 When it comes to a day-in-the-life as a graduate student chemist, the stereotypical imagery of someone sitting at the lab bench in a white lab coat and goggles, with a few beakers and maybe a Bunsen burner nearby isn’t too far off.
Okay, maybe not always. But the part about being in lab all the time is pretty spot on. Even when our work involves environmental samples like soil, sea water, or plant material for example, someone else—a collaborator usually—will just ship us the samples for analysis. But as an interdisciplinary graduate student in the Bredesen Center working at Oak Ridge National Lab, the opportunity to engage in field work is not only possible, but encouraged! Which is why I am in Nome this week, in western Alaska on the Seward Peninsula, collecting what I hope will be the last set of samples needed to complete my graduate work. Yay!
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I'm working on a series of posts right now about things I've learned in grad school to expand on a couple of my most visited posts: Top 10 things I learned during the first semester, and 5 things I learned over my first summer! Follow along here and on Twitter, @MassSpecMaven, #thingsilearnedingradschool.
#1: Work Smart, Not Hard #2: Failure and Conflict are Inevitable #3: Literature Before Lab #4: Too Much Autonomy Can Actually Hurt You #5: Support Networks are the Bee's Knees #6: Never stop asking "Why?" #7: There's Time for Social Media #8: Relationships Are Hard(er) #9: Perspective, Get a Regular Dose #10: Comparison is the Thief of Joy 
Disclaimer: I am not a relationship counselor. But since this is part of my 10 more things I learned in gradschool, these are a few pieces of advice based on my own experiences. Psychology/counseling friends, please feel free to add your academically-informed advice in the comments. :)
Okay, with that out of the way, here goes. This doesn't seem to be a topic everyone is super comfortable talking about, but when it does come up in conversation, everyone seems to be on the same page: whether it be a friend or a romantic partner, or even a professional relationship, finding and maintaining relationships generally gets a little harder in grad school. Why the heck is that? How can you start combat that? 
This fourth year of the PhD is no joke y'all. But even though grad school is packed with classes, teaching, grading, experiments in lab or the field, writing, or making posters and talks for conferences, there's still time for social media! Or I guess what I'm saying is that it's worth it to make time. Here's why...
We all start out questioning the world around us. Even before we can communicate out loud, we resort to using our other senses to better understand anything and everything we can. It’s almost biological. Somewhere along the line though, whether it be by society’s erroneous design or as a result of collective, subconscious “bad habits”, we implicitly start to reel in that curiosity as we grow up. I can’t help but note that unfortunately, this is especially true in young girls, but that’s a post for a different day.
Have you ever felt, since coming to grad school, that there’s kind of this unspoken expectation that if you can’t figure something out on your own, you might just not be cut out for the job?
You may have had a professor in class give you strange look when you asked a question, or your adviser gave you grief about not finishing up a tough experiment faster, or you see another grad student getting all of this stuff done while you’re over here adding ‘take shower’ to your to-do list so you feel like you at least got something done? Don't judge me.
This ‘episode’ of #thingsilearnedingradschool will be quick since I think it’s an easy one! It’s an easy one to explain anyway. Maybe not so easy to master. But, hopefully this will help!
 "That is one big pile of shit."
It's no secret that getting a graduate degree is anything but easy. There are going to be days where the “Valley of Shit” starts to look like there's no way out. You’ll start to question why you’re here. Wonder whether any of your work actually matters to anyone. You’ll start to daydream about the countless other things you could be doing with your young adult life. And yes. There will be the days where you seriously contemplate leaving. And to be honest with you, I think it takes more strength to leave than it does to stay. If somewhere along the way, you realize that you no longer need a graduate degree for the career you want to pursue, or you don’t even want to stay in the field you’re in at all anymore, it's hard to get out of your own ego, stop thinking about what others will think or say, and just own the decision you've made. I completely understand that until academia makes a conscious effort to change the culture around what it means to be a graduate student in STEM, we're going to continue to have students making the decision to pursue alternative careers that offer better incentives for their time and effort.
That being said, grad school can also be a very fulfilling experience for those who choose to stay. Among the tough days, there will also be days where you remember why you're here, and how you're going to get through it all. You'll see light at the end of the tunnel, and daydream about what it will feel like to finally say to yourself, "I did it". In the beginning, on top of classes, teaching, research, and hard deadlines for posters, papers, and presentations, you spend quite a bit of time just figuring out what it means to be a graduate student. Right around year two or three, no matter how much you prepare, there's going to be a few 'surprises' that make you question if this is the right path for you. Lesson number two of these 10 More #ThingsILearnedinGradSchool, stepping in shit, and learning how to deal with it, is part of the process.
 This year’s Interdisciplinary Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting will bring together a selection of outstanding minds from multiple generations, 3 scientific disciplines, and nearly 90 different countries. Nobel Laureates and young scientists from all around the world in the fields of chemistry, physics, and physiology & medicine will listen to lectures on some of science’s greatest discoveries and participate in discussions about some of the world’s toughest challenges.
When the meetings first began after the end of World War II, a frequent topic of discussion was undoubtedly, nuclear energy. Indeed, at one of the first Lindau meetings in 1955, 52 Nobel Laureates signed the Mainau Declaration as an appeal to governments around the world against the use and proliferation of atomic weapons. At this year’s meeting, among the conversations ranging from new chemical reaction mechanisms, to cosmic microwave background radiation, to cell signaling and drug development, there will be a slightly different, but equally threatening, unifying theme: climate change. |
Hello!Welcome to Think Like a Postdoc. If you're a fan of science as much as I am, and/or are curious about getting a degree in a STEM field, or pursuing an interdisciplinary graduate degree (all from the perspective of a graduate student), then you're in the right place. Think Like a Postdoc also includes posts about my current lab and field research, including analytical chemistry, Arctic biogeochemistry, and energy & environmental policy. Comments and questions are always welcomed. And please tell me what you want to hear about next! Top PostsQuestions to Ask Before Choosing Grad Program
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