Episodes
-
In this episode, we speak with Yunde Zhao, a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California San Diego. Yunde earned his Bachelors in Biochemistry from East China University of Science and Technology, received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry
from the University of Michigan, and did his postdoctoral training in plant genetics at the Salk Institute, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation. In January 2022, Yunde started his appointment as the
Editor-in-Chief of Plant Physiology, one of the oldest plant journals.
We discuss a recent paper from Yunde’s lab describing a fast and non-invasive method for monitoring plant transformations, and talk about the transformations that are needed in the publishing world. We also address a recent controversy about diversity among some newly appointed Plant Physiology editors.
Show Notes:
#DiversifyPlantSci
https://rdale1.shinyapps.io/diversifyplantsci/
Plant Physiology Synbio Initiative https://academic.oup.com/plphys/article/190/1/180/6613939
Pandemic-related effects on publishing are gendered:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01294-9
https://elifesciences.org/articles/76559
Paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33024566/
He, Zhang, Sun, Zhan, and Zhao. A reporter for noninvasively monitoring gene expression and plant transformation. (2020). Horticulture Research 19:152.
Twitter Handles:
Liz Haswell Twitter @ehaswell
Ivan Baxter Twitter @baxtertwi
Yunde Zhao Twitter @YundeZhao -
In this episode, we speak with Jason Williams, Assistant Director of Inclusion and Research Readiness at the DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Jason is also lead for CyVerse Education, Outreach, and Training – the U.S. National Cyberinfrastructure for Life Science. Jason received his B.S. in Biology from SUNY Stonybrook in 2004, then worked as a technician in several labs at Cold Spring Harbor, and then transitioned to multiple roles in the DNA Learning Center In 2009.
We discuss an article Jason and colleagues recently published in Science, entitled “Achieving STEM diversity: Fix the classrooms. Outdated teaching methods amount to discrimination”. We also talk about the nuance and complexities around improving diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM education, in planning conferences, and in running scientific societies. Have a listen!
Show Notes:
Paper: J. Handelsman, S. Elgin, M. Estrada, S. Hays, T. Johnson, S. Miller, V. Mingo, C. Schaffer, and J. Williams. (2022). Science 376:1057-1059.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35653460/
Twitter Handles
Liz Haswell Twitter @ehaswell
Ivan Baxter Twitter @baxtertwi
Jason Williams Twitter @JasonWilliamsNY -
Missing episodes?
-
In this episode, we speak with Jennifer Robison, an Assistant Professor of Biology at Manchester University in Indiana. Jennifer received her Bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College, her Master’s degree from the University of Delaware and her PhD from Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. For her thesis, she studied how thermal stress impact gene expression and physiology in soybean. After getting her PhD, she moved directly to a faculty position, just in time to get her feet wet before the pandemic hit.
We discuss Jen’s paper, “Using a Student-Generated Mock Magazine Issue to Improve Students’ Awareness of Diverse Scientists”, which was published in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education in 2020. We discuss the importance of approaching our teaching as scientifically and quantitatively as we approach our research. Jen describes the many important (and amusing!) ways she engaged students during pandemic-related remote instruction and the philosophies she’ll be carrying forward as we return to in-person instruction.
Show Notes:
Paper: Jennifer Robison. J Microbiol Biol Educ. (2020). 21:21/3/75. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33384763/
Blog post: https://jenniferrobison.weebly.com/blog/covid-pivot-turned-me-into-the-cosplay-professor
Twitter Handles
Liz Haswell Twitter @ehaswell
Ivan Baxter Twitter @baxtertwi
Jen Robison Twitter @JenRobiSci
Taproot Podcast Twitter @taprootpodcast -
In this episode, our guest is Olivier Hamant. Olivier is a PI at INRAE in the Plant Reproduction and Development laboratory in Lyon, France. Olivier did his PhD on KNOX homeobox genes in 2003, and then postdocs in Berkeley with Zac Cande and with Jan Traas in Lyon. He took his current position at INRAE in 2012, where he works on the mechanobiology of development. Olivier has received a number of awards in recent years, including Prix Foulon” from the French science academy – 2020.
