Whilst in graduate school I had the good fortune of having the opportunity to witness two faculty searches unfold, one of which I also got to serve as the graduate student representative on the search committee. Thus, I obtained some absolutely invaluable insight into what is necessary to be competitive to obtain a tenure-track interview [...]
Archive for the ‘Academia’ Category
So my current postdoc adviser is a member of the Faculty of 1000 (F1000) and has asked me to become an associate faculty member (woohoo! Another line on the CV; isn’t it sad that this is the first thing that came to my mind when my adviser approached me about this. Oh science, what have you done to me? [...]
Getting your PhD: US versus UK – Time to completion
Posted: March 8, 2012 in Academia, Getting your PhD - UK vs US, UK Academia, UK Job AdviceThere are a number of differences in the graduate school experience between the US and the UK. One of the most prominent differences is the amount of time it takes to get a PhD: Time to completion: In the US the time it takes to get a PhD in the biomedical sciences varies widely based [...]
A couple of months ago I had a brief chat with a grad school colleague. He recently published a paper in which his name was second but had the ole’ asterisk next to it indicating he and the listed first author had made an equal contribution. He then made the comment that it didn’t really [...]
Academic inbreeding in the UK…checking our assumptions
Posted: January 10, 2012 in Academia, UK AcademiaSince coming to the UK I’ve noticed that there is a considerably higher level of academic inbreeding here than I’ve seen in any of the institutions I’ve been at in the US. For example, at my present institution in the UK there are about 4 or 5 faculty members who got their PhD here, did [...]
Alright, I know it’s kinda’ lame, but I got my first (and hopefully not last!) request to review a manuscript solo! And it’s in a decent society level journal too! Was exhausted in the lab today (got back to the flat at 1 o’clock this morning after a four day weekend in Switzerland…) but found [...]
I’ve often wondered if there was an “ideal” sort of first author to middle author ratio that tenure track search committees consider in evaluating candidates. It seems to be that about a 1:1 ratio would be considered approximately “ideal”. Considering the two extremes: 1) it would be a bit bizarre if someone was first author [...]
Given the recent world-wide financial crisis that has been taking place over the last several years, and the current fiscal troubles of both the state governments and the federal government in the US, the last words I thought I would ever hear from an employer were “defined-benefit pension plan”. Apparently, all one has to do [...]
One of the most difficult things I have to deal with while living in the UK is how to handle my sports. I’m an avid NFL, NHL and MLB fan (not much of an NBA fan…somehow I find it challenging to go from watching tough NHL players block 90 mph shots and check each other [...]
So there was a recent post by DrdrA of Blue Lab Coats fame ranting about a recent article in the Huffington Post concerning the pay of faculty members at Texas A&M, and how the article made use of dodgy data in coming to a false conclusions about the financial contribution faculty members make to a [...]
