Professional Development Lecture 1 Research: The Big Picture

1
Professional DevelopmentLecture 1 Research The
Big Picture

• Philip E. Bourne
• pbourne_at_ucsd.edu
• PLoS Comp. Biol. 3(10) e213
• http//www.sdsc.edu/pb/edu/ProfDev/ProfDev.htm

2
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

Jan 09, 2009
Professional Development Series
2
3
Motivation How I Spend My Time
Task 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
4
Hence the Course Outline
Jan 09, 2009
Professional Development Series
5
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
• 12 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
5
6
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!

Jan 09, 2009
Professional Development Series
6
7
How Did This Course Come About?

• About 3 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

8
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/plos
  compbiol/tensimplerules.php
• The course has been modified based on input from
  last year

9
Student Input Suggested ..

• Break it into two courses Years 1-2 and years
  3-6
• Have more faculty involved
• Address some topics in more depth with examples

Jan 09, 2009
Professional Development Series
9
10
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
  

11
Warning

• This lecture is like being on the couch
• Subsequent lectures provide more tangible advice

12
Basic Question for Today as Asked by Hamming in
his 1986 Lecture You and Your Research

• How can you do Nobel Prize winning Research?

13
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

14
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

15
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 20s to mid
  30s 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

16
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

17
Rule 5 - Make the Best of YourWorking Conditions

• It is a poor workman who blames his toolsthe
  good man gets on with the job, given what hes
  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)

18
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 enoughit 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

19
Rule 7 - Believe and Doubt YourHypothesis at the
Same Time

• When you find apparent flaws, youve 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

20
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

21
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 dont let
  anything else get the center of your
  attentionyou 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.

22
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
  thingnot 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

23
Discussion/Questions?