I can’t help but start this week’s updates with discussing global warming as the Global Seed Vault buried in the Arctic to ensure food supply at the face of a humongous calamity by storing seeds of important crops is under risk as its protective permafrost is melting away. This brings me again to reiterate and emphasize on the importance of science outreach and diplomacy to hit a chord with the statesmen and policy makers. If this is something that makes you want to make a difference, here is your opportunity to get trained by ASBMB, as it invites you to participate in workshop on communication, outreach and professional development at Kentucky, USA on 29th – 30th September, 2017.
Not only just for policies, but you also have the power to tell people the stories of scientific development. Here are a few from plenty that interested the CSG members – Team of scientists from Massachusetts build Institute for Protein Innovation – aim towards developing antibodies against every extracellular proteins in humans, aim to work with non-affiliated industry and academic investigators. In the age of omics, Harvard Medical School researchers are mapping interaction partners in the entire human proteome. A big NIH funding has been granted to study neurobiological gender differences at Worchester Polytechnic Institute. While all these interesting work is happening in the field – should we have more permanent staff scientist positions or hire more PhD students and postdocs, a constantly moving mass of people?
In the conquest of reducing gender gap in science, UNESCO offers PhD fellowships to women scientists from developing countries, generously funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Going beyond academia, NITI Aayog celebrates women’s contribution to India’s growth in formal and informal economy – make the powerful women around you known. Mothers can now add their maternal experience on LinkedIn as well – thanks to a tool that Mother NY has developed. But at the heart of the problem , it is of prime importance to recognize our biases, and also to know how to circumvent them – an example to follow from GDI with support from Google to design machine learning to detect how much time females occupy in movies.
And everything somehow these days boil down to data science and machine learning! Who are the people working in machine learning, what skills and expertise do they need to have? Not just in for profit industries, it has the potential to solve complex societal problems like changing the face of education where teachers take up the more roles of mentors, enabling and concentrating on each individual’s growth.Unfortunately, in this era of intense competition, mentoring has taken a back seat in many places, including research. Most of us as early career researchers need a good mentor, the late career researchers should strive to become a good mentor – and for anyone who wants to know what should a good mentor do, here is some advice. Being a good team leader also means being able to nurture good ideas. But unconsciously we tend to kill a lot of these, know how. Here is a piece of dark humor of where a PhD student in India also evaluates himself in absence of university’s efforts to look for mentors for the students it registers.
Fortunate are the ones who master the art of staying open to diverse possibilities – see what three different PhD holders have to say on this, a personal account of how time spent in academia also prepares you for other careers. And for the ones who are the path of learning here are some tips to boost your career. Stay visible to recruiters via LinkedIn – here are some numbers to coax you into networking. It’s equally important to know what and how not to speak while presenting yourself.
If you are confused about what skills are required for the jobs in market, I am here with some help for you. Find all that you need to know about consulting and entry into data science as a PhD holder. What is medical writing? What does it mean to be a website and social media manager at CIRM? Hear Leslie Stolz, Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation speak at JLABS, LA, about her experience as a business development professional – what, how and why do they know to take the ‘right’ decisions for their companies. There is an upcoming workshop on combating antimicrobial resistance at Washington, DC, USA from June 20-21, 2017. If you are moving into the USA, it will help you to have immigration info relevant for APD holders.
Know the companies trending currently – here is CNBC’s top 50 disruptor companies of 2017. Let’s a take a sneak peek into the other big names. What does Abbvie aim towards? Amazon is beginning its entry in pharma and life science industries. Novartis is reshuffling jobs in different continents as it heads for more centralization. Sanofi invites proposals for cancer treatment via precision medicine. It might help you to stay updated with the latest developments in the field of precision medicine by the essays published by JAMA on the field.
I have a good reason to have you prepared you with all this bits of information so far – this week has a bonanza of job openings in the USA and Europe. Check which one fits and suits you.
