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Category Archives: Tenure
How to write a tenure letter about a colleague
Letters that inform a committee on whether or not someone should get tenure are really important because the deciders include people that do not know the field. They can be deans and department chairs from other departments and ultimately a … Continue reading
Is tenure failure a social failure, not an individual failure?
A great piece by Cin-Ty Lee in his blog, Down to earth questions, makes the wise point that tenure denied is a problem from many levels other than the individual. It could be a hiring problem, a mentoring problem, an … Continue reading
Posted in Tenure
Tagged academia, mentoring, Rice University, tenure, Washington University in St. Louis
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Guest post on the tenure talk by Liz Haswell
The Unique Nature of the Tenure Talk Here is Liz Haswell‘s take on talking for tenure. The Tenure Talk. If your department has these, you’ve known it’s on the horizon for years—but it can be terrifying once you actually start … Continue reading
Posted in Life in a biology department, Seminars, Tenure
Tagged academia, Biology, communication, force, Liz Haswell, molecular biologists, plants, Research, seminar, tenure
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Why you shouldn’t hire your colleague’s child, or be asked to do so
The whole reason we do experiments blind, have rules against nepotism, and worry about inadvertent bias is that we are humans and these things go with the species, no matter how fair we try to be. Even though there has … Continue reading
Posted in Department politics, Ethics, Social interactions, Tenure
Tagged conflict of interest, high school, nepotism, summer job, tenure
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Attributes that make getting tenure easy: curiosity, effectiveness, and conscientiousness.
Curiosity may be the most important characteristic of a successful academic. It is something that motivates us a lot in our earliest days, but sadly, many get over it. Nurture your curiosity for a successful academic career in both … Continue reading
Easy tips for effective writing
Why is it so hard to write clearly? Is it because we don’t know what to say? Is it because we jettison all common sense when we write and try to adhere to some fancy form we imagine is sophisticated? … Continue reading
Posted in Tenure, Writing
Tagged communication, Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, science writing, Scientific writing, Writers Resources, writing
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How to get tenure – choosing research questions
This should be easy, right? After all, you are a professor because you love research. For your Ph.D., you discovered something new, then found the time to write it up into a coherent dissertation. You nestled your new research in … Continue reading
Sociobiology 