Bernhardt Lab
Aquatic–Terrestrial Biogeochemistry
Academia · linked from Join the Lab
Academia can be a wonderful place to work, but it has its issues. This page collects advice, perspectives, and the occasional bit of humor on questions that come up for lab members at every stage — plus a lot more at the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Graduate school
It will test your self-confidence constantly, through classes, qualifying exams, proposal and paper writing, and the dissertation defense. It's nearly universal to reach a point where you question the decision — and your own ability to make it to the finish line. A few perspectives that help:
And keep a sense of humor about it: an illustrated guide to a PhD, the "Thesis Repulsor Field" cartoon from phdcomics.com, and the Lady Gaga–inspired "Bad Project" video.
Writing
Everyone struggles with the writing process — starting is hard, and knowing when you're finished is harder.
Writing Science: How to Write Papers that Get Cited and Grants that Get Funded
Collaboration
Working on research questions as teams is necessary, and hard. "What is Research Collaboration" (Katz & Martin, Research Policy, 1997) lays out the costs and benefits. The most important habit: talk openly and often about individual responsibilities and authorship plans, before tensions build. "A New Standard for Authorship" by Paul Friedman is a good, simple set of rules of thumb — and see the lab contract's own authorship guidelines, linked from the Join the Lab page.
Work-life balance
Often framed as a question for women in science, but one that everyone in academia navigates to some degree. The structure of a typical academic career makes it hard to find the right time to start a family, or to be both an involved partner/parent and a successful scientist — once you have tenure, academia offers real flexibility, but the path there has real constraints.
The Door in the Dream
Diversity & inclusion
The most important work any of us can do is to learn about the challenges underrepresented groups face — we can't walk in another person's shoes, but we can listen and understand the systemic challenges women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ scientists encounter on this career path.