Early Career Scientists Research Articles

John Schulenberg as a developmental scholar and mentor: Personal reflections.

John Schulenberg has had significant impact on developmental science. His conceptual writing and empirical research, grounded in developmental contextualism, emphasized the critical role that developmental transitions play in shaping health risks, especially substance use, across the life course. Schulenberg's integration of developmental concepts with large-scale epidemiological studies, particularly through his leadership in the Monitoring the Future study, provides key insights into how significant life changes-such as school transitions, employment, and relationships-interact to influence well-being across adolescence and early adulthood. He was a fierce advocate for adolescence and young adulthood being critical phases of life, deserving of focused attention and support. John was also a devoted mentor to the next generation of developmental scientists. This commentary reflects on John Schulenberg's legacy, highlighting five of his foundational concepts (developmental tasks, transitions, trajectories, turning points, and timing) and celebrating his role as a generative and joyful mentor. He fostered open intellectual dialog, promoted and celebrated career development, and took pleasure in life inside and outside work, helping early career scientists to develop innovative and impactful research programs. Schulenberg's commitment to positive relationships and celebrating success is an enduring model for future generations of developmental scientists and mentors.

BFORAMS@MIKROTAX: AN ONLINE DATABASE FOR DEEP-SEA BENTHIC FORAMINIFERAL TAXONOMY

ABSTRACT The bforams@mikrotax database focuses on deep-sea foraminifera from the Cretaceous through Cenozoic, providing a comprehensive, universally accessible taxonomic resource. Based on nannotax and pforams@mikrotax, this database provides an easy-to-use website for experts, researchers, and early career scientists, promoting stability in identifications and nomenclature. By providing detailed descriptions, images, citations, and expert opinions, bforams@mikrotax is becoming a crucial tool for paleoenvironmental, paleoceanographic, paleoclimatic, biostratigraphic, paleobiological studies, and foraminiferal geochemical analyses. The “Main Catalog” provides monographic coverage of 1,600 key taxa, including lists of junior synonyms, updated primary and secondary type images, morphological descriptions, paleobathymetry, and graphical stratigraphic range bars. The “Original Description Catalog” includes information from the original species designations, type specimen repository and locality information, and images of the primary type specimens. The bforams@mikrotax database will provide an invaluable research, reference, and teaching tool for students and researchers across all levels of expertise.

A shifting climate: New paradigms and challenges for (early career) scientists in extreme weather research

AbstractResearch on weather and climate extremes has become integral to climate science due to their increasing societal relevance and impacts in the context of anthropogenic climate change. In this perspective we examine recent changes and evolving paradigms in the study of extreme events, emphasizing the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research and their societal implications. We discuss the importance of understanding the physical basis of extreme events and its linkages to climate impacts, highlighting the need for collaboration across multiple disciplines. Furthermore, we explore the challenge of big climate data analysis and the application of novel statistical methods, such as machine learning, in enhancing our understanding of extreme events. Additionally, we address the engagement with different stakeholder groups and the evolving landscape of climate services and private‐sector involvement. We conclude with reflections on the risks and opportunities for early career researchers in navigating these interdisciplinary and societal demands, stressing the importance of meaningful scientific engagement, and removing barriers to inclusivity and collaboration in climate research.

An Overview of Dr. Keith Thompson’s Contributions to Science Programs and High-Quality Training in Marine Prediction and Environmental Statistics

Dr. Keith Thompson was a highly influential scientist in marine prediction and environmental statistics in Canada and abroad. He was also exceptionally successful for providing high-quality mentorship to graduate students and early-career scientists. In this article, we provide an overview of Dr. Thompson’s career contributions to marine science programs and training for graduate students and other highly qualified personnel.

