Expectations of Lab Members

To make a lasting impact on the field of cognitive neuroscience. To make an impact on the field, we must achieve the following tasks:

Expectations of all Lab Members

Above all, I expect everyone to do their very best and to be aware and communicative of what you need to be happy and feel fulfilled. I expect you to work both individually and as part of a team, and open and honest communication is an absolute must. More specifically, I expect scientific integrity, passionate interest, hard work, smart work, common sense, careful execution, maximum efficiency, steady motivation, good scholarship, great vision and most importantly, a positive mental attitude.

Failures, technical problems, and mistakes, I certainly expect. But I will not tolerate a negative attitude that harms yourself, the people around you or the morale or reputation of the lab as a whole. I expect you to do what you can to support and encourage your fellow lab members, make sure you have the resources you need to feel supported yourself and do your part to keep the atmosphere of the laboratory fun and productive. I expect everyone to attend all lab meetings and participate in the discussion. I expect all lab members to come find me for one on one meetings on a regular basis. Finally, the obvious but mandatory items: I expect all lab members to stick to protocols and regulations set out in the wiki and maintain the highest ethical standards.

Collaborations

Collaborating is absolutely crucial to scientific progress. Although all graduate students and post-docs should be leading at least one project, I strongly encourage people to take on collaborations to enrich their experience. From a short-term perspective, they help any given project get done more quickly and everyone gets to be in more papers. From a long-term perspective, being led by others helps you to learn how to be a better leader and everyone gets exposure to alternative technical and scientific styles. Plus, much of the research we do requires many complementary skill sets. Ongoing open communication about authorship and contributions is a must, and strong moral fiber in all participants is always expected.

Competition

Even when a formal collaboration is not appropriate, communicating about progressing projects helps to inform future decisions and prevent redundancy, thereby expediting the discovery of new information and increasing efficiency as a greater scientific community. In environments where trust, openness, honesty and mutual support are held as the highest values, competition can occur in a fun and productive way that is exciting, but not stressful. The degree of competition is an inverted U-shaped curve: without any competition, it is difficult to focus and prioritize; when competition is too intense, quality can be sacrificed for speed; but when there is a healthy balance of friendly competition, then you have peers who can inspire you to raise your standards to the next level and in such cases, competition can also accelerate scientific progress.

Work Ethic

My top priority is that people in the lab are happy and stay happy. To be happy, you need to make time to take care of yourself (socialize, exercise, eat healthy, sleep, blow off steam, etc.). To stay happy you need to maximize your effort/productivity ratio and feel that you are moving forward. I do not necessarily expect people to work evenings and weekends, and I won’t tell you how much vacation you should take. I will ask you to look inside yourself and ask yourself what you are made of and what you want for your future. Excellence and mastery do not come without dedication. Productivity requires both hard work and thoughtful planning and design. That means working smart — considering multiple strategies and selecting the best one. If you must do a risky experiment, do a safe one as well. Hedge your bets. Ask your mentors for advice. Discuss with the lab. Think out loud. Use your colleagues and mentors as resources.

Technical Issues

First, don’t fix it if it isn’t broken. Second, change one thing at a time. After that, I expect you to ask for help when you need it, but try to figure it out for yourself if you can with manuals or the internet. In terms of equipment, I expect you to ask to buy equipment that you need to push the field forward and advance the existing realm of possibilities — but do not be wasteful. Try to negotiate a discount or a warranty. If you ask to buy something, make sure we are going to get our money’s worth.

Scholarships and fellowships

I strongly suggest that each and every person who is eligible for scholarships and fellowships to apply for them: Not only will they benefit the lab, but they will also benefit you and your personal career. Post-docs, in particular, should expect that applying for and obtaining their own funding will be part of their training. You will be able to attend more conferences and travel the world, you will be able to have more intellectual freedom and you will have a record for being able to fund yourself – all of which will help advance your career and empower you to be an independent investigator.

Mentorship

My broader career goal is to make a lasting contribution to the scientific community, and I aim to do so not only with primary research findings but also by providing excellent training and mentorship to the next generation of cognitive neuroscientists. Each individual discovery is just that: a single discovery. However, each well-trained young investigator is a source of unbounded future contributions. Teaching and Mentorship are the lifeblood of our trade, and core values of integrity, rigor, curiosity, and inspiration are part of science. Mentorship is a very high priority for me, and it is a great privilege and a great responsibility. I have been fortunate enough to have had several wonderful mentors in my career, and I have them to thank for all of my success. I have learned a great deal from them, and am excited to be able to pay their good deeds forward. That said, nobody was born perfect, and we are all learning as we go.

