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PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for Getting Grants
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"At the present time, US funding is frequently below 10% for a given grant program. Today, more than ever, we need all the help we can get in writing successful grant proposals. We hope you find these rules useful in reaching your research career goals."
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PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral Presentations
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"Continuing our Ten Simple Rules series [15], we consider here what it takes to make a good oral presentation. While the rules apply broadly across disciplines, they are certainly important from the perspective of this readership. Clear and logical delivery of your ideas and scientific results is an important component of a successful scientific career. Presentations encourage broader dissemination of your work and highlight work that may not receive attention in written form."
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PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation
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"Posters are a key component of communicating your science and an important element in a successful scientific career. Posters, while delivering the same high-quality science, offer a different medium from either oral presentations [1] or published papers [2], and should be treated accordingly. Posters should be considered a snapshot of your work intended to engage colleagues in a dialog about the work, or, if you are not present, to be a summary that will encourage the reader to want to learn more. Many a lifelong collaboration [3] has begun in front of a poster board. Here are ten simple rules for maximizing the return on the time-consuming process of preparing and presenting an effective poster."
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PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for Graduate Students
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"Choosing to go to graduate school is a major life decision. Whether you have already made that decision or are about to, now it is time to consider how best to be a successful graduate student. Here are some thoughts from someone who holds these memories fresh in her mind (JG) and from someone who has had a whole career to reflect back on the decisions made in graduate school, both good and bad (PEB). These thoughts taken together, from former student and mentor, represent experiences spanning some 25 or more years."
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PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for Selecting a Postdoctoral Position
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"You are a PhD candidate and your thesis defense is already in sight. You have decided you would like to continue with a postdoctoral position rather than moving into industry as the next step in your career (that decision should be the subject of another Ten Simple Rules). Further, you already have ideas for the type of research you wish to pursue and perhaps some ideas for specific projects. Here are ten simple rules to help you make the best decisions on a research project and the laboratory in which to carry it out."
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Sloan Foundation Grants for Research on the US Science and Engineering Workforce - Second
Round
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The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is pleased to announce the second round of its small grants program to support creative research on the U.S. workforce and labor markets in science and engineering (S ). The due date for submissions will be November 17, 2008.
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Campus visits can help you make a better grad-school choice
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ScienceCareers, May 30, 2008.
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Into the Eye of the Storm: Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education,
Quality, and Workforce Demand
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"Recent policy reports claim the United States is falling behind other nations in science and math education and graduating insufficient numbers of scientists and engineers. Review of the evidence and analysis of actual graduation rates and workforce needs does not find support for these claims. U.S. student performance rankings are comparable to other leading nations and colleges graduate far more scientists and engineers than are hired each year. Instead, the evidence suggests targeted education improvements are needed for the lowest performers and demand-side factors may be insufficient to attract qualified college graduates."
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Survival Blog for Scientists
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New blog of professional natural scientists (senior and junior) discussing all aspects of becoming a world-class scientist (so no science content). The initiator (Ad Lagendijk) has written a book "Survival Guide for Scientists" that will be published by Amsterdam University Press and Chicago University Press on May 13, 2008. The survival guides can be obtained freely as e-books from www.stringcat.com
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Sloan Foundation Grants for Research on the US Science and Engineering Workforce
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The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is pleased to announce a new small grants program to support creative research on the U.S. workforce and labor markets in science and engineering. Depending on the number and quality of proposals received, this grant program will provide up to 10 research grants, selected on the basis of a peer review process. Grant budgets requested cannot exceed a total of $45,000, though we expect that most will be smaller than this ceiling. The first grant application deadline is April 7, 2008.
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Exploring Ways to Shorten the Ascent to a Ph.D.
