Government Research
Wenny
Lin
Career and professional development at the NIH
As a graduate student, I thought being a postdoc was a rather bad deal. On top of the bad pay, no retirement benefits, and the countless hours in the lab, postdocs must sometimes rely on their antiquated, anchored-in-academia mentors for career advice. When I arrived at the NIH, I learned that the p...
1224
Wenny
Lin
Salary expectations in the federal government
I was recently contacted by a recruiter about a job opening. He caught me off-guard (mistake on my part) with the question, “What are your salary expectations?”Like any excellent scientist would do, rather than giving him an answer, I turned his question into another question, “Well, wha...
Jennifer
Reineke Pohlhaus
Reading About Yourself is Weird
I’m sure many of you have written articles that have been published in journals. That’s not weird – that’s what most of us strive for. We are generally happy that our work is publicly acknowledged as meritorious research by our peers.
Wenny
Lin
Government Shutdown
During the last few months, I have heard postdoc fellows at the NIH discuss the financial realities of working in the government. The fiscal year started on October 1, 2010, and here we are, six months into the fiscal year still without a federal budget. “My project is on hold because we don’t k...
Eric
Wong
Times Up! – A Revealing Look at Time Management
Which of the choices below is likely to be the best at time management?a. You, the Reader (or any professional who has his/her act together)b. Bill Gates / Warren Buffet / Mark Zuckerberg (or any successful billionaire)c. The world’s “smartes...
Wenny
Lin
Foreign researchers at the NIH
The NIH, one of the world’s foremost medical research centers, is an agency of the US government, but it is also a very international workplace. According to the Division of International Services (DIS) at the NIH, approximately 2,000 scientists from other nations conduct research in the basic and...
William
Johnson
Science Experts Let Your Voices Be Heard
Lately, much has been made of the issues in Japan dealing with nuclear power generation and safety. Meanwhile, approximately 20% of United States power generation portfolio is composed of nuclear sources. In deciding where you stand on nuclear energy, it is very important to keep things ...
Wenny
Lin
Foreign postdocs at the NIH
During my first meeting with the planning committee for the 2011 NIH Career Symposium, I learned that more than 60% of the postdoc fellows at the NIH are non-US citizens or residents. Briefly judging from the accents heard around the room that day, I estimated that possibly 75% of the planning commi...
Xiaoli
Du
From Beijing to Washington: dream and reality
“Hi, my name is Serena, nice to meet you!” I feel this was a kind of introduction of myself a long time ago, which sounds formal and exotic to me. “Oh, nice to meet you! What is your Chinese name? My name is Richard.” “My Chinese name is Xiao-Li. Sorry if it is hard to pronounce, jus...
Wenny
Lin
Scientists and social media – are we behind the curve?
In the October 2010 issue of The Scientist, Associate Editor Richard Grants noted in his editorial that “only a fraction of researchers in the UK make frequent use of social media tools.” I suspect that is also the case here in the US.