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Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

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Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#251

Post by auggierose »

andi999 wrote: post #28
auggierose wrote: post #9

It's pretty easy to see who is a top star (because they have continuous highest-quality output), and who will never deliver anything worthwhile. The trouble is the continuum between those two extremes. This domain is dominated by politics, endless grant applications, bureaucracy. Nobody can really tell where you belong in this continuum, maybe not even you yourself. And I also don't believe that academia is the best…

Well, top stars are obvious a couple of years in their career. Or do you think they are obvious from the beginning?

I am talking about the ones where it is obvious that they are or will be doing exceptional work. That can be 10 years into their career, or at year 0 of their career.

When this is not obvious, which most of the time it isn't, that's where the tough to judge continuum lies.

Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#252

Post by DukeBaset »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #240
alwahi wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which institutes would you recommend for Engineering research?

I think your question is too general. For example, there may be institutions that have e.g. a great civil engineering lab while being mediocre at electrical engineering. And the same can be true of subfields of each engineering discipline (for example, I'm in CS, and it's common to see institutions that have a powerful group in one specific area of CS - say computer vision, robotics, NLP, theoretical CS - and aren't…

Perhaps I should have been more clear, I am a PhD dropout in Mech Eng with lots of CS and finance/econ exposure as I dropped out to join a bank. I want to do something cross disciplinary and vague ideas of systems science especially since I read Saltzer Kaashoek(sorry for butchering the spellings) Principles of Computer System design and sort of using a systems design approach to manufacturing processes and such. Like a lot of ideas of CS are from Engineering Management like JIT etc and how the design of networks is an evolution of earlier metaphors of telegraph and telephone systems.

To keep it short, how do I even find what I want to look for? Any tactics that you would want to suggest?

Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#253

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

acomjean wrote: post #122
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Biology-focused hacker spaces are on the rise so there are still ways to do research. I am very interested in this concept. Are you thinking of any in particular? I really wish people invested in public spaces people could go do science, particularly chemistry.

In Cambridge MA there is Bos Lab: (microbiology). https://www.boslab.org/

Thank you!

Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#254

Post by gww »

inciampati wrote: post #220
gww wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is particularly a problem for academic labs looking for bioinformatics specialists. Many of the bioinformatians I know with strong stats backgrounds have taken jobs at banks etc where the pay and benefits are significantly better. It's hard for academics to offer their staff something competitive to retain them. Moreover, people are realizing that so much of medical research is less about the patients and more a…

The best strategy to hire and train good bioinformaticians is to let them live where they want and involve them in world-spanning virtual groups. Pay them as well as can be allowed, which is not so great in terms of their fair market value in other fields, but with life flexibility that gives intangible benefits that are awesome. It's been said that having time flexibility with one's work is the surest way to increas…

I agree with you. I think more PIs are realizing that. I know of some who have machine learning scientists that have second jobs in industry. They tolerate it because they still do everything asked of them well and in a reasonable time frame. I am not sure how they handle conflicts of interest though.

Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#255

Post by gww »

neltnerb wrote: post #218
joe_the_user wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A job being "too junior" for someone often means they can't get it even if they want it - the organization is looking for someone with little experience who is presumably young and can rise through the ranks.

And willing to do it as a postdoc making too little to pay rent without more housemates than there are bedrooms in the house. Everyone needs a first job I guess, to learn how much more they're worth than they got paid in their first job?

I have already done the post-doc part. It was so painful that I really don't want to do a second one. There's that glass ceiling in academia when it comes to respect and salary they is very hard to break through without being promoted to a full PI and given your own lab.

Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#256

Post by auggierose »

ta988 wrote: post #25
auggierose wrote: post #9

It's pretty easy to see who is a top star (because they have continuous highest-quality output), and who will never deliver anything worthwhile. The trouble is the continuum between those two extremes. This domain is dominated by politics, endless grant applications, bureaucracy. Nobody can really tell where you belong in this continuum, maybe not even you yourself. And I also don't believe that academia is the best…

Unfortunately for some fields it is difficult to do anything outside of a lab. And startups are not a good solution either with the incentive to make money fast that shift the incentives. I would be interested in knowing what other places you are thinking about.

Yes. I don't have a good solution either. In the end you need to somehow get the money to do what you want to do. That may be within academia or not. In my case, I am just doing freelance jobs and reserving as much time as I manage to do the research I want to do. I don't need many resources, and being able to access sci-hub helps a lot.

Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#257

Post by gww »

neltnerb wrote: post #217
gww wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a hard and frustrating career. I work on an academic lab but the chances of me having an independent research program are very low. However, everyone who wants something from you -- especially your PI -- will string you along in the hope you will stick to your low paying job. I am trying to find a better job in industry but the jobs I see posted tend to be for data science (I am not a strong stats person) or too…

Postdoc pay is ridiculous, I had a job I was really interested in but the second they said it was a postdoc all I could hear was "this will not pay the rent". I don't get it. Urban universities are just so preferred that they can pay the same amount or less than a university in a lower rent town. It only makes sense if you're getting a giant reputational or career boost, or have personal reasons. I dunno. I'm about w…

I have the same problem. COVID has made it much harder. I finally have some decent publications and was hoping to go to some of the bigger Cancer Genomics conferences this year to try to build a network but it's not the same when it's a virtual meeting.

Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#258

Post by papa_reton »

saboot wrote: post #171
papa_reton wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately they are US-only, have small funding and deliver little publicly available results. And sometimes they do nasty stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Engineering_Institute...

Many of us deliver much of our results publicly all the time. At ORNL any user can come and use our facilities. We've got a neutron beam system which I think exists only in one other place on Earth. In fact, users can use it for free only if they pledge to publish their results publicly.

> Many of us deliver much of our results publicly all the time.

I didn't imply otherwise.

Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#259

Post by mathgladiator »

reasonabl_human wrote: post #190
mathgladiator wrote: post #101

As a math person and technical person, I find myself so glad that I stayed out of academics and dropped out of my masters program to start a company. This story is exceptionally inspiring because it speaks that we need people that are passionate to focus without worry of basics. We need true believers to throw their lives at a hard problem. The challenge is money. It is so easy to waste. It is so easy to squander on…

Curious to know more about your career journey, have you written about it somewhere before? Currently discerning career path and am sure to face a number of the decisions you’ve navigated successfully

http://jeffrey.io/my-story.html

I intend to consolidate a lot of my writings at https://darklord.substack.com/

Re: Our brutal science system almost cost us a pioneer of mRNA vaccines

#260

Post by idrios »

slumdev wrote: post #93
idrios wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Biomedical engineer with a 2.977GPA. Lots of extra curriculars, volunteered in labs, 160 credit hours of mostly STEM classes, lots of grad-level courses, relevant work experience, but GPA was 0.023 too low to pass the automated filters and I didn't get into any of the grad programs I applied for. I ended up doing fine in software development though. Also, the Wright Brothers didn't need a research lab to invent fligh…

> GPA was 0.023 too low to pass the automated filters Your application was most likely reviewed by real people, not just automated filters. People with GPAs below 3 do get into competitive grad programs (and med school). An upward trend is the key.

Ah.. I don't think this comment deserved to be downvoted. I did actually have one place reach out -- a lab at U of Toronto. But they asked if I was international and when I said yes (USA) they apologized and said they didn't have funding to sponsor an international student. But yeah, all the other schools were faceless rejections
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