Ali Divan, Ph.D.’s Post

FEELING THIS: "Getting a grant is harder than ever, scientists I spoke with said. What ends up happening is that principal investigators are forced to spend more of their time writing grant applications — which often take dozens of hours each — than actually doing the science they were trained for." "When the bulk of your workforce is underpaid, burning out, and constantly turning over, it creates a continuity problem. When one person leaves, they often take a bunch of institutional knowledge with them." "It’s not that scientists aren’t capable of creative, exciting, ambitious work — they’ve just been forced to bend to a grant system that favors short, risk-averse projects. And if the grant system changes, odds are science will too." Celia Ford at Vox reports on an issue that transcends science and touches ANY AND ALL efforts to do genuinely novel work. It's a weird recursive reflection given that I am for the first time utterly blessed with grants to pursue my own research and production goals, but still find myself allocating an enormous chunk of my runway to making sure I can secure enough funding to actually Get It Done... And it's somewhat disheartening that the two orgs listed in this article as notable exceptions with alternative models, Arc Institute and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), are precisely the same two places a trusted advisor recommended to me as possibilities back when I was working at SFI and bemoaning how even in such a maverick institution we had real challenges maintaining the continuity and story-keeping required to keep expanding into new terrains. How to fix this issue is enormous and one of the central questions of my grant-funded work. Ultimately, MONEY is the ur-technology for which we benefit from asking, "What are we trying to accomplish?" Anyone who reads this and gets as stirred up about it as I do, let's talk. https://lnkd.in/gZu37xCv

THOUGHTS AT THE END OF THE YEAR. I appreciate it that numerous researchers would love to work in our labs but I am trying to control the number of new scientists for a number of reasons: >>>. My age and funding; we still have NIH, UT-Portugal and industrial funding, but it is very limited. >>>. Support of the new generation; people my age do not need more researchers. My three main departments (Chem. Engin., Biomed. Engin., Molec. Pharmaceutics) have numerous younger, active and exceptional scientists that could work with you. ALSO NOTE: >>>. You must apply to the departments for admission, NOT to me. First, you must be admitted by the departments. I am not a member of any admission committees. >>>. The deadlines for admission are now. >>>. I do not have additional positions for postdocs. >>>. I do not have any positions for 6-month appointments even if your home country provides your stipends. FINALLY, CONCERNING PUBLICATIONS AND SEMINARS >>>. I accept to give only selected seminars for major research organizations and universities. I do not participate in virtual meetings for profit-making organizations. >>>. Publications and review articles are initiated only by me and my assistants.Please do not ask me to add my name to something you wrote. Not ethical. Thank you and happy Holidays and New Year.

At the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Alex Navarro helps young researchers envision their own paths to a scientific career as the senior program coordinator for the Broad Biomedical Post-baccalaureate Scholars. What is this program and why does Navarro run it? Find out in this Q&A! 🗯️ #DiversityInSTEM

I do understand the dilemma: the intense love for discovery vs. the hurdles of academia. Even after almost 2 years in industry, this article still stands. Transitioning is not about stepping away from your passion but towards new ways to make an impact. Your resilience, critical thinking, and dedication are invaluable, no matter where you go. To all researchers pondering their next steps: your journey is unique, and your potential is limitless. Let's redefine success together, embracing every opportunity to learn, grow, and contribute, inside or outside academia. #Research #AcademiaToIndustry #CareerTransition #ScienceCommunity #Career #Academia #Postdoc #PhD

Next up in our #MeetThePostDoc series we'd like to introduce Bert Malengier-Devlies: What led you to pursue a postdoc, and how has your journey shaped your research and career path? During my PhD, I contributed to understanding the pathogenesis of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, a severe childhood disease of unknown origin. My research on immunological changes and vaccine responses during the COVID-19 pandemic inspired me to pursue a postdoc combining my expertise. As a postdoc at CRH, I now study how early-life adversity, such as pollution or infection, influences the development of chronic diseases later in life. Can you share a memorable moment or achievement during your postdoc experience that made you proud of your work? As a postdoc, teaching and mentoring students is rewarding, especially seeing their gratitude and further progress in academia or industry. It's fulfilling to inspire my excitement for research, and the icing on the cake is when we can publish some work together. What’s one piece of advice you would give to early-career researchers or anyone considering a postdoc? I loved every stage of my PhD. If you’re like me, I highly recommend pursuing a postdoc. It’s a great opportunity to further develop as a researcher and build your own identity. Institute for Regeneration and Repair | The University of Edinburgh

