People have asked me if I will miss the lab and the truth is one of the reasons I’ve wanted to teach at a small undergrad-focused college is because I love the lab and don’t want to leave it! You see – I will still be doing a lot of labbing – just in a very different form. I will be teaching students directly in the lab – both through the lab sections of courses (I’m teaching biochemistry for biochem majors & biochemistry for bio majors, lecture+lab and a gen chem lab) and through my own side research.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/WONJbPYmBuo
At a larger “research intensive” institution, most of the wet work is carried out by trainees and staff scientists. The professors often mainly focus on grant-writing, mentorship and ship-steering, and lots of meetings. All very important things, but things that take them away from the bench. Here, however, I get to work with the trainees side-by-side in the lab as they develop their skills and independence. I get to share the love of lab!
And I will still get to do some research. Just at and very different scale and pace. Because my focus will be on using the research to teach – and undergrads have a lot to learn so it will take much longer. But that’s okay! Because the focus is on learning how to research and how to be a scientist, rather than learning groundbreaking things about the molecular universe. The “publish or perish” pressure is much lower and we aren’t dependent on grant-writing. So if the research crawls along, that’s okay – as long as you’re helping the students learn to walk! (And of course if you get grants and make discoveries that’s definitely a big plus! It’s just not the main thing we have to worry about, freeing us to focus on the students – it’s not like we’re let off easy with less grant-writing – instead we’re teaching more courses than you would as a faculty member at a research-intensive school).
Additionally, the equipment at a place like this isn’t as fancy and the supplies aren’t as plentiful as they are at a place like UCSF. But there are still sooooo many cool experiments you can do. Knowing that I’ve wanted to go this route, I’ve tried to develop skills and learn techniques that are compatible with doing research at a place like this. And starting at this place as an undergrad really helped with this. Fewer kits, less automation, but you learn more that way anyway! Plus you don’t have to worry as much about all those fancy new machines breaking constantly!
Planning out my future experiments (both for the labs and my own research), I’m focusing on the fundamentals (and finding frugal ways to do things). So stay tuned for some “cheaper science” content, which is actually something I’m really passionate about. I mean – the bumbling biochemist’s mission is to make biochemistry fun and accessible for all! And a big barrier to accessibility is $.
Today I got to attend (and provide faculty! feedback on) some really phenomenal undergraduate research presentations. It gave me a taste of all the great days ahead! And, hopefully I will have all my postdoc stuff mostly wrapped up soon so I can focus fully on that greatness and not be stressed. Oh – and have my apartment all unpacked and organized and my office organized and…
more about PUIs (Primarily Undergraduate Institutions) vs R1 (research-intensive) institutions: blog: https://bit.ly/PUI_R1_etc ; YouTube: https://youtu.be/cUEtMOV2xjc
more about all sorts of things: #365DaysOfScience All (with topics listed) 👉 http://bit.ly/2OllAB0 or search blog: https://thebumblingbiochemist.com
