Successful Scientific Career Research Articles

Promoting Crucial Team Building, Collaboration and Communication Skills in Graduate Students through Interactive Retreats.

To promote team building, improve collaborations and enhance communication skills. An offsite yearly retreat was organized for the graduate students in our NIH-funded RISE graduate training program. Retreat themes were addressed through short presentations, case studies, live podcasts, webinars, focus groups, role play, and breakout sessions with various team building exercises to practice communication skills, and identify abilities, knowledge, values, and behaviors. Trainees gave short presentations and served as discussion leaders on topics related to the central theme. Expert guest speakers participated in discussion sessions with the trainees. Trainees evaluated the retreats at the end. A total of 48 trainees, 12 RISE Program faculty and staff, and 26 external speakers from industry, academia, media/journalism, the arts, psychology, and holistic medical fields participated over 9 years. The overall average benefit of the in-person retreats was rated 4.80 on a Likert scale of 1-5 by trainees. Trainees particularly enjoyed the informal interactions with program faculty, staff, and fellow trainees. They appreciated the opportunity to learn soft skills, such as interpersonal communication, conflict resolution and leadership. Two additional retreats conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic were perceived as less beneficial. Off-site interactive retreats are a valuable tool for enhancing soft skills and a sense of team identity in a biomedical sciences graduate program, while covering important issues related to scientific careers.

The secret to a successful career in science—according to Magritte

The secret to a successful career in science—according to Magritte

Fifty Years of Biophysics at the Membrane Frontier.

The author first describes his childhood in the South and the ways in which it fostered the values he has espoused throughout his life, his development of a keen fascination with science, and the influences that supported his progress toward higher education. His experiences in ROTC as a student, followed by two years in the US Army during the Vietnam War, honed his leadership skills. The bulk of the autobiography is a chronological journey through his scientific career, beginning with arrival at the University of California, Irvine in 1972, with an emphasis on the postdoctoral students and colleagues who have contributed substantially to each phase of his lab's progress. White's fundamental findings played a key role in the development of membrane biophysics, helping establish it as fertile ground for research. A story gradually unfolds that reveals the deeply collaborative and painstakingly executed work necessary for a successful career in science.

How a Rock Band, a Recording Company, and a Nobel Laureate Developed Computed Tomography

Objectives Computed Tomography (CT) is an indispensable element of medical care used throughout the world, and first developed for clinical use by Hounsfield in 1971. The largest source of monetary support for Hounsfield’s work was from his employer, Electrical Musical Industries, Ltd. (EMI) and, in turn, the most lucrative source of income for EMI through the 1960’s was their recording contract with the English quartet, the Beatles. The purported link between the Beatles’ productive oeuvre with EMI and Hounsfield’s discovery of CT has not been well established. We endeavored to elucidate the technological and creative talents that linked Hounsfield with EMI and the Beatles and which ultimately led to one of the greatest medical innovations of the 20th century. Methods We used GoogleScholar, PubMed, and primary sources to research the life of Godfrey Hounsfield, the history of Electric and Musical Industries, Ltd (EMI), and The Beatles in reference to the development of CT. We used the EMI Archives Trust (London), and the archives of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) UK and Ireland (London). We obtained unpublished photographs courtesy of private collections. Results EMI translated its electronic prowess during WWII into the recorded music business, purchasing Capitol Records in 1955. EMI would sign The Beatles in 1963 and EMI profits rose 80% that first year. Sir Godfrey Hounsfield began a successful scientific career with EMI in 1951. With financial support from EMI’s research division, Hounsfield began developing what would become the first CT-scanner in 1967. By directing x-ray beams through the body at 1 degree angles, with a detector rotating in tandem on the other side, he could measure the x-ray attenuation of different tissues inside the body. These values were then analyzed via a mathematical algorithm to produce a 2-dimensional image of the slice of the body. Hounsfield worked with James Ambrose, a radiologist, to conduct the first clinical CT-scan at Atkinson Morley Hospital in 1971 in a patient with a brain tumor. EMI entered the medical equipment business thereafter and heavily marketed the CT-scanner using the financial resources EMI derived from its record sales. By 1976, EMI could not produce enough CT-scanners to fill demand and ultimately would cede the medical imaging business to competitors, and devote itself to the music industry. In 1979, Hounsfield, and Allen Cormack, a South African physicist who independently theorized the basis of CT imaging, would win the Nobel Prize. Conclusions ‘Let it be’ known that it was only ‘yesterday’ when a recording company, a rock band, and a radar scientist revolutionized medical imaging with the development of computed tomography.