Lev Gutman—A Pioneer in Theoretical Mesoscale Meteorology

Abstract On 5 March 2023, Professor Lev Gutman would have been 100 years old. This article describes Professor Gutman’s legacy in the field of dynamic mesoscale meteorology and numerical weather prediction. Gutman developed his career as a mathematician and meteorologist in the Soviet Union, where he built a school of specialists in mesoscale meteorology from the 1950s through the 1970s. He primarily worked on analytical methods to solve complex nonlinear problems, such as the structure of sea breezes, mountain–valley circulations, and thermal convection over heated terrain. Gutman pioneered the development of theories of cumulus clouds, tornadoes, and other atmospheric phenomena. In the 1960s, he carried out numerous research investigations on these topics with his doctoral students and collaborators at the High-Altitude Geophysical Institute in Nalchik in the northern Caucasus and later at the Siberian Scientific Center near Novosibirsk. Gutman compiled the results from these studies into a monograph titled “Introduction to the Nonlinear Theory of Mesoscale Meteorological Processes,” which was published in Russian in 1969 and later translated into English, Chinese, and Japanese. This monograph became a major textbook for specialists in mesoscale meteorology, remaining relevant to this day. After Professor Gutman immigrated to Israel in 1978, his collaborations expanded to include Israeli and western scientists from Europe and the United States. Gutman did not receive the recognition he deserved due to the political realities of the time. His book and his seminal analytical solutions should still be useful for early career scientists in mesoscale meteorology and atmospheric dynamics.

P01-72 EUROTOX Early Career Forum (ECF): The voice for early career scientists in EUROTOX

P01-72 EUROTOX Early Career Forum (ECF): The voice for early career scientists in EUROTOX

Engagement of early career researchers in collaborative assessments of IPCC reports: achievements and insights

The participation of a diverse –in terms of geography, discipline and gender– group of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in the peer review process can help alleviate the workload of senior researchers and counteract the perceptual biases that the latter tend to show. Moreover, ECRs can benefit from developing skills that are often not included in educational programs. From 2018 to 2021, the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, in collaboration with other associations, organized six group reviews of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports by a total of more than 600 ECRs from over 70 different countries. This study aims to evaluate this group review in terms of its contribution to the production of scientific knowledge, and as a career development opportunity for ECRs. The data analyzed consists of application forms, review comments, and feedback surveys that were collected during each review process. The results of this study show that, overall, the group reviews were a success in terms of the experience of ECRs and their contribution to the peer review of the IPCC reports. Most survey respondents considered the general organization of the group reviews satisfactory and expressed interest in participating in future group reviews. However, most participants did not engage in discussions with their peers, which constitutes a missed opportunity to engage in active learning and the shared production of knowledge. ECRs made a significant contribution to the review of the IPCC reports by producing an average of 2,422 ± 532 comments per group review, 36% of which were substantive. PhD students were shown to be as proficient reviewers as postdoctoral researchers and faculty reviewers. More importantly, the diversity of reviewers in terms of geography and discipline, together with the fact that they are ECRs, can help produce more balanced scientific reports since they bring new perspectives, thus counteracting the biases that senior researchers have. These group reviews could be improved by providing more comprehensive training and facilitating communication among reviewers so that they can engage in meaningful exchanges. We conclude that the IPCC should formalize the inclusion of ECRs in future reviews of the IPCC reports.

Editorial: The future of lab on a chip technologies: an early career scientists’ perspective

Editorial: The future of lab on a chip technologies: an early career scientists’ perspective

Building Identity and Community for Early Career Professionals in the Emerging Field of Astrobiology.

To support training and foster retention in the emerging field of astrobiology, NASA has funded opportunities for graduate students and early career scientists to develop a community, foster interdisciplinarity, increase confidence, and showcase career options. The design of these opportunities builds on research on factors that increase retention, including feeling competent, having autonomy and a sense of purpose, having a sense of identity, and being connected to others in the field. Findings are reported from retrospective studies of two NASA career-building opportunities, the Astrobiology Graduate Conference and the International Astrobiology Summer School held in Santander, Spain. We present evidence that attendees gain confidence by presenting to, and working with, their peers, and feel competent to express their ideas and interests and build relationships in the field that continue after the experiences. Many say that they feel less isolated and go on to present or publish with colleagues they meet. Their career options also expand by meeting potential colleagues from different disciplines. Based on the findings, participating in either of these long-running programs shows clear positive impact on early career astrobiology professionals.