The jumping-off point for our discussion is a commentary that Olivier wrote entitled “Plants Show us the Light”, published in Trends in Plant Science in 2020. There, he argues that evolution favors robustness over efficiency, and cites several recent discoveries in the field of photosynthesis to support his argument. From there, we apply the lens of efficiency versus robustness to a range of applications, including other aspects of biology, lab organization, and even the global economy. We also touch on ways that the COVID pandemic revealed this tension.
Show Notes:
Olivier Hamant. Plants Show us the Light. Trends Plant Sci. (2020). 26:97-99.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33221171/
Twitter Handles
Liz Haswell Twitter @ehaswell
Ivan Baxter Twitter @baxtertwi
Taproot Podcast Twitter @taprootpodcast -
Taproot S6E1: May I have your attention, please? Searching for causal mutations and for institutional support.
In this episode, our guest is Dior Kelley, an assistant professor in the Genetics, Development and Cell Biology department at Iowa State University. Dior received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California Santa Cruz in 2000, and her Ph.D. in Plant Biology from the University of California Davis in 2009 before doing an NIH Postdoctoral fellowship with Jeff Long at the Salk Institute and a second postdoc with Mark Estelle. She joined her department as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in 2015 before moving to her current role in 2019.
Dior describes “slim shady is a novel allele of PHYTOCHROME B present in the T-DNA line SALK_015201”, which was published in Plant Direct last year. We also discuss the ways in which the already precarious position of the pre-tenure faculty member with kids was exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. We talk about the limitations of giving pre-tenure faculty an extra year to tenure, the challenges of a dual professor couple, and what institutions could be doing–but typically AREN’T–to support young faculty. We hope this conversation helps move us towards solutions both specific to the challenges of the pandemic, but also to more general challenges of young families on the tenure track.
Show Notes:
Linkan Dash , Robert E McEwan , Christian Montes, Ludvin Mejia, Justin W Walley, Brian P Dilkes, Dior R Kelley. slim shady is a novel allele of PHYTOCHROME B present in the T-DNA line SALK_015201. Plant Direct (2021) 5:e00326.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34136747/
Eminem-The Real Slim Shady
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJO5HU_7_1w
Ben Barres video about giving tenure at hiring (start around 3:45) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be0KULrnD6E
Laura Helen Petersen substack “The Expanding Job”. https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-expanding-job
Twitter Handles:
Dior Kelley Twitter @KelleyDior
Liz Haswell Twitter @ehaswell
Ivan Baxter Twitter @baxtertwi
Taproot Podcast Twitter @taprootpodcast -
In this episode, our guest is Aman Husbands. Aman is originally from Canada and got his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto. After completing his PhD at the University of California Riverside, he moved to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. In 2018, he moved to The Department of Molecular Genetics at the Ohio State University where he is an Assistant Professor. Aman’s research group focuses on uncovering the properties that allow complex biological processes, like development, to occur reproducibly.
Aman shares the story behind a recent publication from his lab entitled “Identifying Cancer-Relevant Mutations in the DLC START Domain Using Evolutionary and Structure-Function Analyses” by Holub et al. 2020 in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. He describes how his lab was able to identify new funding opportunities outside of plant sciences--and the different cultures of cancer research.
We talk about why it is important to tune in to the projects you enjoy doing and discuss the responsibilities PI’s have to their labs and the people that come next. Aman says that it is important to deliberately create an atmosphere within the lab, clearly communicate priorities, and foster collaboration and communication with the group. We also talk about the value of connecting with and getting feedback from those outside your immediate research area.
Aman also shares some of the ways he is working to address racism and equality, both on individual and systemic levels.
