Skills and attributes of Researcher

What skills does it take to become a researcher? What skills do you gain after researching (e.g. undergraduate research experience to PhD)?

What are the attributes of successful researchers?

I'm not claiming to know all the answers, but articulating these skills is important in enabling you to get new opportunities (e.g. scholarships, jobs both in and beyond academia). In this page, I am going to write down and link to a few things that may help my past, current or future students to promote themselves and their skills.

(Neither do I claim to have mastered all of these...)

Some Attributes

Dedication, commitment, perseverance, tenacity
Curiosity, inquiring mind
Enthusiasm
Passion
Patience
Motivated
Articulate
Confident
Level-headed
Practical
Versatile
Organised
Dependable
Analytic
Enthusiastic
Logical

Some skills/ attributes keywords/ thoughts.

Research (develop a protocol to solve a problem)
Problem solving
Innovation
Collegiality, working in a team, collaboration
Willingness to take intellectual risk
Open-mind
Willingness to learn
Willingness to engage with advice from supervisor
Strong writing and language skills
Strong numeracy skills
Intellectual insight to a problem
Skills in constructing scientific arguments
Ability to self-learn (e.g. computational techniques)
"Googling"
Evaluating, synthesizing
Literature review
Distill complex ideas into simpler ones (extract key information from scientific manuscripts)
Time management, self-management (what is your specific strategy here)
Maintaining work-life balance

Project Management

Systematic
Organisation
Natural instincts to lead complex projects
Recognise when a project is taking you down a dead-end

Communication

Communication in all its forms and to a variety of audiences (be explicit here!)
- Type
  - Presentation
  - Formal writing
  - Informal writing
  - Email
  - Tweet
- Audience
  - School students
  - Expert in your field
  - Scientifically literate non-expert academic
  - Scientifically literate non-expert non-academic (i.e. business, industry, not-for-profit sector, politics etc)
  - Non-scientific "general" public
Present problems clearly
Present results using a variety of tools - e.g. tables, figures, graphs, words, infographics etc

•TENACITY

• Think critically about complex problems

• Independence

• Analyze multifaceted situations

• Overcome fear of difficult situations

• Become comfortable learning new concepts

• Develop logical solutions

Work with people under stressful situations

• Recognize rejection is part of research, retreat and try again

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