Professional DevelopmentLecture 1

Doing Your Best Research – The Big Picture

Philip E. Bournepbourne@ucsd.edu

PLoS Comp. Biol. 3(10): e213 http://www.sdsc.edu/pb/edu/ProfDev/ProfDev.htm

Jan 07, 2011 1Professional Development Series

Getting to Know Each Other

• Name

• Project

• Year of PhD

• What do you feel are your research strengths?

• What do you feel are your research weaknesses?

• What do you want to get out of this course?

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How Did I Arrive at My Perspective?

• BS, BS (Hon.), PhD at same provincial Oz university

• 2 good postdocs in Europe and the US• Left academia (sort of) for the IT world for 12

years• 16 years in academia – Research Scientist,

Adjunct Prof., Prof.• Immersed myself in an emerging discipline• Many diverse research interests• http://www.sdsc.edu/pb/Jan 09, 2009 Professional Development Series 3Jan 07, 2011 3Professional Development Series

Agenda

• Why am I giving this course?

• How did I arrive at my (biased) perspective?

• How did the course come about?

• Course outline

• Today– Research in the grand scheme of things

– How do be the best researcher you can be

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Motivation – How I Spend My TimeTask Percent Time Key Elements

Collaboration 20% Science driver, but never taught how to collaborate

Lecturing (Internal and External)

10% Various drivers, but never taught how to lecture

Writing Grants 10% Science driver, but never taught how to write a grant

Managing People 20% Dealing with HR (visas, hires, reference letters); people have/are problems

Writing/Reworking Papers 15% Science driver, but never taught how to write a good paper

Reviewing 15% Science driver, but never taught how to write a good review

Mentoring 10% Science driver, but never taught how to mentor

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Hence the Course Outline

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Thus This Course Is…

• How to be the best scientist you can be

• Providing no scientific content at all, simply advice on professional development

• The opportunity for you to engage in an active dialog about your career concerns. If we do not have that dialog I have failed!

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How Did This Course Come About?

• About 5 ½ years ago the student council of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) asked me to give them a lecture on how to get published based on my role of EIC of PLoS Comp. Biol.

• The exchange that took place was one of the most fun lectures I have ever given

• In trying to capture that moment I wrote an Editorial “Ten Simple Rules for Getting Published” …

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How Did This Course Come About?

• It was downloaded a large number of times

• Folks started to approach me with other ideas for Ten Simple Rules

• To date there is a “Ten Rules” series downloadable from http://collections.plos.org/ploscompbiol/tensimplerules.php

• The course has been modified based on input from previous years

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Doing Your Best Research – A Philosophical Perspective Adapted from Richard Hamming

• Richard Hamming 1915 – 1998

• Mathematician• Know to many of us for

the Hamming Distance

• Winner of the Turing Award

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hamming

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•

Warning

• This lecture is like being on the couch

• Subsequent lectures provide more tangible advice

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Basic Question for Today as Asked by Hamming in his 1986 Lecture ‘‘You and Your Research’’

How can you do Nobel Prize winning Research?

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Rule 1 – Be Honest with Yourself

• If you do not want to win a Nobel Prize this class may be a waste of your time

• If you do not want to win a Nobel Prize (or have some equivalent driver) you will not succeed

• It is no good just wanting to be a me too you must want to make a difference

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Rule 2 – Prepare Your Mind

• Winning a Nobel Prize is not a matter of luck

• You not winning the Nobel Prize is not the fault of others

• Face up to your shortcomings and work out how to overcome them either by your own efforts or in collaboration with the efforts of others

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Rule 3 – Age is Important

• You are smarter when you are younger but less experienced

• The foundation for your success will likely come from your work at an early stage – 20’s to mid 30’s – There are exceptions e.g., the field of study may not have existed when you were that old

• Experience will help you successfully build on that body of work

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Rule 4 - Brains Are Not Enough,You Also Need Courage

• This could perhaps be interpreted as ego

• You need to strongly voice an opinion you believe in, even when everyone is against you

• The irony is that research is about innovation, yet at the same time the scientific community is very conservative

• You need to keep pushing those ideas orally and in print

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Rule 5 - Make the Best of YourWorking Conditions

• ‘‘It is a poor workman who blames his tools—the good man gets on with the job, given what he’s got, and gets the best answer he can.’’

• The workplace is not about a fancy foyer it is about a place that fosters discourse and stimulates you e.g., MRC Cambridge

• If the working conditions are not good find new ones soon (more on this in subsequent lectures)

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Rule 6 - Work Hard and Effectively

• ‘‘Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest. Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime.’’

• “Hard work alone is not enough—it must be applied sensibly.”

• The person that spends the most hours in the lab. is often not the best

• Time management skills are critical• To work hard like this requires real passion that comes

from the heart not the head

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Rule 7 - Believe and Doubt YourHypothesis at the Same Time

• ‘‘When you find apparent flaws, you’ve got to be sensitive and keep track of those things, and keep an eye out for how they can be explained or how the theory can be changed to fit them. Those are often the great scientific contributions”

• You must see the big picture – it is oh so easy not too

• If your hypothesis is proven wrong know when to move on

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Rule 8 - Work on the ImportantProblems in Your Field

• “If you want to do great work, you clearly must work on important problems. . . . I finally adopted what I called ‘Great Thoughts Time.’ When I went to lunch Friday noon, I would only discuss great thoughts after that. By great thoughts I mean ones like: ‘What will be the impact of computers on science and how can I change it?’’’

• Talk is cheap - So what are my current great thoughts?

– Improve science dissemination and comprehension through openness and rich content

– Really understand using computational and systems biology what happens when we take a drug

– Change the way evolution is studied so that we can:• Further prove we are a product of our environment

• Understand the evolution of proteins through their structures

• I dare you to go back and ask your PI what are her/his current great thoughts Professional Development Series 20Jan 07, 2011

Rule 9 - Be Committed to YourProblem

• Success comes from the heart not the head

• ‘‘So the way to manage yourself is that when you have a real important problem you don’t let anything else get the center of your attention—you keep your thoughts on the problem. Keep your subconscious starved so it has to work on your problem, so you can sleep peacefully and get the answer in the morning, free.’’

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Rule 10 - Leave Your Door Open

• ‘‘There is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder. Somehow they seem to work on slightly the wrong thing—not much, but enough that they miss fame”

• The door is a metaphor – be open to every idea and person in your field – you cant do it alone

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Discussion/Questions?