Accessible interview practices for disabled scientists and engineers

Increasing representation of people with disabilities in science and engineering will require systemic changes to the culture around support and accommodations. Equitable interview practices can help foster such changes. We, an interdisciplinary group of disabled and nondisabled early-career scientists who care deeply about making science more accessible to all, present a framework of suggestions based on Universal Design principles for improving the accessibility and equitability of interviews for people with disabilities and other underrepresented groups. We discuss potential challenges that may arise when implementing these suggestions and provide questions to guide discussions about addressing them.

Voice of the Future 2024

Voice of the Future is a unique event organized by the Royal Society of Biology on behalf of the molecular bioscience community. It provides early-career scientists from across science, technology, engineering and mathematics with the rare opportunity to visit the Houses of Parliament and ask parliamentarians their science policy questions in this environment. The 2024 event took place on 12 March, bringing together learned societies from across the sector. Lili Illman and Sagar Batra attended on behalf of the Biochemical Society, and here they share their experiences.

Early Career Scientists’ (ECS) Contributions to Meteorology 2023

In the frame of the current growing awareness of climate change and its impact on society and ecosystems [...]

Optimal Error Bounds in the Absence of Constraint Qualifications with Applications to p-Cones and Beyond

We prove tight Hölderian error bounds for all p-cones. Surprisingly, the exponents differ in several ways from those that have been previously conjectured. Moreover, they illuminate p-cones as a curious example of a class of objects that possess properties in three dimensions that they do not in four or more. Using our error bounds, we analyse least squares problems with p-norm regularization, where our results enable us to compute the corresponding Kurdyka–Łojasiewicz exponents for previously inaccessible values of p. Another application is a (relatively) simple proof that most p-cones are neither self-dual nor homogeneous. Our error bounds are obtained under the framework of facial residual functions, and we expand it by establishing for general cones an optimality criterion under which the resulting error bound must be tight. Funding: The second author was partly supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists [Grants 19K20217, 23K16844] and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research [Grant (B)21H03398]. The third author was partly supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council [Grant PolyU153000/20p].

The workshops on computational applications in secondary metabolite discovery (CAiSMD)

Abstract We report the outcomes of the second session of the free online open-access workshop “Computational Applications in Secondary Metabolite Discovery (CAiSMD) 2022” that took place from 09 to 11 March 2022. The first session was held from 08 to 10 March 2021 and drew the attention of many early career scientists from academia and industry. The 23 invited speakers of this year’s workshop also came from academia and industry and 222 registered participants from five continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, South, and North America) took part in the workshop. The workshop highlighted the potential applications of computational methodologies in the search for secondary metabolites or natural products as drug candidates and drug leads. For three days, the participants of this online workshop discussed modern computer-based approaches for exploring NP discovery in the “omics” age. The invited experts gave keynote lectures, trained participants in hands-on sessions, and held round table discussions. These were followed by oral presentations during which much interaction between the speakers and the audience was observed. Selected applicants (early-career scientists) were offered the opportunity to give oral presentations (15 min) upon submission of an abstract. The final program available on the workshop website (https://indiayouth.info/index.php/caismd) comprised three keynote lectures, 14 oral presentations, two round table discussions, and four hands-on sessions. This meeting report also references internet resources for computational biology around secondary metabolites that are of use outside of the workshop areas and will constitute a long-term valuable source for the community.

Teaching Research Data Management with DataLad: A Multi-year, Multi-domain Effort.