A bit of #reflection on work with #PhD #students I truly do not know “what was I thinking”, but it happened so that in 2019 and 2020 I took on to work with (to supervise/mentor) three PhD students. Yes - 3. All of you who know me and my workload, are probably rolling your eyes, but that is how it was. Today, I am happy to announce that all three of them completed their PhD #journey! Starting with dr Vahidin Katica in September 2023, continuing with dr Emilija Heleta Švrakić, Ph.D this February and ending with dr Adnan Ovčina ten days ago. For me, it indeed is/was the journey, not the end result (even in the case of my dissertation), although the end result does matter indeed (one cannot stay trapped in the journey forever…). Reflecting on this journey, I need to say that all three candidates helped me grow. As much as I tried to share my knowledge and expertise with them, each candidate brought in a #unique #perspective, rich #professional #experience and in-depth knowledge. We did not have a project-based PhD, I was rather letting candidates decide on their own how will they craft their RQs and which areas will they tackle (of course within my expertise). So we delved in topics ranging from behavioral change intentions during Covid, through brand equity and engagement, to M&E’s role for project performance. Important to mention is, that in this process, I tried to behave as prof. dr Vesna Zabkar did when I was her PhD candidate. She is the best possible supervisor, I had the opportunity to learn so much while she selflessly guided me on the way and I hope I succeeded to be at least a bit like her! There is no "school" for supervisors - at least not yet :) so learning by experience was a real advantage for me. And so, while traveling back from Copenhagen Business School where I was in a role of an external member of the assessment committee for Daniela Micu's PhD defense, I am contemplating that this is the part of the academic job I really truly enjoy. There are different candidates I try to advise in various steps of the process (they will recognize themselves) even in instances where I am not formally their advisor. And in the end, here is an interested story on the PhD process I always share when teaching to PhD students: https://lnkd.in/eg4DMxnx Keep pushing! #research #phdstudents #phdjourney #supervision

Ph.D. candidates have many transferable skills that are useful for their future careers, such as research, communication, and problem-solving. Advice from experienced academics can help Ph.D. candidates navigate the challenges and opportunities of grad school, such as imposter syndrome, time management, and networking. A roadmap for a Ph.D. can help candidates plan their goals, milestones, and deliverables, as well as track their progress and achievements. #PhDCandidates #TransferableSkills #ResearchSkills #CommunicationSkills #ProblemSolving #AcademicAdvice #ImposterSyndrome #TimeManagement #NetworkingTips #GradSchoolJourney #PhDGoals #Milestones #PhDRoadmap #CareerPlanning #AcademicAchievements #ProfessionalDevelopment #PhDLife #GraduateEducation #AcademicCommunity #SuccessInGradSchool