Interpersonal

We’re a family, and we need to take care of each other. Temper your tempers and if you can’t, apologize as soon as you’ve cooled down. If you’re not sure where the boundary is (for space, expectations, demands), please ask. I run a casual lab and I don’t like to dictate rules of conduct.  But I do expect you to conduct yourselves like adults and maintain a level of professionalism. That said, you may experience tough times that make that professionalism difficult to maintain. Please communicate to me if you are going through tough times and I will do everything I can to be there for you and support you as you work through them.

Outreach

The more you know, the more you owe. Encouraging younger generations, underprivileged or underrepresented populations, and establishing a culture of paying it forward is central to our lab philosophy.

Expectations of Post-Docs

I expect you to realize your maximum potential and I accept you into my lab with the expectation that you have the capacity to be a leader in the field of cognitive neuroscience. I expect you to tell me what you need to realize your vision and I will do my best to ensure that you have it. My goal is to place all of my post-docs into career paths where they can make the maximum impact on the scientific community. My post-docs will have ample opportunities to develop the skills that will serve them as a principal investigator, including mentoring, writing grants, giving talks, publishing papers and leading projects to fruition. Most of all, I expect post-docs in my lab to tell me what I can do to be a better PI.

Expectations of Graduate Students

I expect you to bring your enthusiasm and curiosity to the lab, along with your questions! I expect you to speak up about your problems, insecurities, frustrations so I can help you enjoy all the phases of your graduate training.

I expect you to keep on track of all of the deadlines and requirements of your program. In a way you’re in business for yourself, and part of that job is knowing what hoops you need to
jump through to successfully complete your program and keeping me updated so I can help you do so successfully. I expect you to meet all program deadlines and to graduate in a timely fashion so that new students have the opportunity to join the lab for graduate
research.

I expect you to maintain strong research ethics and data hygiene, and make your data publicly available as per the dictates of open science. And I expect you to publish your results – whatever they may be. Null results are extremely instructive – they contribute to
the research community as much as positive results. All of our work is funded by the Canadian taxpayer and it is the obligation of all of us to put our findings out in the world, however imperfect or unexpected. If we design our experiments well, there is something to learn regardless of the outcome. Moreover, the lab’s funding depends on publishing. if you don’t publish then you contribute to a situation where new students don’t get the funding and opportunities to do their research that you will have had.

Finally, I expect you to mentor undergraduates, collaborate with each other, learn from post-docs and myself about how to find your true calling in our field — what excites you the most? Remember that we’re all in this together and keep an open mind about what you
expect your graduate career to be. Listen and internalize advice, even if it means you have to repeat an experiment — stubborn students take the longest to graduate. If you are able to do this you will finish your program and free to pursue your post-PhD goals in no time at all.

Expectations of Undergrad RAs

Undergrad RAs typically start by working with a graduate or postdoctoral mentor doing entry level tasks such as data collection and entry.  This is a chance to become familiar with the kind of research conducted in labs like ours and the basics of what goes into running experiments. It’s a chance to see whether you take to research.  A big part of exposure to lab research is learning that it involves a lot of grunt work and very little day-to-day glory for everyone involved. I expect you to be prompt, reliable and precise in the tasks you are asked to do. On average, we expect 10 hours a week in the lab.  If you are, and your curiosity is sparked, you get first refusal on opportunities for directed studies/course credit and increasing opportunities to learn higher level skills, to generate your own research questions, and to present research at undergraduate and local conferences. You can expect our full support on helping you achieve your post-graduation goals, whatever they may be.  And the most senior volunteers are first in line for any paid positions that may come up when funding is available.

Expectations of Staff

Paid research assistants and the lab manager are the glue of the lab. You have flexibility and you also need to be flexible. You are to do whatever is needed, and whatever you are best at doing that the lab needs, making sure that we are firing on all cylinders at all times. This includes running participants, maintaining equipment, managing data, programming experiments, helping out on specific projects, and leading projects if you have the desire and ability to do so. The needs of the lab will be constantly evolving as will your responsibilities, opportunities and abilities. We will work together to define your evolving role in the lab depending on your skills, preferences and talents.

Expectations of Beck

You can expect me to help you to envision, implement and communicate/publish your stories, and cultivate your career development, whatever your goals may be. Although it’s a tough funding environment, you can expect me to do my very best to ensure that the lab has funding so that you get what you need you need to test your hypothesis.  You can also be sure I will work hard to help you prepare for all your personal milestones, be they job talks, comps, or grad school interviews. You can expect me to nominate you for awards and support your travel to conferences. You can expect me to meet success with celebration and failure with moral support.

You can count on me to care about your happiness, your projects, and your future.

Adapted from a statement by Kay Tye