PopScience: Teaching Students to Communicate Scientific Findings to the General Public

Scientific communication has become more important than ever before, yet most scientists are not trained in how to communicate their research findings to the general public. The PopScience assignment is a semester-long writing and oral communication project that focuses on how to communicate primary scientific literature to the general public. The overall goals of the PopScience project are to teach students how to: 1) critically evaluate neuroscience primary literature, and 2) translate and convey primary literature findings to a lay audience. Students completed a pre- and post- assignment perceptive assessment to evaluate the skills they obtained (e.g., reading comprehension and critical thinking), and the effectiveness of the assignment in improving these skills. Students reported that overall, the assignment improved their ability to read primary literature articles and explain them to a lay audience. Self-evaluation and professor assessments suggest the PopScience assignment also improved student’s ability to integrate and summarize results from multiple sources, as well as identify and explain neuroscience terminology that often leads to confusion for lay audiences. In conclusion, this assignment teaches students how to communicate basic neuroscience to the general public, a skill that continues to be critical in successful scientific careers.

Applying A 'Mentor-Protégé Approach to Broadening Participation of HBCUs in the National Innovation Network

Innovation is one of the most important drivers of economic growth, yet only 8% of minorities, 12% of women, and < 0.05% of African Americans are recognized as innovators. However, a comprehensive analysis of nearly all doctoral dissertations from 1977 to 2015 shows that although individuals from under-represented minority groups demonstrated greater scientific innovation, their contributions are rarely further adopted compared to equally impactful contributions by majority groups. In this instance "rarely further adopted," as noted by Hofstra et al. (1), means that the "novel contributions by gender and racial minorities are taken up by other scholars at lower rates than novel contributions by gender and racial majorities, and equally impactful contributions of gender and racial minorities are less likely to result in successful scientific careers than for majority groups." Access to the wealth of potential innovations — going largely unnoticed and underutilized — from under-represented minority groups can be achieved, in part, by engaging science and engineering students, faculty, and staff at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in entrepreneurship through the use of the Innovation Corps (I-Corps) curriculum with adaptations to fit the education and research environments at HBCUs. A consortium of three North Carolina universities and the NYC Regional Innovation Network (NYCRIN) I-Corps Node established a partnership developing a specialized Lean LaunchPad training program for HBCU students, faculty, and staff. Implementation followed a three-step train-the-trainers 'mentor-protégé model, where new instructors 'see one, do one, be one' while learning to deliver the curriculum. The overarching goals of this initiative are to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in broadening participation in I-Corps and mainstreaming the innovation capacities of HBCUs. The authors include instructors from the collaborating institutions, who trained and served as the teaching team for regional and national cohorts. Included are the rationale for creating the program, partnership selection, instructor and team recruitment, best practices for the 'mentor-protégé model, and outcomes for the cohorts. This contribution is a unique opportunity for other faculty to learn from practitioners about the challenges and successes involved in creating such a new multi-institutional entrepreneurship training paradigm.

Social Scientists

Social Scientists

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Microbial Sciences-the Texas Perspective.

ABSTRACTThe way that diversity, equity, and inclusion impact scientific careers varies for everyone, but it is evident that institutions providing an environment where being different or having differences creates a sense of being welcomed, supported, and valued are beneficial to the scientific community at large. In this commentary, three short stories from Texas-based microbiologists are used to depict (i) the importance of bringing the guiding principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion within their professional roles, (ii) the need to apply and translate those principles to support and enable successful scientific careers among peers and trainees, and (iii) the impact of effective science communication to increase the understanding of microbial environments among the community at large.

