nightmare? When the hierarchy is used to silence rather than support ? Or when systemic barriers put researchers in danger ?

Renaud and Jonathan sit down with three courageous scientists, Alicja Puścian (University of Warsaw, Poland), Dori Grijseels (Max Planck Institute, Germany), and Angeline Dukes (University of Minnesota, USA) who share powerful personal stories and navigation strategies.

This podcast series is a limited-series from The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast, a guide that will help you to adress the difficult issue of transitioning from postdoc to team leader. 

The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast 'From Postdoc to PI' is organized with the support of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), a founding partner of the ALBA Network.

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

What is the most valuable "invisible skill" of a group leader ? 

In Episode 3, we tackle the difficult question : how to build a research culture where people don't just survive, but thrive. Science is not a solo trip. It is a group expedition. Yet, most group leaders are never trained to manage humans, resolve conflicts, or foster inclusivity. 

Renaud and Jonathan sit down with four inspiring scientist Dori Grijseels (Max Planck Institute, Germany), Angeline Dukes (University of Minnesota, USA), Adrian Liston (University of Cambridge, UK), and Denise Fitzgerald (Queen’s University Belfast, UK) to decode the DNA of a healthy lab.

This podcast series is a limited-series from The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast, a guide that will help you to adress the difficult issue of transitioning from postdoc to team leader. 

The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast 'From Postdoc to PI' is organized with the support of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), a founding partner of the ALBA Network.

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

What if constraints could fuel your lab instead of limiting it ? Episode 2 dives into the realities and opportunities of building a lab in resource-constrained settings. Renaud and Jonathan talk to Daniela Di Bella (Harvard, USA), Vatsala Thirumalai (National Centre for Biological Sciences, India), and Sahba Besharati (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) about how determination and creativity can turn restrictions into scientific excellence. From Argentina to India and South Africa, they share how starting with less taught them to think bigger, act smarter, and stay true to their vision.

This podcast series is a limited-series from The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast, a guide that will help you to adress the difficult issue of transitioning from postdoc to team leader. 

The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast 'From Postdoc to PI' is organized with the support of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), a founding partner of the ALBA Network.

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

Making the leap from postdoc to group leader is both exciting and terrifying. Episode 1 offers the postdoc perspective on this journey. Renaud and Jonathan from the Lonely Pipette talk with Florencia Fernandez-Chiappe (Boston University, US), Mayank Chugh (William & Mary, US), and Ashley Bourke (MPI for Brain Research, DE) about the fears, anxieties, and uncertainties that come with this transition. They share their personal experiences, discuss common challenges, and offer insights on how to navigate this crucial career step with confidence.

This podcast series is a limited-series from The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast, a guide that will help you to adress the difficult issue of transitioning from postdoc to team leader. 

The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast 'From Postdoc to PI' is organized with the support of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), a founding partner of the ALBA Network.

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

We had the great honour of producing a podcast for the ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast.

This podcast series is a unique resource, a guide that will help you to adress the difficult issue of transitioning from postdoc to team leader. We hope it will inspire you as much as it has transformed our vision of academia !

The ALBA-IBRO Diversity Podcast 'From Postdoc to PI' is organized with the support of the International Brain Research Organization, a founding partner of the ALBA Network.

This podcast is hosted by The Lonely Pipette, produced by Exaltia and organised with the support of IBRO.

Enjoy listening and see you next Wednesday for the broadcast of this limited series, which will be released every two weeks! 

The ALBA Diversity Podcast interviews neuroscientists from underrepresented groups to better understand their hurdles and victories, and what keeps them going in today’s brain research community. In season 2, with IBROs' support, we focus on the transition from postdoc to PI, highlighting the unique challenges faced by postdocs and early-career PIs worldwide. By sharing their experiences and strategies for overcoming obstacles, the podcast aims to provide valuable insights for scientists navigating this critical career stage.

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

This month we talk with Ana Boskovic about her experience of setting up her own lab and hiring a new team

• Ana began studying languages and literature… but found it too easy, so she switched
• She questions whether you are ever ‘ready’ to set up your own lab
• It’s important that you find the right ‘fit’ for the place you want to work and this should be a supportive environment
• She learnt early that it is important to hire people with diverse personalities who each fill a gap in the skills the lab needs
• Ana also says it’s important to always be yourself and not pretend to be something you are not
• She remembers that hiring was the biggest challenge in setting up her own team
• They need to be dedicated but also well-integrated into the team and the lab culture
• She balances ambitions with pragmatic considerations to avoid biased approaches
• Ana loves ‘to do’ lists as a source of satisfaction and to help planning
• She says you need to be able to trust and respect your mentor because you know they want you to succeed
• Mentors need to learn to have a conversation and be sensitive to mentees’ needs
• Ana insists that mentors need to be able to apologize if they get it wrong
• Ana uses her train ride to plan her day and write her To-Do list
• She tells us about her favourite Roman emperor, Diocletian
• She reminds us that “The plural of anecdote is not data”

She mentioned these labs, scientists and institutions

University of Zagreb https://www.unizg.hr/homepage/
EMBL Rome https://www.embl.org/research/faculty/rome/
Maria Elena Torres-Padilla (podcast episode from Season 1)
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1356877/episodes/6624301-tlp-6-just-go-for-it-following-your-curiosity-and-excitement-maria-elena-torres-padilla
Maria Elena Torres-Padilla (lab)
https://www.helmholtz-munich.de/en/ies/pi/maria-elena-torres-padilla
Oliver Rando
https://www.umassmed.edu/randolab/
Edith Heard (podcast episode from Season 2)
https://thelonelypipette.buzzsprout.com/1356877/episodes/11387623-tlp-12-science-without-frontiers-edith-heard
F Scott Fitzgerald
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald
Diocletian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian
Split, Croatia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split,_Croatia

To find out more about Ana visit these links 

Ana’s lab
https://www.embl.org/groups/boskovic/
Ana’s LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-boskovic/
On Twitter-X
https://x.com/anaboskovic18

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

This month Ivan Oransky joins us to talk about his work as a journalist and advocate for monitoring scientific misconduct.

