“Where are you going? Where have you been?”

[Title credit: Joyce Carol Oates]
***note: A continuous work in progress. Feedback is welcomed!

date drafted: 28Apr2023 date revised: 6Jan2025

Overarching Goal: To develop a vibrant, open environment for all trainees to become rigorous scientists, contribute to the science community, and discover a path to develop their own careers.

Trainees: postdocs, grad students, post-baccalaureates
Junior trainees: summer students, undergraduates, high school students

Science training experience:

1. Everyone’s human, and thus deserve to be treated as such. While our lab jobs may be different, all of our jobs are important, and as such we all deserve respect. Just as a mentor should be respected for the experience and effort they bring to the project, a mentee should be respected for their enthusiasm, effort, and willingness to learn. [Credit: Stephen Harrison]
2. Everyone’s a scientist here. All of us have projects that we manage, from junior to full trainees. Our thoughts on the project should be respected, and both mentor and mentees are expected to manage the projects. [Credit: Thomas North]
3. Training is why we’re here. Mentors are expected to be available, drive the mid and long term direction, and help with troubleshooting when necessary. Mentees are expected to do the work in a timely fashion without constant prompting. They should be asking questions all the time. They should also be looking for answers from many different sources. [Credit: Judith Kimble and Marv Wickens]
4. Character is destiny. This is true with people and science. Publishable results are a product of intelligence, creativity, knowledge, hard work, and luck. In this equation, the only variables you can control are knowledge and hard work. Having a solid knowledge base and working hard will lead to the truth. We will try to reward the logical effort in pursuit of truth, not the end result. [Credit: Heraclitus]
5. Learning how to read, engage, and present your work is critical for your scientific growth. As such, you will be expected to read and present in journal clubs, weekly informal group meetings, bi-yearly in formal group meetings, and at scientific conferences and symposiums. All trainees should attend science seminars pertinent to their work and interests. [Credit: Stephen Harrison and Judith Kimble]
6. Mentorship is critical for personal growth. Trainees should meet with their mentor(s) informally on a regular basis, preferably at least once a week. Communication is key. Both trainees and mentors should respond to messaging and be available in lab to discuss science and professional development matters on the fly. Furthermore, all trainees will be expected to mentor a junior trainee at least once during their time with the lab. It takes time to learn how to work with people and develop a mentoring style. Start your mentorship training now.
7. Take risks. Science is fun because we can investigate anything we want. Enthusiasm and the pursuit of interesting questions with well-designed, thoughtful experiments is why we have a lab in the first place. Within reason, these ideas are encouraged. [Credit: Stephen Harrison and Judith Kimble]
8. Neutering science enthusiasm is a sin that should be punished. Castration of scientific ideas in the name of “significance” is all too prevalent in research. All of us should be working to kill these negative thoughts. Science breakthroughs come from unusual places. It’s not clear why current research dismisses the entirety of human history.

Expectations:

• Enthusiasm and work ethic are required and self-generated. The Mentor is not responsible for bringing these two attributes to the lab. They are up to the mentee to deliver.
• A science direction and framework to learn the material will be provided by the mentor. The mentor should appreciate that the mentee is still in training. Midterm goals and achievable, realistic tasks should be established by the mentor and the mentee.
• The mentee is expected to work towards completing the task at hand as efficiently as possible. With the help of their mentor, they should manage their daily and weekly productivity. Questions should be welcomed by both sides.
• The mentee is expected to take useful, interpretable, complete notes of their work. This includes maintaining a lab notebook, taking notes when learning a new procedure, taking notes during a science meeting, receiving feedback, and other
• The mentee should maintain communication with their mentor on all lab platforms. Both parties should have realistic expectations on when the other can return their messages and requests.

Scientist’s shoulds and shouldn’ts:

1. A scientist should be enthusiastic about their work.
2. A scientist shouldn’t kill enthusiasm.
3. A scientist shouldn’t be afraid to take calculated risks.
4. A scientist should have fun in their intellectual pursuits.
5. A scientist should lean on others for help and advice.
6. A scientist should depend on literature to build their knowledge base.
7. A scientist should go to science meetings to share and learn.
8. A scientist should always focus on the question.
9. A scientist should be rewarded for logical effort, not results.
10. A scientist should appreciate writing as a critical form of communication to engage peers, trainees, mentors, and the general public.
11. A scientist should look at all presentations as job interviews. [Credit: Marv Wickens]
12. A scientist should try to rise to the level of others’ greatness.
13. A scientist shouldn’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know,” and look for the answer.
14. A scientist shouldn’t dismiss an idea because of its source, only its content.
15. A scientist should be thinking about the next steps to the experiment, project, and their career at all times.
16. A scientist shouldn’t get into endless cycles of mental masturbation and just do the work. [Credit: Stephen Harrison]
17. A scientist should break down a large, significant question or problem into short, middle, and long term goals, work toward achieving these goals, and refining these goals all the time to correct the trajectory. [Credit: Stephen Harrison]
18. A scientist shouldn’t be myopic in their scientific goals. [Credit: Judith Kimble]
19. A scientist should judge other scientists based on their work ethic, enthusiasm, learned and innate skill set, and kindness, not their age, gender, physical attributes, and degrees.

31Jul2024