How to talk with Zeke

Some general notes on communication with Zeke:

1. Apart from scheduled individual meetings and group and project meetings, one can always reach out to Zeke over Slack regarding anything. You can usually expect to get a response within a few hours, so if there are any questions related to your experiment or a new observation you want to report, you can always message him on Slack to get a quicker feedback than your scheduled project or individual meetings.

2. If anyone wants to have a more detailed in-person discussion on something (it can be related to a new idea/direction that you want to pursue, some technical roadblock in your experiment etc), the way to go about it is letting him know in Slack the purpose of the meeting and then finding a time in his Outlook calendar that works for both of you and then sending him a calendar invite. One should always select a time that is in between his other appointments and try their best to leave out large blocks of available time in his schedule that is used for focused, uninterrupted work.

3. Take responsibility to put up in his outlook calendar any meeting you decided on over email/Slack. That way, its easier for him to keep it in mind while scheduling other appointments and not run into conflicts.

Communication in first year

1. Zeke always has a conversation in the beginning about expectations in the first year when there are coursework/TA duties, but if you have any further clarifications to seek in this regard, feel free to discuss those with him.

2. After attending group meetings and talking to graduate students in the lab in your first semester, if you are interested and would like to get more involved in the lab, feel free to schedule a meeting with Zeke to discuss about possible research projects.

·   Be proactive and initiate discussions with Zeke in this regard.

·   It is always a good idea to learn more about the different projects/directions the group is currently pursuing from senior graduate students working in those directions to have a better picture of which research directions would be exciting to you before meeting with Zeke.

One-on-One meetings with Zeke:

Usually one is expected to schedule biweekly one-on-one meetings with Zeke from the beginning of your first summer. These meetings are generally used to discuss the specific individual project you are working on, ask questions/share concerns on the specific roadblocks and reflect on the progress made so far to decide next steps.

1.       It is very helpful to have a clear plan of what should be discussed in the meeting and be prepared with questions that you want to ask.

2.       Be prepared with your oneNote lab notebook and other relevant images/data that you would like to show him and take his input/suggestions from.

3.       Apart from project meetings, it is a good idea to message Zeke on slack regarding any question that you might have while you are still at your instrument. That helps in getting you quicker feedback and can help things progress faster.

4.       Consider making note of any further step/action item that he suggests during/at the end of your one-on-one meeting with Zeke.

·   He would not push you further regarding completion of his suggested steps, but it is your responsibility to actively carry it out and report back to him your observations.

·   You should have a conversation with him if you think his suggested next steps is not a good idea and you have a different action pathway in your mind, but it is your responsibility to follow up communications on those to actively ensure the progress of your project.

5.       Zeke is generally open to new ideas/change of directions in the specific project you are pursuing, so it is a good idea to communicate with him if you want to change directions or the suggested project does not align with the kind of science you are interested in.