Sign me up for RSS!- How can you go wrong with a gap year?
- Advising undergraduates: encourage them to get to know themselves
- Did you join Mastodon yet?
- Is there a book you want to write?
- What I learned from reading my book aloud
- Retraction with honor
- Ten steps to optimizing learning at large conferences
- Do not love your writing
- What have you discovered?
- An easy productivity tip: don’t stop at a stopping place
Tag Archives: Research
How many hours a week can you work on research?
What are my colleagues around the world doing on this Sunday, a brilliantly sunny February day too warm for a jacket in St. Louis? Are they out hiking, bird watching, or cooking a delicious meal? Are they playing with their … Continue reading
Ten tips for writing successful NSF full proposals from a recent panelist
Right now a lot of us are waiting to hear if we won the NSF lottery. Someone recently on a panel who did not want to be identified shared some thoughts about what makes a good proposal. Some of these … Continue reading
Are rotations really worth it?
I think a rotation is kind of like a trial marriage, without the most fun bits. Or maybe because of that, and the power relationships, a trial adoption is more like it. Some students start graduate school really certain of … Continue reading
Posted in Graduate school, Your lab group
Tagged lab culture, Research, rotation, techniques
Leave a comment
What happens when you don’t publish promptly?
If science is a relay race, when you don’t publish, the baton goes to someone else. If science is a quilt, when you don’t publish, someone else’s square will go in the place saved for yours. If science is a … Continue reading
Hurry! We have an opening at Wash U for an ecologist in any specialty!
Please share this exciting position for a tenure track ecologist of any flavor! We have a great group and are in a world clss city! Join us! Below is the advertisement. Washington University in St. Louis Department of Biology … Continue reading
Posted in behavioral ecology, Jobs
Tagged ecology, open positions, Research, teaching, tenure track jobs
Leave a comment
What are you paying your work-study students?
This is the time of year when we begin to think about our classes, the fall excitement, and a crop of new students coming through our doors. Many of those will qualify for work study. This is a federal program … Continue reading
Posted in Research, Undergraduates, Your lab group
Tagged fairness, minimum wage, Research, undergraduates, work study
Leave a comment
Exactly how independent should your research be?
The significance of a Ph.D. degree is that you can do much more than excellent research. You can also think of what questions to ask. You know how to push at the most important unknowns. You can read the literature … Continue reading
Posted in Graduate school, New ideas, Postdocs, Undergraduates
Tagged experimental design, independence, Ph.D., Research, scientific literature, techniques
Leave a comment
Science is problem solving: two crucial first steps
I have an extremely intelligent friend with a Ph.D. in something really fancy who raised his kids with a great deal of freedom. I’m sure he did this for a number of reasons, but one that he articulated early on … Continue reading
Make sure your prospective Ph.D. adviser is taking students!!!
Grad school applications are very different from applying to college. It is nearly always the case that in ecology and evolution, you only get admitted if there is an adviser who will take you. This is true even if there … Continue reading
The monastic glory of a seven year Ph.D.
Anything you do for seven years is a way of living, not preparation for something else in the tangle of life. It is the time from birth, when you are just working out that you are no longer a part … Continue reading
Sociobiology 