Profesor Pedro Miguel Echenique z univerze University of the Basque
Country je na nedavnem predavanju podal nekaj svojih nasvetov mlademu znanstveniku. Povzetek celotnega predavanja lahko preberete na spletni strani
Science: "
Advice to a young scientist".
- Choose well. When deciding where to
do your Ph.D. or postdoc, do not base your decision solely on whether
the laboratory has a grant for you or routinely publishes in high-impact
journals. Choose “a place where one feels motivated, where one knows
that some fascinating things are being done,” Echenique said. Also
important is to choose a good supervisor, one who won’t treat you like
“cheap labor at the service of a great project,” he added.
- Learn broadly. Use the early years of
your career to learn as many techniques as you can; they will help you
tackle an array of problems in the future.
- Allow yourself to ‘waste time.’ The pressure
on today’s young scientists is such that many do not dare to leave their
workbench or computer to pursue other professional activities, for fear
they are wasting their time. Yet it is important to go to as many
seminars as you can.
- Establish a name for yourself. Young
scientists must start making a mark in their field, and many attempt to
do so by joining a laboratory that is led by a famous researcher or
frequently publishes in high-impact journals. A danger of such an
approach is that it could make it difficult to step out of your
principal investigator’s shadow; the papers you produce may add to his
or her prestige, not yours.
- Hone your communication skills.
Communication is also really important, Echenique said. Learn how to
give presentations by taking note of what you liked in other speakers’
talks, and practice in front of peers and mentors. Put yourself in the
shoes of the audience, neither over- nor underestimating them, and ask
yourself, “if I was there, would what I’m going to tell them really
interest me?”
"In spite of all the pressure and anxiety about securing a permanent,
independent position, never lose sight of your primary driver, the thing
that really got you into science. “It is very important to have
permanent positions, of course … but they are a means to an end. The aim
of a scientist is to advance knowledge and bring something new. We
cannot convert the means into an end, because [otherwise] we are
perverting the process,” Echenique said. It is true that luck also plays
a role, but “if you … do a serious and good piece of work and you
communicate it well, you will have all those things.”