Finding the Ideal Lab for You Prof. Steve Conolly UC Berkeley BioE & EECS Berkeley/UCSF BioE Grad Group Berkele

1. Finding the Ideal Lab for YouProf. Steve ConollyUC Berkeley BioE & EECS Berkeley/UCSF BioE Grad GroupBerkeley Head Graduate Advisor

2. Grad Choices are New • Undergrad choices: brought you here! • What do I enjoy studying (major)? • Grad school vs. MD vs. real job • Grad Choices: Set up career path • Passion: Engineering vs. Basic science, vs. Clinical science? • Which research area excites you? • Who will mentor me? • Choices impact career & salary! • Rotations allow experimentation • Align choices with career goals

3. Finding Ideal Lab for You (1 slide) • 3 classes plus one rotation • Hundreds of funded GSR positions • Rotate once with cool-research PI • Weigh PI funding and style, too! • No herding into few hot groups • Rotations are competitive! Diving into the Deep End

4. First, Some Convenient Truths How will I get paid? How will I be mentored?

5. Who pays me? • 1st year paid by the Program • After year 1, your PI pays you • This works well for most students • Worse in humanities (permanent teaching, few grants) • Fellowships buy you autonomy Prof. L. von Drake

6. How you will pay your rent GSR costs PI $50,000+/yr Your PI must have grant support to pay you Rotate with PI’s who have history of grant support!

7. Why is Fit So Important? • Students’ ideal goals: • Harvard faculty job or $10M startup • Profs’ ideal goals for you: • Get fundable data today • Minor conflict is inevitable (but typically works out fine) Prof. McGrumpy

8. What you already know you want in your PI • Great research vision • 100-200 CV’s for each faculty job • All PI’s good (at research) • Some grad students choose PI based only on research reputation • Bad plan! Most unhappy students! • Reputation is trendy & subjective (and extremely unreliable!) • Necessary but not sufficient Prof. Hotshot

9. Unreliable Metrics of Research Quality • Long CV • Titles • Regal Bearing (OMG!) • Jargon • Lots of publications (50 vs. 200) • High-Impact factor journal pubs (not a factor in engineering) • Speaking ability (able to sell ice cubes to someone in Arctic Circle) • What impact will this work likely have in areas that matter to you! Prof. Hotshot

10. What you should also want in a PI • CTO: Great Research Vision • CEO: Stable 3-year funding • Chairman: Good networking: job leads • COO: Good management • No PI in the world can do all 4 roles well….and teach, too! COO Chairman CTO CEO ≠ 6 GSR’s ~ $500,000/yr Startup Burnrate ~$5,000,000/yr

11. A Few Traps to Avoid Student (self)-inflicted traps Faculty-inflicted traps

12. Avoid Common Student Traps • “I can take 4 classes/semester and still ace my Rotations!” (Not!) • “I will join Prof. Q’s lab, so my other rotations are fake.” (So dumb…) • “Prof Y. is kind … so s/he must be a weaker researcher than Prof. Q.” (OMG!!) • “I have firmly decided on Prof. Z, but s/he has no money.” (Be flexible!) • “Three buddies joined Prof. Q’s lab so I will rotate too.” (No herding!) • “I will do basic science PhD but get a job in engineering later.” (No plan!) • “I will pioneer a nanowidgetfor Prof. Z, MD, who plans to use it clinically.” (Wrong mentor background!) Uncommon Trap Multiple self-inflicted nail gun head injury. S. Med. J. 100: 608-10.

13. Avoid These (Rare) Faculty Traps!! • Permanent GSI: “Grant is certain to come in soon … but GSI for now!” • Hidden Treasure: “I have hidden grant funding but not for your project.” • Lose Your Rotations: “Rotate again and we can send your paper to Nature!!” • Do all 3 rotations with 3 distinct PI’s who can fund your PhD • Repeating a rotation is violation of Grad Group Policy!

14. How do you find your Ideal PI? • Discover Your Passion • Engineering (better, faster, cheaper) • Basic Science (discover the unknown!) • Clinical Science (test new cures, diagnostics) • Talk with PI’s about the “open challenges” in their field • Which challenge excites you? • Check this with friends, family • Be aware we all deceive ourselves!

15. How do you find your Ideal PI? • List faculty in your passion area • Ask senior students about style • Check on funding • Check with Rebecca or SarahJane • Narrow down to ~10 • Ask PI’s about vision, rotation projects, grants, former students’ jobs, duration • Hundreds of GSR slots open • Be flexible!

16. Management questions for senior students • "How often do you see your advisor?” • "What's PI’s management style?” • “Is your PI ever unreasonable?” • “Do students compete or collaborate?” • “Lab culture fun, fast, exciting?” • “Does PI help students get jobs?” • “What jobs do you get (industry, academia, startup, Starbucks)?”

17. Money questions to ask senior students • “Are any students forced to GSI more than once?” • “Is the grant budget enough for travel, GSRs & for experiments?” • “Are junior students asked to write group research grant proposals?”

18. Quiz #1 • When is it OK to rotate twice with a PI? • If the PI asks all students to do this • If the PI is really famous • If the PI really likes my research • The students are really cool & fun • None of the above Diving into the Deep End

19. Read PhD Comics…funny PhD Comics Jorge Cham, PhD (ME, Stanford) Same era as Dan Fletcher and Amy Herr

20. Summary • 3 classes plus one rotation • Put serious effort into the rotation (competitive!) • Find out about PI’s Funding and Management Track Record • Talk with senior grad students • Talk with HGA’s • Privately ask Rebecca & SJT • Rotate only once with funded PI’s… do all 3 rotations to see all your options Diving into the Deep End

21. Just A Few Slides on Wily Tricks • “Prof. Hotshot’s lab has 5 candidates for 1 GSR spot!! That is really competitive! Now you want me to risk angering the PI with annoying questions about management and funding!” • But if you are passive now, you may waste years in the wrong group

22. Quiz #1 • When is it OK to rotate with a PI who has no grant support? • If the PI is really nice. • If the PI is really famous • If the PI has really exciting research • The students are really cool & fun • None of the above Diving into the Deep End

23. Career path: Keep Your Options Open • ~30,000 science and engineering PhDs per year • ~15% get tenure at a major research university • "The number of tenured and tenure-track scientists in biomedicine has not increased in the past two decades even as the number of doctorates granted has nearly doubled.” R. Monastersky 2007