Grad News Forum

Everywhere researchers go, be it a conference, a job interview, or simply meeting a colleague in the hallway, people ask the obvious question: “So tell me about your work?” It goes without saying that the ability of researchers to describe their research in lay language efficiently is one of the most important skills to be acquired, regardless of the field of research.

On Monday, April 29, assistant dean of Graduate Student Affairs, Kerry Landers, initiated a speed researching event aimed at developing students’ communication skills. In this event, students were expected to explain their research to their smart, but not expert, colleagues in only two minutes!

“We have received feedback from faculty who attended the recent Graduate Poster Session and were impressed with many of our graduate students’ ability to explain their research to non-experts,” notes Landers. “The goal of this speed researching event was to provide another opportunity for graduate students to continue to improve this essential skill.”

At the event, a total of 10 students explained their research to each other in pairs over lunch, followed by a two-minute constructive comments session. Students came from programs in biology, chemistry, engineering, genetics, MALS, and physics and astronomy. A wide range of research topics were discussed, including black holes, prion diseases, and the causes of the Arab Spring. Each student had the opportunity to present his or her research five times, providing plenty of practice.

“This event was great! I now know what other students in genetics, engineering, and chemistry do,” commented Daniel Durcan, a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies student, who also serves as the graduate student activities coordinator. Durcan continued, “The clarity for the presentations was very impressive. I thought it was a great opportunity to practice explaining my research to students from other disciplines.”

The event was somewhat similar to the Three-Minute Research Presentation sessions held by the Graduate Studies Office in the past. However, there is a subtle difference in emphasis between the two events. The Three-Minute Research Presentation sessions involve a single three-minute talk and aim to improve public speaking skills. On the other hand, “speed researching” aims to help students present their research swiftly to several people—a skill they will need at job fairs or conferences. Such a skill is crucial in a competitive academic environment.

Speed researching is, indeed, very helpful and from the looks of it, a very successful idea. Please keep your eyes open for the second speed researching event!

by Gilbert Rahme

For Princeton University professor and former US State Department official, Anne-Marie Slaughter, it has been a busy year. Her manifesto chronicling the struggle of today’s professional women attempting to achieve work-life balance, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All” (July 2012), quickly became the Atlantic’s most viewed article of all time (The Colbert Report interview, July 16, 2012). Professor Slaughter’s article is credited, along with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandburg’s Lean In, with reinvigorating the debate about gender equality in the new millennium.

On April 3^rd, the same day she was announced as president of the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy think tank, Professor Slaughter spoke to a standing room only crowd at the Tuck School of Business. Her lecture was a part of the Leading Voices in Higher Education series, which developed out of strategic planning efforts early last year, with the goal of bringing leading scholars and authors to Dartmouth.

For the first half of her talk, Professor Slaughter presented the range of reactions she has received for her Atlantic piece. Not surprisingly, they generally group into two major categories: positive, in the form of gratitude for addressing the challenges that career women face, and negative, broadly that she is “setting back the women’s movement” and “reversing what we have gained.” A third reaction category that Professor Slaughter discussed is that which she receives from men, specifically, from fathers. Either these men are disheartened to see their high-achieving daughters start to struggle with work-life balance, or, they are young men saying that due to social stigma and societal pressures, “men can’t have it all either.” For example, if a woman leaves work early to care for a child, it is expected. However, if a man leaves, he is perceived as not committed to the job, and is “not really a guy.”

Over half of all people receiving bachelor’s degrees in the United States today are women. Overall, the numbers are similar for those earning advanced degrees. Despite these advances, women remain under-represented in high-ranking jobs. For example, according to Professor Slaughter, there are only 21 female CEOs amongst the Fortune 500 companies. Furthermore, the number of women leaving the workforce after having a second child is the same today as it was 20 years ago. Knowing and understanding the challenges is only a part of the battle. In the second half of her lecture, Professor Slaughter addressed how we might continue to strive toward true gender equality moving forward. Her mantra centered around three major things: paid leave, good day care, and flextime.

In addition, Professor Slaughter stressed the importance of valuing breadwinners and caregivers, as well as individual time spent in each capacity. Our society was designed with the notion that one person, typically the woman, would be the caregiver, and one, typically the man, would be the breadwinner. However, with 70% of woman in the workforce, that model no longer applies. Professor Slaughter suggests that instead of dividing roles by gender, couples should instead consider additional factors, such as which partner earns a higher salary, has a career they can leave and more easily return to, works with a more understanding employer, etc.