Impact of an institutional grant award on early career investigator applicants and peer reviewers

BackgroundObtaining research funding support is integral to a successful career in science. Training and practice in grant writing, as well as engagement in peer review of grant applications may help lead to successful research funding. However, there is little evidence on the impact of institutional programs on the career development of early career investigators (ECIs). ObjectivesUnderstand the impact of participation in an institutional research award program on the career development of ECIs. MethodsThe Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont established an Early Career Research (ECR) award program in 2018. ECIs who participated as applicants or reviewers in the first 3 years of the program (2018‐2020) were surveyed to understand the impact of the ECR award program on their grant writing and professional development. ResultsNinety‐four percent of 17 applicants and 90% of 19 reviewers completed the survey. Ninety‐two percent of funded and 75% of unfunded applicants, and 87% of reviewers reported that the program was beneficial to their professional development. Similarly, 85% of funded applicants, 75% of unfunded applicants, and 80% of reviewers reported improvement in their grant‐writing skills. All respondents reported they would recommend the ECR award program to their peers. ConclusionsThis single‐institution ECR award program had a positive impact on ECI’s professional development and grant‐writing skills and may lead to further extramural funding opportunities.

Elena Alexandrovna Timofeeva-Resovskaya at the forefront of radiobiology in the XX century

Purpose. The purpose of the work was to show the outstanding contribution of Elena Alexandrovna Timofeeva-Resovskaya (1898-1973) to the development of radiobiology. Materials and methods. This article was prepared on the basis of the author's memoirs, using materials from the personal archive, as well as literary and electronic sources. Results and Conclusions. For the first time the autobiography of Elena A. Timofeeva-Resovskaya and the periods of her scientific activity are revealed. The priority in the radiobiology of aquatic ecosystems belongs to Elena A. Timofeeva-Resovskaya. The results of her work turned out to be important both for solving the problems of radioactive contamination of territories, and for the development of modern radioecology. Throughout her life, she worked with her husband Nikolay V. Timofeev-Resovsky (1900-1981), a great scientist and scientific enlightener of the world level. It was not the purpose of this article to describe the life of their family, full of exciting events, but it was not possible to avoid it. For young women planning a scientific career, Elena A. Timofeeva-Resovskaya is an example of a successful path in science even in turbulent times.

Герой своего времени (вспоминая Валентина Андреевича Припачкина).

Valentin Andreevich Pripachkin came to work at the Geological Institute of the Kola Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciencesin the early 60s of the twentieth century. He made a successful career in science —he defended his PhD thesis, was the head of the laboratory, scientific secretary and deputy director of the Geological Institute, deputy head of the Department of Geology of the Apatity branch of the Murmansk State Technical University. However, the article is devoted to what Valentin Pripachkin and his peers were outside of their main work —on sports grounds, in amateur groups and informal creative unions.

Воспроизводство кадрового потенциала науки в оценке молодых российских ученых: результаты прикладного исследования

Основная цель проведенного исследования состоит в выявлении барьеров профессионального развития молодых российских ученых как потенциальных руководителей научных коллективов. Анализируется влияние государственных решений в области науки и образования на их профессиональное самочувствие и успешность. Дизайн исследования основан на синтезе качественных и количественных методов эмпирического анализа, включающем (1) онлайн-опрос молодых российских ученых (N = 105) о наиболее уязвимых, на их взгляд, зонах в развитии кадрового потенциала науки; (2) глубинное интервью с молодыми российскими учеными (N = 20), обеспечившее получение данных об индивидуальном профессиональном пути, специфических проблемах и трудностях построения научной карьеры, о субъективном видении перспектив развития российской науки. В результате комплексного анализа выявлены и обоснованы ключевые группы барьеров, препятствующих успешному карьерному росту в науке: финансовые, организационные и морально-этические. На конкретных примерах показано, как совокупность этих факторов влияет на жизненные планы исследователей и их положение в сфере науки и образования в целом. В заключительной части статьи обсуждаются предложения молодых ученых, направленные на преодоление выявленных профессиональных барьеров. Практическая значимость проведенного исследования заключается в предоставлении предложений молодых ученых, направленных на преодоление выявленных профессиональных барьеров для разработки на федеральном и региональном уровнях мер поддержки государством молодых исследователей по научным, организационно-управленческим и социальным вопросам с целью создания для них привлекательных условий работы в России. Благодарность. Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке РФФИ и АНО ЭИСИ в рамках научного проекта № 19-011-31346 «Государственная политика воспроизводства кадрового потенциала науки».