A transcript of this episode was generously provided by Jo Stormer http://bit.ly/S5E5_Taproot
Holub AS, Bouley RA, Petreaca RC, Husbands AY. Identifying Cancer-Relevant Mutations in the DLC START Domain Using Evolutionary and Structure-Function Analyses. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2020; 21(21):8175. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21218175
Community TV show pizza fire GIF http://gph.is/VwCaKS
Aman's Email: [email protected]
Twitter Handles
@AmanHusbands
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast -
This week’s podcast is a conversation with Dr. Kevin Cox. Kevin earned his PhD at Texas A&M University before returning to his hometown of St Louis, Missouri to do a postdoc with Blake Meyers at The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Kevin has won numerous awards and grants and was recently awarded an HHMI Hanna H. Gray fellowship.
We talk about Kevin’s work “TAL effector driven induction of a SWEET gene confers susceptibility to bacterial blight of cotton” by Cox et al. 2017 in Nature Communications. He tells us about the molecular mechanisms of bacterial blight on cotton as well as the technologies and collaborations that made this work possible.
Kevin shares his path to plant science and how his exposure to new courses and research experiences led him to a career studying plant pathology. We talk about how he now uses multiple online and in-person platforms to share his passion and bridge communication gaps between the science community and the public. We also talk about how the pandemic has affected Kevin’s work as a postdoc and how he was able to balance work responsibilities while supporting his young daughter’s sudden online schooling during the early stages of the pandemic.
A transcript for this episode was generously provided by Jo Stormer http://bit.ly/S5E4_KC
Cox, K., Meng, F., Wilkins, K. et al. TAL effector driven induction of a SWEET gene confers susceptibility to bacterial blight of cotton. Nat Commun 8, 15588 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15588
Kevin's YouTube Channel @Bioguy
Kevin's Twitch Account @Bioguy
Twitter Handles
@K_Bioguy_Cox
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast -
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Thelma Madzima, Assistant Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Washington, Bothell. A native of Zimbabwe, she received her Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Florida and went on to complete a postdoc with Karen McGinnis in the Department of Biological Science at Florida State University. Her research currently focuses on epigenetic regulation of gene expression in plants using maize (Zea mays) as a model organism.
We talk with Thelma about her recent publication in G3 “Epigenetic Regulation of ABA-Induced Transcriptional Responses in Maize”, complete citation. She tells us about characterising a specific epigenetic pathway in maize and how this work identified transposons that induce specific DNA methylations. Perhaps not unexpectedly, she and her authors found that plants that were “pre-stressed” by the loss of epigenetic silencing were also more likely to.
Thelma talks about living in the US epicentre of the pandemic and how she is coping with the new “normal” as a Professor at a primarily undergraduate institute. She discusses the setbacks that the pandemic have created for tenure track professors, including those that are specific to PUIs. Additionally, as an immigrant from Zimbabwe, she knows firsthand the hardships an immigrant student faces and what recentchanges have meant to international students. As one of the few Black professors working in academic plant molecular biology in the US, she discusses the changes that need to come about in order to encourage the inclusion of black scientists in the scientific community.
A transcript for this episode was generously provided by Jo Stormer http://bit.ly/S5E3_TM
Vendramin S, Huang J, Crisp PA, Madzima TF, McGinnis KM (2020) Epigenetic Regulation of ABA-Induced Transcriptional Responses in Maize. G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics 10: 1727-1743
Twitter Handles
@thelma_madzima
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast -
This week’s podcast is a conversation with Dr. Adán Colón-Carmona, Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Adán received his PhD from the University of California, Irvine and he did postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute and at the University of California, Davis. His research currently focuses on plant rhizosphere interactions, abiotic stress response, and cell cycle.
We talk with Adán about a recent publication in the Journal of Experimental Botany - “Influence of Arabidopsis thaliana accessions on rhizobacterial communities and natural variation in root exudates” (Micallef et al., 2009). He explains that different accessions of Arabidopsis, even when grown in the same starting soil, eventually have unique bacterial communities, and discusses why he thinks their exudates may be the reason.
As a Mexican-born immigrant to the USA, Adán describes how the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) has positively impacted his life. Additionally, he points out the value of multiculturalism. He explains how he has relied on his own multiple identities to empathize with, teach, and mentor students whose lives have become increasingly challenging during the COVID lockdowns.