- Research investigator, Immunology, Novartis, Basel, Switzerland
- Faculty position, Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, USA
- Scientist/ Senior scientist, Protein Purification, MassBio, MA, USA
- Senior scientist, Antibody, MassBio, MA, USA
- Senior scientist, Reactivity Prediction/ Transition State Search, Schrödinger, NY, USA
- Scientist, Redirected Immunotherapy, Immuno-Oncology, EMD Serono, MA, USA
- Scientist, Antibody/ Protein Engineering, Salubris Biotherapeutics, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD, USA
- Scientist, Proteomic Biostatistics, Alkahest, Inc., CA, USA
- Bioinformatics data scientist, Just, SF, USA
- Associate scientist, Immunobiology Safety and Biomarkers Assays, Amgen, SF, USA
- Senior Research Associate, Cardio Renal Metabolic Disease, Merck, SF, USA
- Research associate, Department of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK
- KIND postdoctoral fellowships, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft, Netherlands
- Postdoctoral researcher, Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Tufts Medical Centre, MA, USA
- Postdoctoral researcher, Oncology Discovery Department, Johnson & Johnson, Spring House, Pennsylvania, USA
- Postdoctoral researcher, Computational Biology, Celgene, MA, USA
- Systems programmer III/ Postdoctoral position, Web Application, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Multiple positions, Understanding the Fundamentals of Ageing, Calico, SF, USA
- Multiple positions, Metabolon, NC, USA
- Multiple positions, Henry Jackson Foundation, USA
- Application specialist, Product/ Market Management Team, Tecan Schweiz AG, Männedorf, Switzerland
- BioProduct Development Field Application Scientist, Sales, Molecular Devices, MA, USA
- Program officer, IBD and Crohn’s disease, Helmsley Charitable Trust, USA
- Strategic partnerships manager, Velocity Global, LLC, Denver, Colorado, USA
- International consultancy, Environmental Sustainability, Innovations and Logistics Support for Health Systems Immunizing Strengthening, UNICEF, Lilongwe , Malawi
- Scientific writer, Regeneron, NY, US
- Science writer, Leidos Biomedical Research, Frederick, MD, USA
- Communications officer, Columbia University, NYC, USA
- Tech transfer marketing analyst, Cedar Sinai Medical Centre, LA, USA
- Research associate, Protein and Cell Line Production, Tri-institutional Therapeutics Institute, Inc., NY, USA
- Manager, Grants and Contracts Opportunity, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, NYC, USA
- Intern, Investment team, Merck, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Fall 2017 White House Internship Program, Washington DC, USA
- CSG Data Science Club, (only for CSG members)
Also know the pros and cons of contract based positions in life science industries – it is certainly a trend on a rise! For people who consider freelance working or starting up a new enterprise you are then one of the multipotentialites – those who know how to do everything – here is a story of one of them to pep you up.
And here is my summer challenge to get you all out chasing your hobbies. If you have a camera collecting dust somewhere here is your opportunity to make good use of it as Royal Society announces photography competition. And those who used to fond of writing but now haven’t pursued it for a while, learn how to be creative on purpose?!s A lot of us on Club SciWri might vouch for its success. Here is some advice that works for Susan Cain in helping herself put her thoughts out in and for public in writing. We can all do it, if Precilla D’Souza could finish her PhD in the face of terminal cancer.
And let me end for the day with some Sunday humor – have you ever wondered what would it look like if corporate incorporated grad school mannerisms? If you are one those who think that would be a wonderful world, read this. If you don’t think so, read it anyway for a big grin 🙂
About the author:
Somdatta Karak works with Club SciWri as a project coordinator and Corporate Liaison. She is a doctorate in Neuroscience from Georg August University, Göttingen, Germany and has been a Teach for India fellow (2014-16). She loves putting her analytical skills to build newer and more sustainable solutions, enjoys traveling and communicating and takes every opportunity to expand her horizon.
You can reach her here.
