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Some random thoughts on doing research at a PUI...sparked by the recent fortune of having a few papers accepted.
When I moved to @ChapmanU more than 6 y ago, I knew research would be very different (i.e. more difficult)...
When I moved to @ChapmanU more than 6 y ago, I knew research would be very different (i.e. more difficult)...
First, let& #39;s be clear. As an administrator, I am pretty separated from the day to day in the lab. Without my amazing research scientist, Dr. Molla Islam ( @SoftMaterLAB), not a whole lot would get done. He trains the students, gets them up to speed on lab safety, designs expts...
...and keeps the whole show running. I still meet with everyone to discuss results, nudge research in different directions, help with new idea generation, and all the things a PI should do, but I often don& #39;t even have time for a quick lab walk through
So to be clear: in our group, Dr. Islam serves as a more traditional model of the PUI PI - he is fully engaged, in the lab, working side by side with the undergraduate students...teaching classes, keeping equipment up to date, ordering supplies, etc...
Nonetheless, my thoughts on the shift to a PUI are (I hope) still relevant, and the things on my mind right now relate to various characteristics of a research project or program: scope, impact, depth, breadth, and the perception of "quality".
Clearly, moving from an R1 with a lab of 15-ish PhD students/Postdocs to a PUI changes the types of questions you can ask, or at least the rapidity with which you can converge upon answers. But that re-framing has really made my perception of "R1-level" research very different
It seems easy now to read the literature and be blown away by the complexity and potential (or even actual) impact of people& #39;s (R1) work. In contrast, at a PUI the need to be patient, scale down to smaller bits of a problem, and then scaffold those bits into a larger program...
...becomes vital. The victories of publishing papers in meaningful outlets become simultaneously more satisfying and less glorious. It is satisfying to convince the reviewers that your paper, which might look like an LPU (least publishable unit) coming from an R1 lab...
...is "worthy" of the readership that journal claims to serve. But the lack of perceived "glory" of publishing our small victory next to the expansive studies of far more complex systems can serve to be a bit deflating for all of us...what role are we serving?
Yes, of course we are training students in ways that are vital for the future of research. But beyond that, what is the place of our work product? How do we impress upon our students that their work deserves that spot next to a paper claiming to report a "transformative" result?
My approach is one of dissection. One great joy I derive from mentoring students is our weekly 1-on-1 journal club. I meet weekly (and sometimes twice per week) with each undergrad to discuss papers of either their or my choosing. The articles can be about anything...
...and sometimes I feel like I am only one sentence ahead of the students as we discuss things way out of my comfort zone. Those discussions force me to dissect the papers as if I were a novice...and those dissections reveal the "bits" of the problem: the smaller knowledge quanta
the little (or big) techniques used by the researchers, the unique approaches to experimental design, the new methods of data analysis or visualization, and so on...revealing those bits, and really digging into their importance in the context of the larger study...
...becomes incredibly empowering for the undergraduate student. It provides some clarity around the notion of where their work fits in. How their work, which can appear so limited, is actually a potential enabler of the next massive "transformative" breakthrough...
None of what I am saying here is new. Faculty who have spent far longer at a PUI than I have already know these things. But the joy of rediscovering the foundational "bits" of research and knowledge generation that have come from my shift from an R1 to an R2...
...has changed me as a researcher in truly profound ways. So much that was taken for granted previously is now golden, and so much that seemed important before is now surplus to requirements. Thanks to @ChapmanU for giving me this opportunity. Research at a PUI has "sparked joy"