A transcript for this episode was generously provided by Jo Stormer http://bit.ly/TaprootS5E2_Transcript
Adán's email: [email protected]
@AColonCarmona Adán's Twitter
https://www.sacnas.org
@ehaswell Elizabeth’s Twitter
@baxtertwi Ivan’s Twitter
@taprootpodcast Taproot Twitter
Micallef SA, Shiaris MP, Colón-Carmona A (2009) Influence of Arabidopsis thaliana accessions on rhizobacterial communities and natural variation in root exudates. Journal of Experimental Botany 60: 1729-1742 -
This week’s Taproot podcast episode is a conversation with Dr. Tanisha Williams A plant researcher, she was inspired this summer by the simultaneous rise of the pandemic and the civil uprising against police brutality to draw Black botanists together for a social media event called #BlackBotanistsWeek. Tanisha is an impressively accomplished early career researcher whose work has ranged from population genomics to the use of herbarium specimens to track climate induced changes in flowering phenology, all with a central thread of preserving plant diversity. She received her PhD from the University of Connecticut Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and now she is the David Burpee Postdoctoral Fellow in the Conservation, Genetics, and Ecology & Evolution of Plant Reproduction Group at Bucknell University. Currently, Tanisha works with Dr. Chris Martine on rare Pennsylvanian plant conservation, Australian Solanum taxonomy, and the way the Martu people of Australia interact with plants.
Tanisha takes us on an inspiring journey through her research projects. She has persevered despite numerous setbacks, including those we are all familiar with like the pandemic, and those that are more specific to her experience, such as the dangers of spending time in nature while black and the lack of BIPOC representation in academia. Her social media campaign to provide black plant-lovers with a space to connect and share experiences quickly went viral when it first launched in July and has since expanded into a free virtual lecture series to highlight the work of black botanists. The series is called “Growing Black Roots: The Black Botanical Legacy,” and is hosted virtually by the Holden Arboretum every second Wednesday until September 2021.
A transcript for this episode was generously provided by Jo Stormer http://bit.ly/TaprootS5E1_Transcript
Tanisha’s website: https://naturesplasticity.weebly.com/research.html
@t_marie_wms Tanisha’s Instagram and Twitter
Beronda’s website and blog: http://www.berondamontgomery.com/reflect/my-black-botanical-legacy/
@BerondaM Beronda’s Twitter
@ehaswell Elizabeth’s Twitter
@baxtertwi Ivan’s Twitter
@taprootpodcast Taproot Twitter
Link to Holden Arboretum Black Botanists Lecture Series https://holdenarb.org/visit/events-lectures/scientist-lecture/
Join the Black Botanist’s Week community:
#BlackBotanistsWeek
https://blackbotanistsweek.weebly.com/
A story on Dr. Tiffany Knight’s work: https://source.wustl.edu/2013/02/walking-in-the-footsteps-of-19th-and-20thcentury-naturalists-scientists-find-battered-plantpollinator-network/
Burkle, L.A., Marlin, J.C. and T.M. Knight. 2013. Plant-Pollinator Interactions over 120 Years: Loss of Species, Co-Occurrence and Function. Science 339: 1611-1615. -
It has been quite a few months since our last episode! We intended to have a new season out by now, but as you might imagine, a few things got in the way. We are, however, back to working on topics and guests for Season 5 so stay tuned for new episodes this Fall!
In the meantime, we want to hear from you! Tell us how you're navigating these chaotic and unusual times. Or... if what you're doing can't really be characterized as navigating, tell us about that instead!
Let us know how you're trying to work right now, how you're navigating the next step in your career, or how the renewed attention on systemic racism in science and the world around us has affected you.
We're planning on playing a few of these in every episode. So tell us a little bit about yourself by recording a short voicemail on your phone and email it to us at [email protected].
We look forward to hearing from you!
Be sure to listen to our previous seasons while you wait and stay tuned
How to listen, download and subscribe to The Taproot podcast.
Questions, feedback, suggestions? Contact us at [email protected].