Professor Slaughter addressed the importance of giving men, as well as women, more options, and told the audience that if taking time out to start a family, “don’t drop out, defer.” She acknowledged that some careers are more amenable to this than others, but said it is important to “stay in the game” in some capacity during any time away. Finally, she ended her lecture with two thoughts. First, that her work, and management, style has always been that “Family comes first. If family comes first, work does not come second. Life comes together.” And second, that as a society, we all need to slow down, stressing the importance of nourishing our souls, whether that be with family or something else, as we move along in our careers.

The academic lifestyle was discussed in detail during the question session following the lecture. Professor Slaughter emphasized that the academic life affords a level of flexibility in time management that is not easily accessible to all careers. Her husband is also a professor at Princeton University. When specifically asked, she said that the best time for career women to have kids is 30-35 years old, one of her reasons being that an “independent me” is a good idea before bringing people into the world. If not possible, she suggested that freezing eggs is an alternative, since fertility issues can be devastating.

Furthermore, academic institutions are beginning to make changes. For example, Princeton University automatically awards both men and women an extra year on the tenure clock after the birth of a child. However, as a current graduate student myself, it is hard to imagine that the demands of a functioning scientific research lab—advising graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, writing grant renewals, teaching, publishing manuscripts, etc.—could easily pause for any stretch of time. This idea gets back to the core of Professor Slaughter’s lecture, which is that gender equality and work-life balance issues are bigger than individual institutions. Overall, we need to create more affordable, flexible day care options, redesign the workplace, include men in all discussions, and value caregiving as a society. Only then, can we truly begin to have it all.

You can find Professor Slaughter’s Leading Voices in Higher Education lecture online.

by Jeanine Amacher

The Graduate Forum would like to congratulate Morgan Thompson on her recent publication in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, Volume 20, Issue 1. Thompson, who defended her dissertation this fall in biochemistry, collaborated on the article with Ernest Heimsath, Timothy Gauvin, and Professor Henry Higgs, all of the Department of Biochemistry, and Dean Jon Kull of both the Department of Biochemistry and the Department of Chemistry.

At Dartmouth, Thompson conducted research on proteins related to cell structure. She used a technique called X-ray crystallography to generate images of protein structures that are too small to see with even the most powerful microscope. Specifically, Thompson was interested in interactions between actin and formins, two proteins involved in facilitating cell movement. Actin molecules combine to form rigid filaments that give shape to cells, and formin molecules interact with actin to control actin filament growth.

In their recent article, Thompson and her collaborators investigated how formins promote actin filament elongation. Their work represents only the second example of a formin bound to actin visualized through crystallography, and the structure they modeled was probably closer to the way the proteins interact in nature than what has previously been observed. The process of crystallizing proteins to create structural images can cause them to act in ways that they would not naturally, explains Thompson, so it can be complicated to get images of physiological interactions. Research on the interaction of these proteins is significant because it increases our understanding of how cells change shape to move throughout the body, which is important for understanding various diseases, such as cancer.

One of Thompson’s main interests while at Dartmouth was in teaching, both undergraduates and younger students. She was a teaching assistant for four terms, for which she won the Graduate Teaching Award. Thompson also taught science to sixth graders in Enfield, New Hampshire, as part of a National Science Foundation Graduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in K-12 Education (GK-12) fellowship. In addition, Thompson led labs in several local fourth grade classrooms on the importance of hand washing, after her mother, a local fourth grade teacher, asked for her help in explaining germs to her students.

Thompson found spending time in the classroom especially rewarding—she recalls the thank you notes that she received from students after she had visited their classes. “One student even wrote me that it was the best day of his life!” she recalls. While she found her work in the lab very interesting, it was this time working with students and witnessing their developing interest in science that Thompson found particularly meaningful. She also feels that it is extremely important for Dartmouth, an institution with such a variety of resources, to contribute to the surrounding community.

As a result of her experiences, Thompson decided to pursue a career in teaching. She now works as a high school teacher at the Pingry School in New Jersey, where she teaches biology to students in ninth and tenth grade and a course in molecular biology methods to eleventh and twelfth graders. She enjoys her job, and, in particular, is excited that she can teach complex molecular methods to her students. Thompson notes that the methods she is teaching her juniors and seniors are “the same ones I used in my lab at Dartmouth.”

Thompson feels that her experiences as a graduate student at Dartmouth prepared her well for her new position in that she was able to develop her teaching skills as well as work on her research. She is grateful to the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL) for the teaching support that they provided, as well as to her advisor, Dean Kull, who always encouraged her in all of her teaching and outreach endeavors. Having her dissertation work published in Nature is a satisfying culmination to her graduate career, and Thompson is eager to continue working with students to encourage others to be excited about science.

by Elizabeth Molina-Markham

The final seminar in the Graduate Studies series, “Becoming a Faculty Member,” was held on February 15. Two graduate alumni came back to Dartmouth to give their advice on how to successfully obtain an academic job: Allan Weatherwax, professor of physics and the dean of science at Siena College, and Rose Finn, associate professor and department head of physics and astronomy at Siena College. Both are on the selection board for new hires for the science fields at Siena College and have useful knowledge about how to get an academic job.

