Finding the Ideal Lab for You

Prof. Steve ConollyUC Berkeley BioE & EECS

Berkeley/UCSF BioE Grad GroupBerkeley Head Graduate Advisor

Grad Choices are New• Undergrad choices: brought you here!

• What do I enjoy studying (major)?• Grad school vs. MD vs. real job

• Grad Choices: Set up career path– Passion: Engineering vs. Basic

science, vs. Clinical science?– Which research area excites you? – Who will mentor me?

• Choices impact career & salary!– Rotations allow experimentation– Align choices with career goals

Finding Ideal Lab for You (1 slide)

• 3 classes plus one rotation• Hundreds of funded GSR positions• Rotate once with cool-research PI • Weigh PI funding and style, too! • No herding into few hot groups• Rotations are competitive!

Diving into the Deep End

First, Some Convenient Truths

• How will I get paid?• How will I be mentored?

Who pays me?• 1st year paid by the Program• After year 1, your PI pays you• This works well for most students

• Worse in humanities (permanent teaching, few grants)

• Fellowships buy you autonomy

Prof. L. von Drake

How you will pay your rent

•GSR costs PI $50,000+/yr

•Your PI must have grant support to pay you

•Rotate with PI’s who have history of grant support!

Why is Fit So Important?• Students’ ideal goals:

– Harvard faculty job or $10M startup

• Profs’ ideal goals for you:– Get fundable data today

• Minor conflict is inevitable (but typically works out fine)

Prof. McGrumpy

What you already know you want in your PI

• Great research vision• 100-200 CV’s for each faculty job• All PI’s good (at research)

• Some grad students choose PI based only on research reputation

• Bad plan! Most unhappy students!

• Reputation is trendy & subjective (and extremely unreliable!)

• Necessary but not sufficient

Prof. Hotshot

Unreliable Metrics of Research Quality• Long CV• Titles • Regal Bearing (OMG!)• Jargon• Lots of publications (50 vs. 200)• High-Impact factor journal pubs (not

a factor in engineering)• Speaking ability (able to sell ice

cubes to someone in Arctic Circle)

• What impact will this work likely have in areas that matter to you!

Prof. Hotshot

What you should also want in a PI

• CTO: Great Research Vision • CEO: Stable 3-year funding• Chairman: Good networking: job leads• COO: Good management• No PI in the world can do all 4 roles well….and teach, too!

≠

Startup Burnrate ~$5,000,000/yr 6 GSR’s ~ $500,000/yr

Chairman

CEO

COO

CTO

A Few Traps to Avoid

• Student (self)-inflicted traps• Faculty-inflicted traps

Avoid Common Student Traps

Multiple self-inflicted nail gun head injury. S. Med. J. 100: 608-10.

Uncommon Trap

• “I can take 4 classes/semester and still ace my Rotations!” (Not!)

• “I will join Prof. Q’s lab, so my other rotations are fake.” (So dumb…)

• “Prof Y. is kind … so s/he must be a weaker researcher than Prof. Q.” (OMG!!)

• “I have firmly decided on Prof. Z, but s/he has no money.” (Be flexible!)

• “Three buddies joined Prof. Q’s lab so I will rotate too.” (No herding!)

• “I will do basic science PhD but get a job in engineering later.” (No plan!)

• “I will pioneer a nanowidget for Prof. Z, MD, who plans to use it clinically.” (Wrong mentor background!)

Avoid These (Rare) Faculty Traps!!

1. Permanent GSI: “Grant is certain to come in soon … but GSI for now!”

2. Hidden Treasure: “I have hidden grant funding but not for your project.”

3. Lose Your Rotations: “Rotate again and we can send your paper to Nature!!”

• Do all 3 rotations with 3 distinct PI’s who can fund your PhD

• Repeating a rotation is violation of Grad Group Policy!

How do you find your Ideal PI?

• Discover Your Passion– Engineering (better, faster, cheaper)– Basic Science (discover the unknown!)– Clinical Science (test new cures,

diagnostics)• Talk with PI’s about the “open

challenges” in their field• Which challenge excites you?• Check this with friends, family• Be aware we all deceive ourselves!

How do you find your Ideal PI?

• List faculty in your passion area• Ask senior students about style • Check on funding • Check with Rebecca or SarahJane• Narrow down to ~10• Ask PI’s about vision, rotation projects,

grants, former students’ jobs, duration

• Hundreds of GSR slots open • Be flexible!

Management questions for senior students

• "How often do you see your advisor?”• "What's PI’s management style?”• “Is your PI ever unreasonable?”• “Do students compete or collaborate?”• “Lab culture fun, fast, exciting?” • “Does PI help students get jobs?”• “What jobs do you get (industry,

academia, startup, Starbucks)?”

Money questions to ask senior students

• “Are any students forced to GSI more than once?”

• “Is the grant budget enough for travel, GSRs & for experiments?”

• “Are junior students asked to write group research grant proposals?”

Quiz #1• When is it OK to rotate twice with a

PI? a) If the PI asks all students to do thisb) If the PI is really famousc) If the PI really likes my researchd) The students are really cool & fune) None of the above

Diving into the Deep End

Read PhD Comics…funny

• PhD Comics Jorge Cham, PhD (ME, Stanford)

Same era as Dan Fletcher and Amy Herr

Summary• 3 classes plus one rotation• Put serious effort into the

rotation (competitive!)• Find out about PI’s Funding and

Management Track Record– Talk with senior grad students– Talk with HGA’s– Privately ask Rebecca & SJT

• Rotate only once with funded PI’s… do all 3 rotations to see all your options Diving into the Deep End

Just A Few Slides on Wily Tricks

• “Prof. Hotshot’s lab has 5 candidates for 1 GSR spot!! That is really competitive! Now you want me to risk angering the PI with annoying questions about management and funding!”

• But if you are passive now, you may waste years in the wrong group

Quiz #1• When is it OK to rotate with a PI

who has no grant support? a) If the PI is really nice.b) If the PI is really famousc) If the PI has really exciting research d) The students are really cool & fune) None of the above

Diving into the Deep End

Career path: Keep Your Options Open

• ~30,000 science and engineering PhDs per year

• ~15% get tenure at a major research university

• "The number of tenured and tenure-track scientists in biomedicine has not increased in the past two decades even as the number of doctorates granted has nearly doubled.”

R. Monastersky 2007