Follow us on Twitter
@TaprootPodcast
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi -
In the final episode of Season 4, we talk with Todd Barkman, Professor of Biology at Western Michigan University. Todd earned his PhD in Botany at the University of Texas at Austin with Beryl Simpson, and went on to a postdoc position at Penn State with Claude dePamphilis. He started his lab at Western Michigan in 2000, where his group studies the systematics and evolution of plants, as well as the molecular evolution of biosynthetic pathways.
We talk with Todd about his lab’s publication, “Convergent evolution of caffeine in plants by co-option of exapted ancestral enzymes” which was published in PNAS in 2016. Todd tells us the story behind the paper, how flowering plants evolved to make caffeine, and how he became interested in this topic.
Todd describes what it is like to work at an “R2, or Research 2” institution such as Western Michigan, where it is important to succeed as both an instructor and as a researcher, and where resources for the latter are modest compared to “R1” institutions. We talk about the pros and cons of this environment, and how to accomplish research goals with limited funds and time. Todd talks about the importance and limitations of collaborations and closes with advice and encouragement for early career scientists considering a career at an R2 or R3 institution. He also advocates for a less deliberate and more open-ended style of experimental planning, and acknowledges the power of serendipity in his work.
Huang, R., O’Donnell, A. J., Barboline, J. J., & Barkman, T. J. (2016). Convergent evolution of caffeine in plants by co-option of exapted ancestral enzymes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(38), 10613-10618.
Taproot S4E1: Identifying the Principle Components: Gender Dimorphism in Flowers and Consciously Building a Happy and Rewarding Career in Science http://bit.ly/38QivyY
Todd's email: [email protected]
Twitter Handles
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast -
This episode, we continue our discussions about cultivating a career with guest Kelly Gillespie, Nursery Solutions Lead at Bayer Crop Science. Kelly got her bachelor's degree at Knox College, a small liberal arts college in Illinois. She then moved on to do a PhD with Lisa Ainsworth at the University of Illinois. She did a short postdoc with Dick Sayre at the Danforth Center before moving to Monsanto, where she has worked for 9 years, staying with the company through the merger with Bayer.
We talk with Kelly about her publication, “Greater antioxidant and respiratory metabolism in field‐grown soybean exposed to elevated ozone under both ambient and elevated CO2”, which was published in 2011 in Plant Cell & Environment. She talks about what it was like to work at the USDA Free Air Concentration Enrichment (FACE) site, the teamwork that was needed to collect her data, and how this experience taught her to work in highly collaborative environments.
Kelly also shares her career journey and the factors she considered when choosing to make the transition from academia to industry. Kelly emphasizes a “milestone-based” approach, where each decision is broken into small steps and evaluated at checkpoints along the way. She talks about what it takes to succeed in a science career in industry, what might be familiar and what might be surprising to someone with an academic background, and emphasizes the value of making connections with other professionals.
SHOW NOTES:
Gillespie, K. M., Xu, F., Richter, K. T., Mcgrath, J. M., Markelz, R. C., Ort, D. R., ... & Ainsworth, E. A. (2012). Greater antioxidant and respiratory metabolism in field‐grown soybean exposed to elevated O3 under both ambient and elevated CO2. Plant, Cell & Environment, 35(1), 169-184.
Join ASPB http://bit.ly/PCASPBMembership
Plantae Webinar: Ask Me Anything: Plant Science Careers in Industry http://bit.ly/IndustryCareer_Seminar
The Awesomest Seven Year Postdoc http://bit.ly/2Os6mbp
Plantae Webinar: Prioritization and Work / Life Balance: Do Less, Work Better http://bit.ly/2vMYrit
Plantae Mentoring Center - Sign up to be a mentor or mentee http://bit.ly/395XWOT
Kelly’s LinkedIn Profile http://bit.ly/3b8bVWh
Twitter Handles
@kmgillespie
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast -
Our guest for this episode is Dr. Holly Bik. Holly obtained her PhD in Molecular Phylogenetics at the University of Southampton, working with John Lambshead at the Natural History Museum of London in conjunction with the UK National Oceanography Center. She completed postdoctoral appointments with Dr. Kelley Thomas at the University of New Hampshire and Dr. Jonathan Eisen at UC Davis before starting her faculty position.