Before the Interview:

Before you even arrive for the interview, make sure you “do your homework” and that you “know where you are applying,” advised Professor Finn. You should know which faculty members you will be meeting with and read up on their research. Another extremely important point is to understand the type of institution where you are interviewing—is it a small college or a large university? Even before you step foot on the campus, you should come prepared with a research plan that is tailored to that school, commented Professor Weatherwax. Do not make the mistake of asking for resources that are not in line with the size and type of institution where you are interviewing because this shows that you did not do proper research before applying for the job.

During the Interview:

During the academic interview, you will be asked about your past research and what you would like to do for future research. You also may be given a topic in your field to give a sample lecture on. It is important to prepare extensively for these questions and lecture and to be able to clearly convey your research and ideas. Keep in mind that you may be discussing your research and techniques with people who are not in your field of study, so do not rely heavily on technical terms and phrases. During the formal, question-and-answer interview process, Professors Weatherwax and Finn agreed that you should remain humble. When it comes time to meet one-on-one with faculty, use the knowledge you have learned about each faculty member and do not be afraid to “ask people about themselves,” remarked Professor Finn. Being genuinely interested in your interviewer and their work is an easy way to be remembered.

When an Offer Has Been Made:

Once an offer has been made, it is time to negotiate, explained Professors Weatherwax and Finn. Have previous knowledge of the salary range of the position (either by asking directly or through the school’s human resources department). You can also ask for additional research start-up funds. If the salary or start-up funds cannot be negotiated, Professor Weatherwax explained that negotiating for use of equipment is your next step. Another issue to negotiate during this time is the job of your spouse/partner. While some schools cannot hire multiple family members in the same department due to institution rules, certain arrangements may be made for a spouse to become an adjunct or a three-quarter-time faculty member, depending on the situation.

In conclusion, in order to be a great candidate for an academic faculty position, acquire a postdoc (or two!), be prepared to discuss your research and future research plans in detail, research the department and faculty members at the new institution, and do not be afraid to negotiate once you have an offer.

by Molly Croteau

Interview “Do”

For the past several years, you have worn jeans and a t-shirt to the lab. With the exception of a graduate student social, you have not had an occasion to dress up. Now, however, you have an interview for a job in industry. What do you wear?

What you wear to the interview tells the interviewer a lot about you. Graduate students who want to make the jump from academia to industry must convince the employer that they can make the cultural transition. The first sign of your ability to do this will be in how you present yourself. Dressing in clothes that are not business appropriate conveys to the interviewer that you do not know what is expected in the business world, and, perhaps, you are not ready to leave academia.

When you realize you will be job searching, it’s a good idea to shop for interview clothes. Today, typical business dress is a blue or black suit that fits well. These colors convey seriousness and trust. Depending on the industry, it is generally acceptable for women to wear pants to the interview. However, for more conservative industries, a skirt is necessary.

Interview “Do”

While female characters on TV shows wear skirts short enough to make you blush . . . choosing a skirt for a real-life interview means buying one that falls not shorter than one inch above the knee. Anything shorter, and the focus will not be on your interview.

As for shoes, women can wear a two-inch leather heeled shoe, but not Sex and the City stilettos. For both men and women, it’s a good idea to practice walking around in your interview shoes, since you will be walking around all day at the interview. I once interviewed a candidate who said she could not walk to another building on campus because her very high heels were not comfortable to walk in that far. Needless to say, we did not hire her.

Shirts worn under the suit jacket should be white, opaque, or cream. Ties for men should fit in with the rest of the suit. Jewelry for men and women should be limited to a few pieces and not be distracting, such as earrings that dangle when you move your head.

Interview “Don’t”

It’s natural to want to splash on some perfume or cologne for the interview, but hold off! Many people are sensitive to strong smelling scents, and they do not want to hire someone who overpowers their office with perfume. If you are a smoker, do not smoke a cigarette before you head in the door. While you should not wear perfume, women should wear make-up—mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, and lipstick. Again, some practice may be needed to avoid feeling like a made-up beauty contestant. Men need to have a clean shave. I sometimes get questions, such as, should I hide my tattoo or take out my nose ring? Yes, is the simple answer for most industries. Companies hire people who will fit into the culture, and being different can be perceived as being a bit rebellious.

