NSF funding: myth, hyperbole and luck

Preproposal news is starting to leak out of the BIO directorate, and with it a renewed sense of anguish among those who were not invited to submit a full proposal. In particular, the invite rates were painfully low this year, coming in around 22%. Considering that only 25-30% of THOSE will ever see funding, it appears that success rates in the NSF core...

May 2017

"Winning" a Title IX case

The post below was written by a friend who has been through a lot in the past few years. I'm hosting it (was previously on pastebin) here to keep a permanent archive and also to make sure it gets seen. I am always shocked at what some universities will do to keep their "reputation" from being tarnished, while destroying those who build that reputation...

Dec 2016

Unofficial Drugmonkey Day

Today is a bit of a day of appreciation for one of the steadiest presences in the Blogging As Scientist game. Whereas I haven't been blogging here in.... a while, there was a time when I had 4-5 posts a week rattling around in my head. Everything was new, and I had no idea what I was doing in this job, but blurting it all out on a screen somehow made...

Sep 2016

How do we fix reporting of harassment?

The more and more we hear about discrimination and harassment in academia, the more it becomes clear that one of the biggest problems with the current system is the potential for roadblocks along the reporting path. Somewhere along the way, it is possible for a Chair, Dean, Administrator, Lawyer, etc., to say "this isn't enough to be considered." and...

Mar 2016

Let's stop blaming the alcohol

As more and more cases of academic sexual harassment continue to come out into the light (and I believe this is barely the appetizer course), there's a lot of people navel gazing about what can be done. And rightfully so - this is a problem that has festered WAY too long, as the stories make clear. Pretty much every field has AT LEAST one dude who "people...

Feb 2016

What IS indirect cost money, anyway?

Based on discussions on twitter, it seems pretty clear that a lot of Non-PI scientists don't really understand the concept of indirect costs, aka overhead. Most people know that a university's overhead rate is what they take from federal grant dollars to "keep the lights on", so to speak. But how is it calculated and how is it spent? The indirect rate...

Feb 2016

The new class

For better or for worse, I decided to ditch the class I had been teaching pre-tenure and create a new class. The new class has some cross-over with my previous one, but is aimed at an earlier (2nd years) and larger audience. I also decided to team teach the course, because my co-instructor brings a ton of interesting and useful experience to the table...

Jan 2016

Tenure Funk

So much academic advice and energy is focused on tenure. How do you get tenure? How do you survive pretenure? What are the tenure requirements at your institution? On and on and on. It's an important milestone, since it is a rare opportunity for your university to tell you to leave, but for 90% of institutions there is far more bark than bite. I never...

Jan 2016

Protecting students from bad PIs

Astro physics has been in news a lot recently, with a series of sexual harassment cases involving male PIs and female students. As anyone who has worked in academia for a while knows, these are not isolated cases. Academia is as bad about dealing with sexual harassment as many private and public sector jobs are, and the consequences for the students...

Jan 2016

The New PI Goldfish

There's lots of ways to start a new lab. Some, however, have proven more successful over time than others. Whereas the responsibilities of different new PIs are wide ranging, most include advancing a research program. How does one do that? I am a huge fan of taking a diverse approach to one's research question. My lab has had success working across...

Dec 2015