In the end, my jobseeker status after leaving academia lasted exactly two weeks.
Continue readingAuthor: Brooke Morriswood
MySciMoment – Ko-Fan Chen 陳克帆
Ko-Fan Chen is a lecturer in Neurogenetics at the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester (UK). He also runs a research lab to understand sleep. Here, he describes the moment ( his #MySciMoment) that set him on the path to a research career in academia.
Continue readingScience and narcissism (an interview with Bruno Lemaitre)
TIR talks to immunologist Bruno Lemaitre, a key figure in Toll research, about science, academics, narcissism and narcissists. He is an observer and commentator on the dark side of success in scientific research.
Continue readingShutting up shop (a short guide on how NOT to start a research group)
In January 2023, I resigned from my position at the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of Würzburg. Here are some of the things that I think I should have done differently when I moved there in 2015 to start my junior research group.
Continue readingA salute to the classroom
Jess’ blog about leaving academia is absolutely one of the best new content sources out there at the moment. This is another terrific posting, discussing the unexpected but totally rewarding impact of teaching on an individual scientist’s outlook.
On the day I wrote this, I submitted the grades for my last class in the university. Of the many, many things an academic does, I have to say, teaching has been the most fulfilling for me. I have no idea how many are like me, but it definitely brought me joy when students took something from the class. Be it a new skill, a seed of curiosity, or if I’m lucky, a sense of accomplishment. I’m not sure if I’ll be teaching in a classroom again. But if I find myself teaching again, even in a different setting, I’m all for it!
A long time ago, I didn’t think that teaching was ever in the cards for me. And I never imagined that I would actually enjoy it, or even be remotely good at it. I taught for 2 years during my masters, 1 year in between degrees…
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Speaking up, speaking out (the 2023 Lindau Nobel laureate meeting controversy)
A Nobel laureate’s insistence that he feels discriminated against as a white man illustrates how far STEM fields still have to go when it comes to gender equality.
Continue readingPro Bono (a riff on unpaid labour in academia)
Being unemployed is making me realise how many unpaid hours I was committing to academia.
Continue readingChanging the currency
We need to reduce the emphasis on first-author papers in academic career progression.
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Total Internal Reflection 