We got… published? “After workshop implementation, the percentage of students from underrepresented groups increased from significantly, from 9.4% to 34.7%.” “ The commercially available two-hour online educational workshop titled the “Unconscious Bias Workshop” was used as the intervention in the study (Unconscious Bias Project, 2021).” (Calico Culture Strategies (formerly UBP)!!) The authors, writing, multiple statistical testing….. NOT US. We effectively have a 3rd party publish a peer-reviewed paper that shows our programs are impactful!!! Our minds are blown, we’re also supremely happy for the authors, and for UTHSC-OT’s ability to reap concrete results in representation in their admissions. As wild as it is to consider that our tailored program had such amazing results. As bananas as it is to think that we have one of VERY few tried, tested, and *published* programs that work. This is more than solid proof of concept. This is more than the validation of how grassroots efforts, careful research, and continuous improvement really do work. This is personal. This is how I, a PhD Molecular Biologist, NSF Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Awardee, Best Teaching Assistan, finally - 10 years after graduating - got published. If you know me personally or knew me through graduate school at UCSF - you already know this story. I’m an immigrant. My parents were first in their families to go to college. And even with my white-presenting features - I was discriminated against, belittled, sabotaged, and shoved out of recognition from the very institutions that sought to recruit me and benefit from my "diversity". The short story is that I went to UC San Francisco to obtain a PhD, got treated terribly by two awful professors, got my childhood dreams crushed, and decided to do something about it by getting into DEIJ. Some day I'll write more, but let's just say, after throwing my reagents (their money) into the trash, my 2nd professor’s parting words to me were “you’re not even a real scientist”. I had finally graduated and wanted to stay on as a postdoctoral fellow to further the research I started and publish. But there was no way I would return to publish under this kind of abuse. A few years later, my work was published without my consent and without my name on it. A long community-supported-healing and career exploration later - I grieved. I could not, in good conscience, return to being a scientist. Instead, I turned to the root of the problem: bias, discrimination, fear, and lack of tools to deal with conflict. Together with my amazing team - we helped people. We made change community by community, team by team. Maybe some day I’ll say more. Until then - please share this link and this paper widely. Please send it to someone looking for help in their admissions process, their hiring panels, their grant committees, and their board rooms. We CAN make a difference, it all starts with booking a call.

Are you a researcher, graduate student, postdoctoral fellow? Are you interested in using datasets from patient records, surveys, clinical trials, genomic studies, pharmacogenomic studies, climatic, and geographical information systems to conduct research? Do you need support to conduct systematic reviews, meta-analysis, economic evaluations, predictive models for disease diagnosis or treatment outcomes etc.? Join our 8-week mentorship program designed to empower researchers with the skills to utilize secondary data effectively, reducing the need for costly primary research. Our mentorship program is designed to build the capacity of researchers to use secondary data effectively from concept development to publication and presentation of their findings. The expected outcome of this program is for each mentee to produce peer-reviewed publications or conference abstracts. Program website: https://lnkd.in/eun2DvKj Application form: https://lnkd.in/eCyMf2th #research #secondarydata #mentorship #capacitybuilding

I'm thrilled to share our recent publication, "Revolutionizing Postdoctoral Training Using the Social Ecological Model: Insights and Experiences from the Propel Scholars," where we delve into the transformative impact of the Stanford Propel Postdoctoral Program. https://lnkd.in/g9XRuhhH The U.S. biomedical workforce is at a crucial juncture, grappling with a significant drop in postdoctoral positions and a glaring disparity in the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups. The Stanford Propel Program has already integrated these forward-thinking strategies to provide robust social, cohort, financial, and institutional support to diversify the professoriate, making it a beacon of hope and change. In our paper, we, the Propel scholars, share our personal experiences, highlighting how the program has enriched our postdoctoral journey. By embedding the social-ecological model, Propel has addressed structural issues at multiple levels—individual, interpersonal, departmental, institutional, and policy. While systemic changes are needed across academia, the Propel Program has successfully circumvented some barriers, aiding in the retention of postdoctoral trainees from diverse and historically marginalized communities. The Propel Program stands as a positive model, incorporating the NIH's recommendations and offering qualitative evidence of its effectiveness. We urge other institutions to follow Stanford’s lead, creating and maintaining programs that support diverse postdoctoral trainees. I'm proud to be part of this initiative and to share our collective experiences and insights. Let's continue to push for systemic change in academia, ensuring a diverse and inclusive future for the biomedical workforce. #PostdoctoralTraining #DiversityInSTEM #SocialEcologicalModel #StanfordPropel #NIH #BiomedicalResearch #EquityInAcademia #Mentorship #DiversityAndInclusion Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford Propel Stanford OPA Shawna Follis, PhD, MS Colwyn Headley, PhD Edward Vizcarra Robin Colomb Sugiura Josh Rebello, MPA Josefina Flores Morales McKay Mullen Keith Garcia