Mentoring

Lab Culture

To me, maintaining a healthy and cordial environment for every lab member is a top priority. My lab maintains a culture of support, awareness, and positive communication. Research involves a lot of failure, which can be be stressful, and is especially so, for those with additional challenges. In my lab, I promote a culture of reasonable work-life balance, to ensure that lab members with diverse external pressures can flourish. I ensure that all members feel comfortable to engage in scientific exchange, irrespective of their background and experience, and that their effort is highly valued. 

I expect all lab members to help each other, keep the lab organized, and generally be responsible citizens. There are tedious tasks that need to be done to keep the lab running, and we will all share these responsibilities. It is not important how many hours you spend physically in the lab.  Instead I will monitor your progress you make on your project. Experiments fail most of the time. Learning to troubleshoot and overcome setbacks is key to progress and maintaining your happiness. Please strive to think through the steps of an experiment yourself. I may not always have the best answers. However, I will try my best to steer you in the right direction. 

I want you to feel comfortable to communicate with me about any issues that arise during your time in my lab, and I will assist you in whatever way, most helpful to you. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to change about the way the lab is run, and I will take your input into consideration.

What to expect from me

•I will develop the scientific vision for the lab and acquire the funding necessary to keep the lab going in all respects.

•I will meet with you on a regular basis (at the minimum every week) to discuss your research progress and help troubleshoot and plan your experiments. However, more frequent or as needed meetings can also be scheduled. 

•I will mentor you to develop research and professional plans individually tailored to your scientific interests and career goals. Usually in the summer, I will have lab members fill out an individual development plan (IDP) so we can develop a plan for the upcoming year that will keep you on track with your goals both scientific and professional.

•I will support you throughout your career by introducing you to other researchers in the field, writing recommendation letters for you, nominating you for awards and honors, and providing you with opportunities to attend scientific conferences.

•I will be available to discuss any aspect of your career and life. I realize we all have lives outside the lab, and want to work with you to achieve a good work-life balance.

What I expect from you:

•Work smart, work hard. This doesn’t necessarily mean working long hours, but take pride in all you do. Don’t take short cuts, whether in protocols or efforts. Take this job seriously, but find the work-life balance that works for you.

•While everyone will be working on individual projects, please be supportive of your lab mates. The success of one is the success of all. There will be times when people in the lab will need your help to think about research projects, collaborate, to fix equipment or work on other parts of the lab that are not direct research experiments, please be a team member.

•Share your experience and knowledge. Exchanging knowledge, techniques and know-how with your lab mates is how we all get better, improve and enhance our ability to perform research.

•Communication is key, whether it is about science, lab operations or any other issue that may come up. Don’t assume anything, ask someone in person or on Microsoft Teams which we use.

•Respect everyone. It’s not that hard to be nice to each other. There will be times when you may disagree with someone in the lab, but please be professional and respect each others’ strengths, weaknesses, differences, approaches, beliefs and personal space.