In addition to her research, Holly is invested in science communication. She serves as an associate editor for the popular marine blog Deep-Sea News and maintains an active presence on Twitter (@hollybik). Holly has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed articles on the use of social media and online tools in academia, including “An Introduction to Social Media for Scientists” in PLoS Biology and “Ten Simple Rules for Effective Online Outreach” in PLoS Computational Biology.
In this episode, we discuss the first paper to come out of Holly’s lab at UC Riverside , entitled “Nematode-associated microbial taxa do not correlate with host phylogeny, geographic region or feeding morphology in marine sediment habitats” (Schuelke et al., 2018). Holly elaborates on the unexpected results from this paper and talks about the many challenges associated with collecting and analyzing marine sediments.
In addition to the technical aspects of this paper, we also talk about time management and how Holly set aside time to write a draft in one week. She tells us about her 6-month-long personal work/life balance experiment in time-tracking and shares what she learned from this experience. We discuss the concept of Deep Work and why she continues to fill out weekly review worksheets to help manage stress and productivity.
At the time of this recording, Holly was in the process of moving her lab from UC Riverside to The University of Georgia where she is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences. We talk about the process of moving and the factors Holly considered when making this important career decision.
Holly explains that it's important for early career researchers to understand how long things take, and also be okay with the fact that some things are just going to take way longer than you expect.
SHOW NOTES:
Paper:
Schuelke, T., Pereira, T. J., Hardy, S. M., & Bik, H. M. (2018). Nematode‐associated microbial taxa do not correlate with host phylogeny, geographic region or feeding morphology in marine sediment habitats. Molecular Ecology, 27(8), 1930-1951.
A few of Holly’s Twitter threads:
Data-driven time management
https://twitter.com/hollybik/status/1133750210331496450
Concept of ‘deep work’
https://twitter.com/hollybik/status/1133751166091685888?s=20
Work life balance:
https://twitter.com/hollybik/status/1133751739599876106?s=20
The Monday Motivator - weekly emails that provides positive energy, good vibes, and a productivity tip from the National Center of Faculty Development and Diversity
Cal Newport (author of Deep Work) https://www.calnewport.com/about/
@hollybik
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast -
In this episode, we talk with Laura Klasek who is a Plant Biology Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California, Davis about her research and experiences as a graduate student.
Laura received her undergraduate degree from Hendrix College, where she double-majored in Biology and English with a creative writing focus. She was a 2018-2019 ASPB Conviron Scholar, is currently serving as a Plantae Community Network Leader for the Student Space Network, and is an Early Career Representative for the ASPB Plant Biology Program committee.
For her dissertation, Laura is examining how the photosynthetic apparatus of the chloroplast develops. She is specifically interested in how proteins are targeted and folded within the chloroplast to facilitate improvements in how efficiently plants use light, water, and nutrients.
Laura began her graduate studies in 2014 with Dr. Kentaro Inoue. In August 2016 - two weeks before Laura’s qualifying exams - Dr. Inoue tragically died in a traffic accident. The sudden loss of her advisor at a time when many graduate students already question whether to continue forced Laura to actively make difficult decisions about her career in a stressful and unexpected environment.
In this episode, Laura shares how she navigated her situation with honesty. We discuss graduate student agency and how options are not unlimited. We talk about how it is important to work through the panic when our experiments and careers do not go as planned and how to decide if something is salvageable or if it is time to walk away. Finally, Laura suggests ways in which graduate programs and universities might help students by having systems already in place that provide support when faculty are sick, moving, or otherwise suddenly unavailable to mentor and to provide financial stability.
