Scientists have more to gain from teaching than they often realise. Continue reading
The selfish case for teaching
Mentoring, teaching
Stop the ventriloquists!
Students need to learn how to answer questions. Not letting them do so is a failure of mentorship. Continue reading
A chip off the old block
Supervisors don’t just train you in techniques, to a degree they impart their ideology as well. Continue reading
Where have all the pranksters gone?
Is science losing its playfulness? Continue reading
Don’t teach facts!
Cultivating the right mindset is more important than cramming mnemonics. Continue reading
Vicious circles and poison pens
We don’t train young scientists how to review papers. Continue reading
Dumping and delegating
Shaping the mould
Students and postdocs cannot simply be clones of their mentor. Continue reading
Contraception is not the answer!
It’s widely accepted that there is a logjam in the academic career stream. There are too many postdocs for too few faculty positions. The average age for achieving full independence is rising, and the postdoctoral period has gone from being a second apprenticeship to an indefinite stay in limbo. One proposed solution is contraceptive – that we should train fewer PhDs. It’s wrong.
Why Mentors Fail
One of the most thought-provoking economics reads of the last few years, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s “Why Nations Fail“, basically picks up where Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel” left off. But what’s the link to mentoring?
Total Internal Reflection 