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"For those who attempt it, the doctoral dissertation can loom on the horizon like Everest, gleaming invitingly as a challenge but often turning into a masochistic exercise once the ascent is begun. The average student takes 8.2 years to get a Ph.D.; in education, that figure surpasses 13 years. Fifty percent of students drop out along the way, with dissertations the major stumbling block. At commencement, the typical doctoral holder is 33, an age when peers are well along in their professions, and 12 percent of graduates are saddled with more than $50,000 in debt."
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Decline of the Tenure Track Raises Concerns
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NY Times, Nov 20, 2007. "Professors with tenure or who are on a tenure track are now a distinct minority on the countrys campuses, as the ranks of part-time instructors and professors hired on a contract have swelled, according to federal figures analyzed by the American Association of University Professors."
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New Database Reveals State Variations in the U.S. Science and Engineering Labor Force -
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A new database created by the Population Reference Bureau reveals geographic differences in characteristics of people working in the science and engineering (S ) labor force. The data, from the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey, highlight state-level variations in earnings, education, and the participation of minorities, women, and foreign-born workers in the high-tech economy.
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Google Policy Fellowship
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"As lawmakers around the world become more engaged on Internet policy, ensuring a robust and intelligent public debate around these issues becomes increasingly important. Thats why were launching the Google Policy Fellowship Programto support students and organizations working on policy issues fundamental to the future of the Internet and its users. Think of it as the public policy version of Google's Summer of Code. The Google Policy Fellowship program offers undergraduate, graduate, and law students interested in Internet and technology policy the opportunity to spend the summer contributing to the public dialogue on these issues, and exploring future academic and professional interests."
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Hosting a Speaker: a Guide for Graduate Students
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by Phil Agre.
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How to Be a Leader in Your Field
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by Philip Agre. "In a knowledge-intensive world of ceaseless innovation and change, I assert, every professional must be a leader.... But how? It is well-known that simply declaring yourself a leader will not cause anyone to follow you. The process of becoming a leader doesn't happen overnight, but it is perfectly methodical. Here is a six-step recipe."
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Writing the Personal Statement - The OWL at Purdue
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This handout provides information about writing personal statements for academic and other positions.
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How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily
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by Michael A. Covington, University of Georgia
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How to Write a Master's Thesis in Computer Science
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by William Shoaff, Florida Institute of Technology.
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The Science Education Myth
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BusinessWeek, October 26, 2007. "Forget the conventional wisdom. U.S. schools are turning out more capable science and engineering grads than the job market can support."
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Getting Things Done in Academia
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Advice for graduate students on creativity, scholarship, communication, and time management
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Northwestern University Graduate Student Association
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How to Get Fewer Scientists
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Washington Post, July 24, 2007. "President Bush told cancer researchers gathered at the National Institutes of Health in January that we need to 'make sure that our scientists are given the tools and encourage young kids to become scientists in the first place.' Yet his administration's stingy NIH budgets over the past five years and its threat last week to veto the appropriations bill giving the NIH a small funding boost sound more like components of a Discourage Future Scientists Act."
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The Real Science Crisis: Bleak Prospects for Young Researchers
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Chronicle of Higher Education , September 2007. "[F]or many of today's graduate students, the future could not look much bleaker. They see long periods of training, a shortage of academic jobs, and intense competition for research grants looming ahead of them. 'They get a sense that this is a really frustrating career path,' says Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. So although the operating assumption among many academic leaders is that the nation needs more scientists, some of brightest students in the country are demoralized and bypassing scientific careers."
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A snapshot of jobs in the biosciences industry suggests that business training may be worth
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Naturejobs, Aug. 29, 2007 Since the rise of biotechnology in the 1970s, the worlds of bioscience and business have drawn ever closer together. But for jobseekers interested in the biosciences industry, how much of an asset is business training? It may offer some advantages. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, is suffering serious job losses (see Nature 448, 965; 2007), but there still are jobs available, and business training is one way to get a leg up. The extent to which that training translates into broadened opportunities is hard to quantify. The Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, California, which specializes in bioscience degrees that incorporate business skills, has released a report that assesses the situation (see http://www.kgi.edu/x6503.xml).