Finally, as a precaution, bring a little sewing kit—the kind hotels leave in the room—just in case a button pops off at an inconvenient time.

Now you are ready for your industry interview.

by Kerry Landers

Graduate Studies wants to congratulate Ernest Heimsath on his new position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Ernest recently defended his dissertation in biochemistry in December, under the guidance of Professor Henry Higgs. He will be moving down to Bethesda, Maryland, in March to work as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Bechara Kachar in the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), focusing on the functioning of auditory cells.

Ernest grew up in both Texas and Virginia and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), where he was supported by the NIGMS-funded Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) program. While a junior at UTSA, he participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program—now the Academic Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (ASURE) program—at Dartmouth. He enjoyed working in the Department of Biological Sciences that summer and appreciated the friendly, open-door policy of Dartmouth faculty. Ernest notes that he chose Dartmouth for graduate school partly as a result of this positive experience, as well as out of a desire to get to know a new area of the country.

While at Dartmouth, Ernest’s research has focused on polymerization of the protein, actin, which is the basis for many cellular structures. In particular, actin helps form filopodia, which are protrusions some cells use to sense their environment and help them migrate throughout the body. In a recent article published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Volume 287, Issue 5, Ernest examined a particular type of formin, which are proteins that regulate actin polymerization. He discovered that one formin in particular, called FMNL3, has unique effects on actin dynamics, which help to explain its role in assembling filopodia.

Ernest met Dr. Kachar in 2011 at the American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting, after being inspired by his work on sensory neurons in the inner ear, which was recently featured in Cell Picture Show. Ernest’s work at the NIDCD will relate to his previous research in that these neurons contain structures called stereocilia, which share much of the same actin-based architecture as filopodia, although they can be orders of magnitude larger and also more stable. Once formed during development, stereocilia last throughout your entire life and do not regenerate. As stereocilia are directly responsible for hearing, and dysfunctions in many of the components within them are attributed to hearing disorders, Ernest is excited about the clinical relevancy of the work he will be doing.

Ernest observes that his experience in Professor Higgs’ lab has prepared him well for this next career move. He says that he will miss the sense of community in the lab, as well as the unique Dartmouth environment. Dartmouth professors, explains Ernest, are “approachable,” and “faculty really care about developing grad students.” They are “down-to-earth” and open to being corrected, which is conducive to productive learning and research. Overall, Ernest is very satisfied with his graduate experience and looking forward to getting to know another new area of the country as a postdoc.

We wish him the best in his new position!

by Elizabeth Molina-Markham

The Graduate Career Consortium (GCC) is proud to be sponsoring the first PhD and Master’s Career Fair exclusively for the GCC. Kerry Landers, the assistant dean of Graduate Studies and a member of the Consortium, is excited to sponsor this event. Through the Fair, graduate students, post-docs, and alumni have another job searching opportunity.

Applying for jobs is a daunting prospect. By this stage, we have probably all done it before, and it really does not get much easier. Sometimes we need that bit of help.

Here is where the PhD and Master’s Virtual Career Fair can help.  The fair opens on February 19^th. It provides you with the opportunity to meet and chat with potential employers online. The advantages here are numerous—you can ask any questions you want from the comfort of your room, lab, or the library. Moreover, you do not have to stand in line to meet representatives from organizations, neither do you have to worry about not getting to speak with everyone. The virtual career fair gives you the opportunities that physical career fairs bring, but with further convenience.

There will be over thirty organizations present over the duration of the fair. Online chat times vary. The earliest starts at 9 am, and the last ends at 7 pm. Check out the website for the full schedule and updates.  The PhD and Master’s Virtual Career Fair is a great opportunity to help you make the next move in your professional life. Landers, as your Assistant Dean, strongly recommends that you take part!

Register online now!

Many graduate students will one day go on to be professors in their own right. Gaining knowledge in the realm of teaching can be acquired through classes and overall graduate school experience. However, one skill that graduate students may not acquire during their studies is the ability to manage a successful lab. The Department of Microbiology and Immunology’s Professor George O’Toole discussed some helpful points related to lab management as a part of the “Becoming a Faculty Member” series on January 25.

Professor O’Toole made the comparison that “running a lab is like running a small business.” The revenue is your grant money, your products are papers, posters, and seminars, and it is important that your employees are happy. He stressed that in managing a successful lab, you need successful people. Don’t be afraid to choose students who will work well with your teaching and management style and that you know will be successful under your guidance. If conflict should arise or a student is not accomplishing what you think he or she should be, it is wise to clearly go over your lab expectations with that student and discuss how he or she can improve his or her performance to meet those expectations. Obtaining constant feedback from your students helps to improve your management of their graduate student careers.

