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Tag Archives: ideas
Is Wikipedia anti-intellectual? Compare athletes to academics and the answer is yes.
Recently some of my students have been writing biographies of scientists for Wikipedia. They wrote one for a research scientist who made a discovery so major she was on the phone with reporters for a week. The discovery was that … Continue reading
The best way to summarize your research on your webpage
Will people smile when they go to your research web page? Will they immediately know what you do, broad and narrow? Do you delight? I certainly hope you don’t overwhelm with words. I just opened an investigators web page to … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, Presentations and seminars, Public Communication
Tagged drawing, ideas, research illustration, web page
1 Comment
What to do when a postdoc isn’t working out
Your postdoctoral years should be glorious. You’ve proven yourself with a Ph.D., showing you can master your field and find something new to solve, often in collaboration with an adviser, solve it, write it up, and publish it. You have … Continue reading
Posted in Collaboration, Managing an academic career, Postdocs
Tagged academic freedom, Biology, ideas, postdocs, Research
1 Comment
How to avoid choosing vampire professors for graduate school
A vampire professor will suck you dry. They will rob you of your life essences. Exactly which essence they will remove might vary with professor. Some will suck away all your time. Such a professor will notice when you arrive … Continue reading
Posted in Graduate school, Undergraduates
Tagged Graduate school, ideas, professor, vampire
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How to solve hard, important research problems
People keep talking about low hanging fruit, but the low hanging tomatoes in my garden are the first to rot. Maybe other people can find easy and amazing things to study. I don’t think there is much hope for that. … Continue reading
Do you have your list of things you are interested in?
One of the things my creativity course emphasizes is paying attention to other people and what they are thinking about, or what they might think about various ideas. One person that is worth paying attention to is Cin-Ty Lee. He … Continue reading
Posted in Managing an academic career, New ideas
Tagged annual review, Biology, creativity, evolution, geology, ideas, important, interesting, problems, questions
4 Comments
Asking the right questions
We professors are creative a lot less of the time than we might think we are. We must drive the education scholars crazy because we so often teach in the same old tired ways of 500 years ago, despite strong … Continue reading
Posted in New ideas
Tagged Active learning, Andy Burnett, creativity, ideas, innovation, lunch, questions, Research, teaching
1 Comment
Mixed reports on the NSF preproposal process
By now you’ve heard your fate on the preproposal. Some very generous bloggers are telling the story from the panelist perspective. I think the biggest question is whether they are treated like a four page version of a full proposal, … Continue reading
Posted in Grant proposals, New ideas
Tagged funding, grant, ideas, methods, NSF, preproposal
6 Comments
What have you discovered? I need to know to write this letter!
Why is it so hard to find out what a scientist has discovered from a letter of recommendation for her, from her web page, from nearly anywhere? If I am going to nominate you for something, if I am going … Continue reading
Posted in Managing an academic career
Tagged biography, Employment, ideas, prizes, Recommendation letter, science, Wikipedia
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Sociobiology 