The Black Hole
People often ask me what I would do if I were in charge of fellowships for Canadian trainees. In response, I will often slip into my usual refrain of making investment in people the basic tenet of any fellowship program. As it currently stands, the career track for academics artificially selects for...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/tri-councils-should-learn-from-embo-fellowship/
The Black Hole
Over the coming weeks, I'll be breaking down the fantastic information found in the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars 2013 Survey of Canadian Postdocs. To start this, I thought I would focus on the most surprising finding in my mind: 53.1% of the 1,830 respondents were either landed immi...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/half-of-canadas-early-career-researchers-are-not-canadian/
The Black Hole
networking opportunities, and has a deep interest in seeing them succeed.
While their approach to entrepreneurship is both innovative and valuable, MassCONNECT ignores the infrastructure support that is needed by new start-ups to build on the topics covered at their weekly mentor meetings, and ar...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/building-on-the-accelerator-model-massconnect/
The Black Hole
Does starting up your own company hurt your academic career? Jonathan Thon says no, it actually has the opposite effect.
The following is a transcript from Continue reading I gave at the medical device development course, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) on May 12, 2016.
Due to length, I have broken the talk up into seven par...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/qa-translating-science-part-2/
The Black Hole
A more seasoned person can help shepherd the startup over those early bumps in the road, and can serve as a ‘voice of reason’ for the company.
This post continues a conversation on ageism in biotech introduced in an earlier series:
The Black Hole
Three scientists share their thoughts on how the scientific community can help combat racism in all its forms.
Scientists’ role in this
Jonathan Thon“Hear it. This anger that’s playing out, it isn’t new.”We are all accountable for the inequalities in our system and longstanding a...- Jayson Gay, The Wall Street Journal
The Black Hole
There is an opportunity to learn from dramatic changes in behaviour that have been imposed on us.
Editor's note: We are delighted to have a guest post from professor Berthold Göttgens at the University of Cambridge who shares his thoughts on the dramatic change in international travel, felt by academics across the world.I was looking at my calendar today and ...
The Black Hole
As head of a lab, you’re the one-man band responsible for everything from marketing to finance to product development.
As someone who stepped into the role of a group leader half a year ago, I have just embarked on an exciting journey to set up a new laboratory at University College London, U.K. My goal, as part of my New Year's resolution, is to share some updates about the lab's growth and some of the fun challeng...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/building-a-lab-6-months-of-triumphs-and-trials/
Speculative Diction
On Monday while scrolling idly through my Twitter feed, I learned that the Guardian's Higher Education Network in the U.K. has been
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/speculative-diction/mental-health-academe-lets-get-stories-straight/
Career Advice
Time management tips on the tenure track
Starting your career as a new faculty member is a very busy time. There are so many things to do, you have to prepare your courses, set up your research program, build a network of colleagues and determine which of the requests for your contribution to administrative and community activities you sho...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/beating-the-clock/
Career Advice
What female scholars need to know to get a faculty job in academia
Having explored the “challenging landscape” facing women in doctoral programs, it’s time to examine some strategies that will help women succeed in their pursuit of an academic position.
Female PhD graduates who con...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/women-academics-five-strategies-for-success/
Career Advice
A new group at the University of Toronto is striving to bring together grad students whose research is based on, or around global health.
A few years ago, Peter Singer, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, noticed a pattern in some of his interdisciplinary students. Several of them were focusing their thesis on global health issues, but none of them knew each other or spoke. He saw this as a missed opportunity for the...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/student-led-alliance-allows-students-to-learn-from-each-other/
Career Advice
University career advisers have some advice for graduating students.
As the semester comes to an end, thousands of students will leave the world of academia behind them. To help you make the exciting – but often nerve-wracking – next step, we asked a selection of university career advisers the following question:
"If you could give one piece of advice to s...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/degree-in-hand-now-what/
Career Advice
Without learning how to delegate, burnout is inevitable.
networking, whether it be around a coffee maker at work, over Twitter, or attending a poster session at a conference. Pay close attention to everyone you interact with, listen to them, learn their passions, learn what they like to spend their time doing.
2) Play nice. In addition to kn...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/art-of-delegation/
Career Advice
A few do’s and don’ts learned the hard way.
Are you thinking of editing or co-editing a volume? Here are a few do’s and don’ts, some of them learned the hard way.
Start with an overarching theme and research questions. Identify necessary content and then who would make good authors, rather than the other way around. Don’t just throw ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/put-together-great-edited-volume/
Career Advice
How to connect with key people and build your professional network.
networking tips.
Research and assess
Research the guest professionals, their job descriptions and their current and past affiliations before you arrive at the conference. Most are on Google, PubMed, Linkedin, ResearchGate and even Twitter. Select those who really pique your inte...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/essential-networking-tips-for-graduate-students/
Career Advice
networking sites, with 1.7 billion users logging in monthly. However, there is a trend to semi-private social media, including direct messaging apps, particularly among younger audiences.
To meet that demand, Facebook offers the Continue reading and private d...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/social-media-tools-academics-may-find-useful/
Career Advice
We shouldn’t hide our career aspirations, because we can benefit from brainstorming our goals and seeking trusted perspectives in narrowing our career choices.
Whether you are a graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, professor or employee, setting short and long-term goals is necessary for moving your career forward. But when you have a specific career goal in mind – should you make it public or keep it to yourself?
If you already publicize many aspec...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/should-career-goals-be-public-knowledge/
Career Advice
Why ongoing support is important while navigating an academic career.
Meet Margot, a 32-year-old woman who recently started a job as a staff member at University X. Margot wants a successful career in which she can move up into progressively more challenging roles with increasing responsibility. Despite her past work experience and academic credentials, after months o...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/case-employee-resource-groups-universities/
Career Advice
Some insight from speakers at the sold-out summit, which was hosted by the Indigenous Education Network at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
The push is on as universities seek to recruit and retain more Indigenous graduate students and faculty. But the invitation can lead those who take it up on a rocky road, especially when universities put the onus on Indigenous members of the university community to adapt to existing structures. Inst...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/lessons-first-summit-mentoring-indigenous-graduate-students/
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