Professor O’Toole warned seminar attendees that it is necessary to seek out training in lab management. There are no formal training courses, nor will someone explicitly sit you down and advise you on how to accomplish this task. He remarked that he was fortunate to have both graduate and postdoctoral advisors who taught him about lab management, but this is hardly the case for everyone. Professor O’Toole advised attendees to use their experiences now as graduate students to start planning how they would run their labs in the future. It is never too early to start thinking about the details—taking note of good and bad management strategies now will aid you in making better decisions later on.

Professor O’Toole finished his talk by emphasizing the importance of seeking help when it’s needed. He stressed how important it is to ask for advice as a young professor. Colleagues, as well as those in human resources and other university support services, can help you in managing your lab or even in writing grants to run a successful lab. You do not have to try to attempt a new and somewhat scary feat on your own; you just have to know how to ask for help!

by Molly Croteau

The second talk in the series “Becoming a Faculty Member” was as informative as the first. Professor Ron Taylor talked to a group of graduate students and postdocs about how to write an effective research paper, something that he and his lab have a lot of experience with.

The hardest part of writing is figuring out where to start. Professor Taylor suggested that writers start with the abstract, which will provide a general overview of what the paper will be about. He did mention that your ideas will probably change as you start writing the paper, but you can always adjust the abstract later. After developing the abstract, the next and most important aspect of writing is looking at the collected data. Professor Taylor suggested actually having the data physically in front of you, so that you can move it around and arrange it into a coherent story. Sometimes more experiments may need to be done before the story is complete. Do you have controls? Is everything labeled correctly? Do the results fit well with what the abstract says? Looking at the data in advance will allow the writer to determine how the paper should develop and what remains to be done.

The next important aspect of writing a paper is determining why other researchers would care about what you are writing. You will want to present your work in a way that interests others in the field and addresses an issue that they find compelling.

Professor Taylor also stressed the importance of remembering basic writing skills, such as making sure each paragraph has a topic sentence. You should correct spelling and grammar before sending the paper off to be read by your advisor—sometimes having a colleague read through the paper in advance can help.

A final consideration when writing a paper is deciding where you ultimately want to submit it. This may change the layout and content of the paper. Some scholars pick journals based on impact factor, while others may submit to a smaller journal, hoping that the paper will be published faster. As Professor Taylor noted, however, it is often worth taking a risk and submitting to a more prestigious journal because, “If you don’t play, you can’t win, and sometimes you can win.”

Overall, Professor Taylor offered a number of helpful pointers to aspiring graduate student and postdoc writers.

by Britney Tappen

Dean Kull’s presentation, “A Bad Talk about Giving Good Talks,” was hardly a bad talk. Instead, it was a well-organized presentation that provided helpful tips for successfully planning and giving a talk in any field. It was the first in a series of talks entitled, “Becoming a Faculty Member,” organized by the Graduate Studies Office here at Dartmouth. Dean Kull shared his experiences giving talks, and other audience members also shared, creating a relaxed and open environment.

Dean Kull stressed the importance of planning for your presentation. This preparation involves not only starting in advance, but also making sure that you have your presentation backed up in more than one place. He also stressed the importance of knowing your audience, which may become an issue when presenting across departments or fields of interest. Planning ahead allows time for practice. If possible, it may be helpful to practice in the same room in which you’ll be presenting—this provides a feeling of familiarity the day of the talk. Questions are a large part of giving a talk, and you should think about possible questions beforehand and prepare for them as much as possible.

Aesthetic considerations are also central. Dean Kull discussed slide design, advising that black text on a white background is generally a safe combination. It is often not a good idea to put too much text on a slide, but pictures may be useful. Also, be sensitive to the fact that someone in the audience may have color blindness, so try to use blue and yellow instead of red and green in figures and text. Animation is an option, and it can be very helpful if, for example, you want to show the steps of a process. Dean Kull also added that using the blackboard for demonstrations during a presentation could be very important, depending on the nature of the talk, and may give a job candidate an edge in some departments.

Dean Kull concluded with a discussion of what one should do after giving a talk. The main take-away message was to note what you can do better the next time and to consider others’ feedback on your presentation, always taking into account the particularities of context and audience, which may influence that feedback.

The ease with which he delivered his talk exemplifies that following the steps that Dean Kull provided will likely aid in preparing a successful presentation. Dean Kull and audience members also observed that “practice makes perfect,” and everyone agreed that the more you practice and give talks, the easier it will become.  Overall it was a great experience for everyone who attended!

by Britney Tappen