Ok, we need to talk about rest. In a recent conversation, an amazing, brilliant, hard-working academic researcher lamented to me that their time off over a long holiday weekend didn’t restore them as hoped. As we chatted through why that might be, several things came to light: 1) They still checked email and other notifications over this “time off”—just like … Read More
From Dread to Productivity: Transforming Your Writing Habits for Research Success
In my many years of working with academic STEM PIs, I’ve yet to encounter one who said they got into their career because they just love writing. Even among those who enjoy writing (and they do exist), that part wasn’t the major driver of their decision. Yet, for PIs, writing is central to advancing curiosity-driven pursuits, for example, by preparing … Read More
Diversifying Your Research Funding Portfolio: A Strategy to Increase Resilience
If you are performing grant-funded research within the US, you’ve likely experienced a number of highs and lows related to federal research funding trends. Many federal grant programs fall under Congressional budget appropriations and thus are subject to delays, uncertainty, and yes, even cuts depending on when a new budget law is passed and what funds are set aside for … Read More
The secret to effective communication: Concepts to help your grant proposals, papers, and more
Whether you’re writing a grant proposal or technical manuscript, giving a research talk, or having a conversation with a senior or junior colleague, you probably want to be understood. You might also want the other party(ies) to agree with your perspective, or to take action based on what you share. No matter the desired outcome, there is one key to … Read More
Averting an Energy Crisis
The laws of thermodynamics describe the behaviors of energy in systems. Famously, the 1st law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; energy can only change forms. This change in form is more specifically captured in the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which in part indicates that every energy transfer will result in some amount of energy becoming less useful … Read More