Research data management has become an indispensable skill in modern neuroscience. Researchers can benefit from following good practices as well as from having proficiency in using particular software solutions. But as these domain-agnostic skills are commonly not included in domain-specific graduate education, community efforts increasingly provide early career scientists with opportunities for organised training and materials for self-study. Investing effort in user documentation and interacting with the user base can, in turn, help developers improve quality of their software. In this work, we detail and evaluate our multi-modal teaching approach to research data management in the DataLad ecosystem, both in general and with concrete software use. Spanning an online and printed handbook, a modular course suitable for in-person and virtual teaching, and a flexible collection of research data management tips in a knowledge base, our free and open source collection of training material has made research data management and software training available to various different stakeholders over the past five years.

Seismic Tomography 2024

ABSTRACT Seismic tomography is the most abundant source of information about the internal structure of the Earth at scales ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers. It constrains the properties of active volcanoes, earthquake fault zones, deep reservoirs and storage sites, glaciers and ice sheets, or the entire globe. It contributes to outstanding societal problems related to natural hazards, resource exploration, underground storage, and many more. The recent advances in seismic tomography are being translated to nondestructive testing, medical ultrasound, and helioseismology. Nearly 50 yr after its first successful applications, this article offers a snapshot of modern seismic tomography. Focused on major challenges and particularly promising research directions, it is intended to guide both Earth science professionals and early-career scientists. The individual contributions by the coauthors provide diverse perspectives on topics that may at first seem disconnected but are closely tied together by a few coherent threads: multiparameter inversion for properties related to dynamic processes, data quality, and geographic coverage, uncertainty quantification that is useful for geologic interpretation, new formulations of tomographic inverse problems that address concrete geologic questions more directly, and the presentation and quantitative comparison of tomographic models. It remains to be seen which of these problems will be considered solved, solved to some extent, or practically unsolvable over the next decade.

Outlining the Hidden Curriculum: Perspectives on Successfully Navigating Scientific Conferences.

Scientific conferences and meetings are valuable opportunities for researchers to network, communicate, and develop knowledge. For early career scientists, conferences can also be intimidating, confusing, and overwhelming, especially without having adequate preparation or experience. In this Perspective, we provide advice based on previous experiences navigating scientific meetings and conferences. These guidelines outline parts of the hidden curriculum around preparing for and attending meetings, navigating conference sessions, networking with other scientists, and participating in social activities while upholding a recommended code of conduct.

Lighting pathways to success in STEM: a virtual Laboratory Meeting Programme (LaMP) mutually benefits mentees and host laboratories.

Developing robust professional networks can help shape the trajectories of early career scientists. Yet, historical inequities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields make access to these networks highly variable across academic programmes, and senior academics often have little time for mentoring. Here, we illustrate the success of a virtual Laboratory Meeting Programme (LaMP). In this programme, we matched students (mentees) with a more experienced scientist (mentors) from a research group. The mentees then attended the mentors' laboratory meetings during the academic year with two laboratory meetings specifically dedicated to the mentee's professional development. Survey results indicate that mentees expanded their knowledge of the hidden curriculum as well as their professional network, while only requiring a few extra hours of their mentor's time over eight months. In addition, host laboratories benefitted from mentees sharing new perspectives and knowledge in laboratory meetings. Diversity of the mentees was significantly higher than the mentors, suggesting that the programme increased the participation of traditionally under-represented groups. Finally, we found that providing a stipend was very important to many mentees. We conclude that virtual LaMPs can be an inclusive and cost-effective way to foster trainee development and increase diversity within STEM fields with little additional time commitment.