The Diversity–Innovation Paradox in Science

Prior work finds a diversity paradox: Diversity breeds innovation, yet underrepresented groups that diversify organizations have less successful careers within them. Does the diversity paradox hold for scientists as well? We study this by utilizing a near-complete population of ∼1.2 million US doctoral recipients from 1977 to 2015 and following their careers into publishing and faculty positions. We use text analysis and machine learning to answer a series of questions: How do we detect scientific innovations? Are underrepresented groups more likely to generate scientific innovations? And are the innovations of underrepresented groups adopted and rewarded? Our analyses show that underrepresented groups produce higher rates of scientific novelty. However, their novel contributions are devalued and discounted: For example, novel contributions by gender and racial minorities are taken up by other scholars at lower rates than novel contributions by gender and racial majorities, and equally impactful contributions of gender and racial minorities are less likely to result in successful scientific careers than for majority groups. These results suggest there may be unwarranted reproduction of stratification in academic careers that discounts diversity's role in innovation and partly explains the underrepresentation of some groups in academia.

Editorial

In my last Editorial, I wrote about the strong participation of African research in the Joint Meeting held by the British Ecological Society Tropical Ecology Group and the Society for Tropical Ecology in Edinburgh this April. This next quarter of the year will see the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation hold its annual meeting in Madagascar, providing a further opportunity for African researchers to present their work, both to each other and to the global research community. I hope that we will eventually publish some of the research presented at this prestigious meeting. It is very encouraging to see a steadily increasing participation of African ecologists and conservation scientists on the world stage and reminds me of the important role this journal plays in developing science and successful scientific careers on this continent. In June, this year our publisher, Wiley, released performance reports showing how their journals are performing in conveying research results to the scientific community and general public. The impact factor of the African Journal of Ecology has risen slightly this year, showing that in general our newly published papers are being more widely read than they previously were. The increasing regularity and calibre of scientific conferences and exchanges in Africa will surely boost further increases in the impacts of papers and a broader readership, but I hope that the Journal will remain a first choice for scientists wishing to publish their work to an audience on the continent, for whom the results are often most relevant. Our contributing authors are in the vast majority from African institutions, something which marks out the important role this journal plays, as this is the only peer-reviewed scientific publication that has this author profile. The annual figures also show that our recent Special Section on Camera Trapping was very well received, with twelve of the top twenty most downloaded papers coming from that issue. This is doubly impressive as the issue has only been in circulation 8 months, compared against papers available for up to a year. This Special Section was carefully structured to contain thorough reviews of various aspects of the emerging field and pair them with original research papers that illustrated the points in the review. The keen uptake encourages me to believe that this format is a good one for our Journal community. I will try to provide further Special issues on the topics most relevant to African ecology today. I trust you will enjoy them. A final reflection also comes from reviewing the performances of our various paper formats. Since revising our short format guidelines last year, we have seen many of our Notes and Records, and Short Communications achieving high readerships. Unexpected field observations which confirm a previously tentative hypothesis; pilot studies that show novel results; sightings of rare species; or new records that change distributions can all be turning points in our understanding of ecosystems. They are likely to be of particular importance as we grapple with the rapid ecological changes likely to occur this century. Elegant, focussed papers with clear messages are the building blocks of bigger pictures. Our short papers are achieving more than you might think. From their performance to date, I would certainly encourage future authors to consider these formats more. Use them to publish those precious observations that may otherwise never get farther than your field notebook. Your one record may just be the one that changes everything—if you get it out there! Our bigger pictures of ecosystems will be all the better if they are built on as much detail as the research community can provide. You can look forward to reading some excellent short papers in this issue, and I hope they will inspire you to try these formats as a reader and as an author.

A dataset of publication records for Nobel laureates

A central question in the science of science concerns how to develop a quantitative understanding of the evolution and impact of individual careers. Over the course of history, a relatively small fraction of individuals have made disproportionate, profound, and lasting impacts on science and society. Despite a long-standing interest in the careers of scientific elites across diverse disciplines, it remains difficult to collect large-scale career histories that could serve as training sets for systematic empirical and theoretical studies. Here, by combining unstructured data collected from CVs, university websites, and Wikipedia, together with the publication and citation database from Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG), we reconstructed publication histories of nearly all Nobel prize winners from the past century, through both manual curation and algorithmic disambiguation procedures. Data validation shows that the collected dataset presents among the most comprehensive collection of publication records for Nobel laureates currently available. As our quantitative understanding of science deepens, this dataset is expected to have increasing value. It will not only allow us to quantitatively probe novel patterns of productivity, collaboration, and impact governing successful scientific careers, it may also help us unearth the fundamental principles underlying creativity and the genesis of scientific breakthroughs.