SHOW NOTES:
View From the Trenches - Advice if your PhD Advisor Unexpectedly Dies by Laura Klasek
Hope is not a Strategy - Designing an IDP for a graduate program by Laura Klasek
Plantae Webinar with Katie Murphy and Laura Klasek
All aboard the mentor-ship: making and using an Individual Development Plan
Follow on Twitter
@EBibliophile
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast -
In the previous episode, we talked with Dr. Scott Barolo about his research and shared tips for completing written graduate school applications. In this episode, we go to the next step, following up with Scott to discuss what to do once you’ve made it to the interviews.
Scott shares tips for how to excel at interviews and offers advice for prospective students to help them make their own evaluations during the process. We talk about how interviews work both ways--you are interviewing the school as much as they are interviewing you--and how to ask the right questions to determine if a particular university, lab or program is the right fit. We leave students with a list of questions to ask that will help them gain a better understanding of lab culture, possibilities, and expectations.
Whether you are a prospective student, a faculty member involved in admissions, or just want more insight into a process that can be pretty opaque--this episode is for you!
A transcript for this episode generously provided by Joe Stormer can be found here: https://bit.ly/3ubuCSu
SHOW NOTES:
Barolo Lab website: https://www.barololab.net/
Should you go to grad school? (Via Plantae) https://plantae.org/blog/should-you-go-to-grad-school-from-science-careers/
Plantae Mentoring Center
https://jobs.plantae.org/ementor/index.cfm
@sbarolo
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast -
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Scott Barolo about how he made a popular board game into a teaching tool, and we start a two-part discussion about the grad school application process.
Scott gained his BSc at Penn State University and his Ph.D. in biology at the University of California, San Diego. He was then a postdoctoral fellow at the same university and started his lab in 2003 at the University of Michigan Medical School. Scott’s lab studies transcriptional pathways, repressors, and enhancers in Drosophila melanogaster. He has been the director of the graduate training Program in Biological Sciences (PIBS) since 2012. He is also a co-founder of the “9 Reply Guys” - inspired by #MeTooSTEM - where he humorously categorizes unconstructive Twitter behavior of men/women into 9 types.
In this episode, we discuss a publication with Amy Strom, who was then an undergraduate student, titled “Using the Game of Mastermind to Teach, Practice, and Discuss Scientific Reasoning Skills”, published in PLOS One in 2011. We discuss how he “forced” his students to play this codebreaker game and how it helped them think about good experimental design, hypothesis testing, and biases.
This paper helped provide some insight into aspects of scientific design that are often not explicitly explained to trainees. In the same vein, we ask Scott to describe the process of applying to graduate school. We talk about the advantages of taking off a couple of years first and getting lab experience to see if graduate school is a good fit. We get into a time machine and recall our own applications and how not to randomly apply to universities and programs.
Scott says when he evaluates large stacks of applications, being an overachiever is great but the applications he remembers are from people who are different in some way. He recommends students to ‘show a bit of themselves’ in personal statements. They should not be afraid to share some of their out-of-academia interests either!
The conversation was so great we decided to split the episode into two sections so look out for the continuation in our next episode where Scott demystifies the interview process!
A transcript for this episode generously provided by Joe Stormer can be found here: https://bit.ly/3do5FNM
SHOW NOTES:
Strom, A.R. and Barolo, S., 2011. Using the game of mastermind to teach, practice, and discuss scientific reasoning skills. PLoS biology, 9(1), p.e1000578.
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000578
Barolo Lab website: https://www.barololab.net/
Should you go to grad school? (Via Plantae) https://plantae.org/blog/should-you-go-to-grad-school-from-science-careers/
Twitter link to 9 reply guys introduction: https://twitter.com/sbarolo/status/1036685010869407744
Twitter:
@9replyguys
@sbarolo
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast
#TaprootTuesday -
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Zen Faulkes about the graduate application process, what program directors are looking for and how hard it is (or indeed impossible) it is to have unbiased selection system.
Zen gained a B.A., Psychology at the University of Lethbridge in 1989 and a Ph.D. at the University of Victoria about sand crab digging behaviour in 1996. He was a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University until 1999, and then he was a postdoc at the University of Melbourne until 2001. He is currently a Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Zen writes the “Better Posters” blog, which dispenses advice on how to improve the posters we present at meetings.