Interleukin-1β triggers muscle-derived extracellular superoxide dismutase expression and protects muscles from doxorubicin-induced atrophy

Oxidative stress plays an important role in skeletal muscle atrophy. Doxorubicin, a conventional chemotherapeutic agent prescribed for cancer, causes skeletal muscle atrophy and adversely affects mobility and strength. Since doxorubicin-induced muscle atrophy is primarily attributable to oxidative stress, its effects could be mitigated by antioxidant-focused therapies; however, these protective therapeutic targets remain ambiguous. This study aimed at demonstrating that doxorubicin triggered severe muscle atrophy via upregulation of oxidative stress (4-Hydroxynonenal and Malondialdehyde) and atrogenes (Atrogin-1/MAFbx and Muscle RING Finger-1) in association with decreased expression of the antioxidant enzyme, extracellular superoxide dismutase (EcSOD), in cultured C2C12 myotubes and mouse skeletal muscle. EcSOD recombinant protein supplementation elevated EcSOD levels on the cellular membrane of cultured myotubes, consequently inhibiting doxorubicin-induced oxidative stress and myotube atrophy. Furthermore, doxorubicin treatment reduced interleukin-1β (IL-1β) mRNA expression in cultured myotubes and skeletal muscle, while transient IL-1β treatment increased EcSOD protein expression on the myotube membrane. Notably, transient IL-1β treatment of cultured myotubes and local administration in mouse skeletal muscle attenuated doxorubicin-induced muscle atrophy, which is associated with increased EcSOD expression. Collectively, these findings reveal that the regulation of skeletal muscle EcSOD via maintenance of IL-1β signaling is a potential therapeutic approach against doxorubicin-and oxidative stress-mediated muscle atrophy. This study was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (15H03080, 18H03153, 21H03326), Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research (20K21766), Suzuken Memorial Foundation, Toyoaki Scholarship Foundation, The Nakatomi Foundation, and The Uehara Memorial Foundation (to M.O.). This research was also supported by Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (20J15551), Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (22K17733), Suzuken Memorial Foundation, The Nakatomi Foundation, and The Uehara Memorial Foundation (to M.Y.). This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Muscle p62 stimulates the expression of antioxidant proteins alleviating cancer cachexia

Cancer cachexia is characterized by a significant reduction in body weight predominantly resulting from severe loss of skeletal muscle. Oxidative stress plays an important role in skeletal muscle atrophy during cancer cachexia, and more glycolytic muscles are preferentially affected. Sequestosome1/SQSTM1 (i.e., p62), particularly when phosphorylated at Ser 349 (Ser 351 in mice), competitively binds to the Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1) activating Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). Nrf2 then stimulates the transcription of antioxidant/electrophile-responsive elements (ARE/EpRE) in target genes. However, a potential role for p62 in the protection of muscle wasting in cachexia remains to be determined. Here, using the well-established cachexia-inducing model of Lewis Lung Carcinoma (LLC) in mice we demonstrate higher expression of antioxidant proteins (i.e., NQO1, HO-1, GSTM1, CuZnSOD, MnSOD, and EcSOD) in the more oxidative and cachexia resistant soleus muscle than in the more glycolytic and cachexia prone extensor digitorum longus muscle. This was accompanied by higher p62 (total and phosphorylated) and nuclear Nrf2 levels in the soleus, which were paralleled by higher expression of proteins known to either phosphorylate or promote p62 phosphorylation (i.e., NBR1, CK1, PKCδ, and TAK1). Muscle-specific p62 gain-of-function (i.e., in p62 mTg mice) activated Nrf2 nuclear translocation and increased the expression of multiple antioxidant proteins (i.e., CuZnSOD, MnSOD, EcSOD, NQO1, and GSTM1) in glycolytic muscles. Interestingly, skeletal muscle Nrf2 haplodeficiency blunted the increases of most of these proteins (i.e., CuZnSOD, EcSOD, and NQO1) suggesting that muscle p62 stimulates antioxidant protein expression also via additional, yet to be determined mechanisms. Of note, p62 gain-of-function mitigated glycolytic muscle wasting in LLC-affected mice. Collectively, our findings identify skeletal muscle p62 as a potential therapeutic target for cancer cachexia. This research was supported by Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (20J15551), Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (22K17733), Suzuken Memorial Foundation, The Nakatomi Foundation, and The Uehara Memorial Foundation (to M.Y.). This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.