• Ivan confesses about his beginnings as a young playwright of the immune system
• He discusses how and why he left medicine to become a journalist
• Ivan’s mentors encouraged him to develop by getting experience as a journalist and editor
• Ivan reflects on how his training as a physician was helpful and allowed people to trust him
• He stresses how important it is to read in order to develop story-writing skills
• Ivan explains that curiosity and attention can help to hunt for good stories
• He thinks the trend to ‘weaponization’ is central to what’s wrong in science and science communication today
• He suggests that going ‘upstream’ might help to explain the methodology and not just the results of science
• Ivan describes the origins of Retraction Watch and looking for the stories behind the retractions
• He also insists that we need to look upstream to understand what leads to the fraud (or sloppiness) behind the retractions
• Finally, learning to say NO is an important skill to keeping focused

Ivan mentioned these scientists, writers and institutions
Harvard University : https://www.harvard.edu/
The Harvard Crimson https://www.thecrimson.com/
Yale University https://www.yale.edu/
The Scientist https://www.the-scientist.com/
Journal of American Medical Association https://jamanetwork.com/
New York University’s Carter Journalism Institute https://journalism.nyu.edu/
The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com
Lawrence Altman MD https://www.nytimes.com/by/lawrence-k-altman
George Lundberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_D._Lundberg https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1114712/


To find out more about Ivan and his work visit these links  
at NYU https://journalism.nyu.edu/about-us/profile/ivan-oransky-md/
on Twitter/X https://x.com/ivanoransky
Retraction Watch https://retractionwatch.com/
The Transmitter /Spectrum magazine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transmitter
Ivan’s first play about the Immune System (aged 11) https://theoranskyjournal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/immune-system-play.pdf

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

This month we enjoyed talking to Arjun Raj about his interdisciplinary approaches to studying biological systems

• Arjun shares how he almost became a truck driver and experimented with a career in an (unnamed) rock band
• He tells us about his journey from mathematics to quantitative biology and he shares thoughts about comparing biology with physics and what they can learn from each other
• He says we all struggle with how to teach creativity and how to evaluate the most promising ideas.
• Arjun discusses how to improve mentoring and practical auto-mentoring. He gives specific examples about learning how to peer-review papers.
• He recommends a narrative-based approach to science communication so that you can leave the audience with a feeling of wonder
• He is inspired by Star Wars storytelling as a science communicator
• He says it's important to go through a period of really paying attention to the small details
• Arjun argues that scientists have become overburdened and that increasing scope creep creates a lot of pressure

He mentioned these labs, scientists and institutions
University of Pennsylvania https://www.upenn.edu/
UC Berkeley https://www.berkeley.edu/
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University https://cims.nyu.edu/dynamic/
Massachusetts Institute of Technology https://www.mit.edu/
Fred Kramer https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty/fred-russell-kramer/
Sunjay Tyagi https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty/sanjay-tyagi/

To find out more about Arjun visit these links  
Raj Lab https://rajlab.seas.upenn.edu/
on Twitter/X https://x.com/arjunrajla
Random musings Blog https://rajlaboratory.blogspot.com/
Tools for Science resource https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jBGk-u5auVCvI5EMaQnptMWbxHHl3ncIhKgIgEzjylw/edit

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

This month Alicia Rojas tells us about her journey from Costa Rica to Israel and back, in search of pathogens and parasites

• Alicia shares the personal difficulties of being far from home and how she missed family and food
• She reflects on coming back to Costa Rica to explore its rich biodiversity
• She recalls the challenges of returning from a luxurious postdoc at the Weizmann Institute to setting up her own lab in Costa Rica during a pandemic
• She discusses the need to be resilient and creative and build collaborations
• She is proud to be “doing the best we can with the limited resources we have”
• As a mentor, she stresses that every student is different and she tries to keep a helicopter-view of everything that is going on 
• Alicia gets up really early to complete work and make time for her family in the afternoon
• She recommends to finish one task before you start the next one

She mentioned these labs, scientists and institutions
University of Costa Rica : https://www.ucr.ac.cr/
Hebrew University of Jerusalem : https://en.huji.ac.il/
Neta Regev-Rudzki laboratory : https://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biomolecular_Sciences/regev/
Weizmann Institute of Science: https://www.weizmann.ac.il/pages/
Research Center for Tropical Diseases.  : http://www.ciet.ucr.ac.cr/en/about-ciet

To find out more about Alicia visit these links
Alicia’s lab : https://www.thetropicalwormlab.com/
Alicia’s LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-rojas-30215b1aa/
On Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetropicalwormlab_ucr/
On Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/thetropicalwormlabUCR/

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

Support the show

💌 Subcribe to our newsletter and receive the episodes and news directly in your mailbox : https://tinyurl.com/TLPNL

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20