In this episode, we discuss his publication, “Resolving authorship disputes by mediation and arbitration” in Research Integrity and Peer Review, and also his letter in Science titled “#GRExit's unintended consequences”. As graduate program coordinator, he talks about the pros and cons of GREs. Whilst universities are looking for “successful” people we have a chat about how we could define “success” to begin. Are assessments really consistent and reliable? Hm.
We talk through the whole graduate application process step-by-step from both the applicant’s and recruiter’s point of views. We chat about how to structure personal statements and what to expect during interviews but also keeping in mind that everyone is different and perhaps more introverted students might feel at a disadvantage.
Zen recommends students to ask program directors what competitive applications look like - they are very likely to give straight answers. While it is good to have a high GPA for a masters program, students really should get to know what the requirements and expectations are for different programs. Zen says, “If you inspire to go to graduate school, you have to be proactive thinking about what your opportunities are.”
We leave students with a final piece of advice: every semester get to know one professor slightly better so at least you have a few people who know more about you. Asking for advice from professors and program directors can make graduate school application a whole lot smoother!
A transcript for this episode generously provided by Joe Stormer can be found here: https://bit.ly/3bpBjb5
SHOW NOTES:
Faulkes, Z., 2018. Resolving authorship disputes by mediation and arbitration. Research integrity and peer review, 3(1), p.12.
https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-018-0057-z
GRE exit - does not predict “success” - Letter in Science
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6425/356.2
Better posters site
http://betterposters.blogspot.com/
Blog:
https://neurodojo.blogspot.com
Free pdf: https://faculty.utrgv.edu/zen.faulkes/Presentation_tips.pdf
Twitter:
@DoctorZen
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast
#TaprootTuesday -
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Ambika Kamath, a behavioral ecologist and a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, about her undergraduate research and how to make value-based career decisions.
Ambika is originally from India and gained her B.A. in Biology at Amherst College in 2011. She received the Schupf Scholarship at Amherst which provided unlimited funding for her independent research on the evolution of flower morphology. She completed her Ph.D. at Harvard University studying the behavioral ecology of lizards. As a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, she received a Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship. Earlier this year she was awarded the 2019 American Society of Naturalists’ Young Investigator Award.
In this episode, we discuss her publication, “Floral size and shape evolution following the transition to gender dimorphism” which was the outcome of her undergraduate research. She shares how her interest in mathematics led her to ecology, how much she enjoyed the fieldwork, and statistics behind the paper.
Picking her graduate school was not a ‘no brainer decision’ so she talked to her supervisors, and made a list of things that she wanted before even having opportunities. This proactive decision system - instead of a reactive one - helped her choosing her graduate school and deciding to continue in academia as a postdoc.
Ambika also talks about how helpful therapy was in her last year of graduate school and she shares some of the values she used when deciding to pursue a postdoc. We discuss how ‘sitting with your feelings’ is probably the best advice to everyone deciding on their career choices - it is hard to formulate general advice for everyone but list making is a great first step! Finally, Ambika shares some advice for established researchers who want to encourage trainees to stay in science.
We leave you with the best advice she has ever received:
"You are really good at being you, and you've gotten to where you are by being you. Just keep being you, there's no reason to stop now."
A transcript of this episode generously provided by Joe Stormer can be found here: https://bit.ly/3scjp2q
SHOW NOTES:
Paper: Kamath, A., Levin, R.A. and Miller, J.S., 2017. Floral size and shape evolution following the transition to gender dimorphism. American Journal of Botany, 104(3), pp.451-460. https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3732/ajb.1600442
Ambika’s blog: https://ambikamath.wordpress.com/blog/
@ambikamath
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi
@taprootpodcast
#TaprootTuesday -
This season’s theme is “Cultivating a Career”, and we’ll talk about this from both sides--ideas and advice for your own career AND for helping the careers of others.
Be sure to listen to our previous seasons while you wait and stay tuned!
Follow us on Twitter:
@taprootpodcast
@ehaswell
@baxtertwi - Show more
