tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post4747004108038096547..comments2024-03-25T02:33:41.590-05:00Comments on FemaleScienceProfessor: More Co-AdviceFemale Science Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-64285093301482133702010-09-07T16:55:42.259-05:002010-09-07T16:55:42.259-05:00Hi,
I have a similar situation- I'm a junior ...Hi, <br />I have a similar situation- I'm a junior tenure-track PI, hands full with my own lab, + I still do experiments. A senior colleague whom I respect asked me to co-mentor a student (who, it turns out, knows less than nothing). It turns out this kid will be working with me the whole time, and I will have to train him. In retrospect, it's clearly a no-brainer- ie, a bad idea. Comments on best way to deal with it gracefully?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-43480947402097145602009-11-21T08:06:56.352-06:002009-11-21T08:06:56.352-06:00From my experience, being the first interdisciplin...From my experience, being the first interdisciplinary post-grad across two departments, the main problems are the lack of trust between my 2 supervisors or me (as I am actuallly from a third field...so in effect it is spanning three fields). This lack of trust do put a limit on what I am able to do as apart from pushing the research forward, there is the added problem of mediating and at the moment I have already pushed to the limit on what they are willing to let me know which is very different to what they are allowing the other supervisor to know. So, when you mention mediocre interdisciplinary research there are often a lot of reasons why as we are the middleman, so to speak, and generally not liked but needed in one sense. Of course there are those who are just wasting time because this niche needed filling but there were no alternative.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-74353167655120891742009-11-21T07:41:06.829-06:002009-11-21T07:41:06.829-06:00Wow... as the Anon with the now famous rolling eye...Wow... as the Anon with the now famous rolling eyes.... I have to say I didn't expect this much attention. Come on guys, CPP has done so much more to grab our attention by licking his vocabulary right off the street and you guys waste your time with me :)<br /><br />All I wanted to say was that sometimes "fashionable" things tend to take over true science. The "Interdisciplinary" label is, more often than not, used as an excuse to shine up an otherwise superficial effort. <br /><br />I know interdisciplinary is a buzzword and that is exactly why I am suspicious.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-17688833197242008912009-11-20T18:33:13.807-06:002009-11-20T18:33:13.807-06:00to the Anon who rolls their eyes at interdisciplin...to the Anon who rolls their eyes at interdisciplinary research, you may find that your career lacks 'resilience' in today's changing face of science (according to this very recent article in Naturejobs):<br /><br />http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2009/091105/full/nj7269-122a.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-67501956005083906812009-11-20T11:28:27.459-06:002009-11-20T11:28:27.459-06:00A lot of good interdisciplinary work comes from re...A lot of good interdisciplinary work comes from recognizing that a common tool in one field has applicability in another field. This sort of work does not require genius, but does require knowing the problems and tools of multiple fields to find the pairing that works.<br /><br />There is a need for narrow specialists who can advance a field by pushing hard on one point. There is also a need for broad generalists who can take the work of specialists and broaden it from a single point of application to wide range of problems. Very few people are good at both (and they are highly prized).<br /><br />Of course, in any field and in any style of research there are a lot of people doing not-very-good, not-very-interesting, been-done-before work. I don't think that interdisciplinary work is any more or less infested with these parasites than traditional specialties are.Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14528751349030084532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-49605873624348783002009-11-19T23:38:55.503-06:002009-11-19T23:38:55.503-06:00I am genuinely curious as to CPP's and Yolio&#...I am genuinely curious as to CPP's and Yolio's disdain for anonymous's concern about the need for (to tone down the comments a bit) very thoughtful people to do meaningful interdisciplinary work. As someone who has worked in an interdisciplinary field for the past ~15 years, I see tons of people who claim to be doing outstanding multidisciplinary work, but in fact they are just relying on the fact that each community is ignorant of basic ideas from the other community to pawn off very basic results as world-shaking (or perhaps they themselves are ignorant of basic facts, and so are re-proving well established ideas?? (which they may in fact get away with if the original ideas were published prior to searchable literature...) Not always clear). Anyway, I'm actually quite pleased to know that more people are capable of thinking deeply about several fields at once than I am accustomed to!? Please expand.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-9565247215202089382009-11-19T16:31:18.473-06:002009-11-19T16:31:18.473-06:00The problem I have with the "exceptional mind...The problem I have with the "exceptional mind" premise (aside from it being simply wrong, as CPP points out) is this: how does one diagnose an exceptional mind? It seems to me that this is just an excuse not to pay attention or listen to people who you have deemed not "exceptional" enough.yoliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05377530393720341372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-59716038975135565452009-11-19T14:47:38.919-06:002009-11-19T14:47:38.919-06:00It takes a truly exceptional mind to produce work ...<i>It takes a truly exceptional mind to produce work that is meaningful in two fields at the same time.<br /></i><br />This comment reflects gross ignorance of the nature of interdisciplinary research.Comrade Physioprofhttp://physioprof.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-80176938713479145952009-11-19T12:01:19.410-06:002009-11-19T12:01:19.410-06:00I'm interdisciplinary and have had been ever s...I'm interdisciplinary and have had been ever since final year of undergrad. For me it is actually harder to stay in one field as what I am doing is so complex that without the understanding of either fields you can't go any further...yeah, it drives me nuts at times with so much to learn but that is why we need co-advisors, so that we are not drifting into useless territories because we don't quite know what we are doing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-35262038449900098432009-11-19T10:18:00.057-06:002009-11-19T10:18:00.057-06:00You can roll your eyes, but it's easier to jus...You can roll your eyes, but it's easier to just stick to one field than to be brave enough to adventure into new fields. In today's world flexibility is rewarded, getting stuck in one outdated field will not bring you much. Unless you are lucky and get stuck into a field that has funding. Then yeah, you can afford it. And you can roll your eyes all you want, of course, it's on your own money lol.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-12373166744627934792009-11-19T09:54:51.437-06:002009-11-19T09:54:51.437-06:00I am a little suspicious of these interdisciplinar...I am a little suspicious of these interdisciplinary stuff. Don't get me wrong, some of the most extraordinary scientists I know are very interdisciplinary. Indeed, my very "suspicion" comes from this notion: It takes a truly exceptional mind to produce work that is meaningful in two fields at the same time. So when I run into an average Joe/Jane scientist (like me!!!) who claims to be "interdisciplinary", I roll my eyes. I take it as code for "I couldn't be bothered to learn either field properly".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com