Prof. Hatsuo Ishida: An Example of Accumulated Youth

Prof. Hatsuo Ishida It has been a long and very fruitful career for Prof. Ishida, starting at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, where in 1971 he graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering. Two years later, he obtained his M.S. in industrial chemistry at the same university. Then, it was time for him to go to the United States, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in macromolecular science at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1976. Right after, he accepted a position as a research associate at the same university. Then, he was promoted to senior research associate in 1978, and in 1979 appointed as an assistant professor. From that point forward, he went through all positions not only at Case Western Reserve University but also at other institutions as visiting professor, until becoming full professor in 1988. Prof. Ishida has been a pioneer in the molecular characterization of composite interfaces. His scientific activity covers a wide range of domains from synthesis, surface vibrational spectroscopy, to rheology and processing of composite materials. He has also pioneered in the field of benzoxazines and polybenzoxazines. As a proof of his successful career, we can mention some of the most prestigious awards he has received over the years: The Global Salute to Polymers Award (The American Chemical Society); The Alexander von Humboldt Award for Senior Scientist, Humboldt Foundation, Germany, October 1999; Eminent Scientist, Institute for Physical and Chemical Sciences (RIKEN, Japan); Award for Excellence in Adhesion Research, The Society of Adhesion; and The International Research Award, Society of Plastic Engineers (SPE). A Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE) Fellow and an SPE Fellow, Ishida has also been named a Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering (PMSE) Fellow of the American Chemical Society. He has established and coordinated for almost 25 years a graduate college on polymers and petrochemistry at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. He has 12 edited and translated books, more than 40 disclosures and patents, and over 500 papers published. His H-index is 87 with total citations greater than 27 000 (as of November 2018). He also spends his time being a member of numerous editorial boards such as The Journal of Adhesion, Journal of Nanostructured Polymers and Nanocomposites, Polymers, Journal of Materials, International Research Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Austin Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology, International Journal of Nano Studies & Technology, International Research Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and Recent Patents on Materials Science, as well as being associate editor of Polymers and Polymer Composites and Frontiers: Composite Materials. Prof. Ishida is the editor-in-chief of Composite Interfaces. As guest editors, we do thank all authors for their very precious contributions to this issue. We are also truly grateful to those scientists whose manuscripts could not be included in this issue. The work of every referee is also highly appreciated. We wish to express our gratitude as well to Dr. Mara Staffilani and Dr. Anne Pfisterer, editors of the journal, for having helped us to make this a success. Last but not least, we dedicate this special issue to Professor Hatsuo Ishida on the occasion of his 70th birthday, not only for his successful scientific career but also because of the tremendously positive impacts he has made on many of us, as our colleague, mentor, teacher, and friend. Happy birthday to you Ken!

Women in Science Awards

Women in Science Awards

Breaking the myths (or how to have a successful career in science)

AbstractThe article is a recollection of the ups and downs of my career as a research scientist. It does not chronicle my career in the standard way; there is no timeline of events and only a few details of the type of research that I have devoted my life to. I feel the take-home messages are relevant no matter what type of science you do. The narrative jumps around between periods of my life, uses anecdotes freely and attempts to be informative, forthright, and entertaining. Although science is perceived as a profession, the career pathway can be uneven and forked. In addition to discipline-specific knowledge and experience, successful scientists need a multitude of skills; for instance, human management, logistics, and social media—to name a few. The field often attracts talented introverts for whom working in teams is challenging. The complexity of science is fascinating and powerful. In the fervour for discoveries, care is needed not to become isolated from friends and family by long working hours. For those of you who have gone part or full way down this path, there will be value in comparing your experiences to mine. Mostly I hope that younger scientists who are beginning on this path, or considering whether to enter, will take away some messages that will help them stand on our shoulders.

Susana Magallón.

Susana Magallón.

Chances and challenges of a successful scientific career

Chances and challenges of a successful scientific career