TRANSCRIPT
“We will decide very quickly, within the first few months, whether they want to be a scientist or they want to do a PhD – and I'll explain the difference between the two. Today to do a PhD is not very difficult. If they really want a PhD I give them a set of instructions every month, they go away, they do them, we collect them slowly into an organized folder, we continue to do that for three years and at the end of the three years we put all that into a simple manuscript with figures, we put them in folders, and we get a PhD and that's it. And today biology has the power to do that without ever thinking very much as long as you are organized and you can think a little bit.
But if you really want to be a scientist then we can do this also – what we can do is explore something we don't know, and that you want to know. Now that can be frustrating, I've seen it in many students, because that means that you're going to face the unknown. You're going to face things that don't work; you're going to face a lot of work. And that’s really the test of a scientist.
The second thing that I always tell them in addition is that a PhD is about them. In a PhD what you're going to do is learn about yourself. You're going to learn a great deal. You're going to learn if you really like science, you're going to learn how resilient you are, you are going to learn how disciplined you are, you are going to learn what you are made of. And I see that all the time. There are people that can do science, not many; there are many people that can do a PhD; and there are some that can do none. I think that if you fail to understand that in a PhD you are learning about yourself you will have thrown away your PhD.”
-Alfonso Martinez Arias, Ph.D.
Professor of Genetics, University of Cambridge
“I want them to own the question they are addressing. It's difficult because you can get handed a project by me, but then if it's not your project then you're working for me. It's not the same thing. The graduate student has got to put his or her life into this for far too short a time, they’ve got way too much work to do so they’ve got to love it and have got to be passionate about it. I always tell students I'm not going to hand them a project, we are going to sit down and discuss and come up with one together, and I hope that that student will then think, "This is my project, I really want to know the answer to this”, because that’s the only way to get through it.”
-Brian Hendrich, Ph.D.
Principle Investigator, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge
“Most graduate students always start with the wrong question. They start with much to big a question. And you say, “Yeah fine, design me an experiment to answer that question,” and they can't. You’ve got to refine it down to a question that you can answer. Then design an experiment to answer that question. But before you design the experiment, you have to ask the question.”
-Joe Herbet, Ph.D., M.D.
Professor of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Cambridge
“We always say lets remember what the big picture is, because it’s very easy to get off track and start following little things... A leads to B leads to C leads to D and you think, “Ok, wait a minute, am I actually answering the question I set out to address.” So I always tell them, “What does this matter, how is this getting us closer to the end?” And that can help people stay focused.”
-Brian Hendrich, Ph.D.
Principle Investigator, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge
“Try to think outside the box, try not to look at just what happens to be the moments fashion, because by the time you've got your PhD, in say four years time (in the UK you'll get it much quicker than you do in the states, but still) by the time you've got that independence, the thing you've chosen because it's so fashionable now may well be overloaded – too many people climbing on the bandwagon.”
-Peter Lawrence, Ph.D.
Professor of Zoology, University of Cambridge
“Being wedded to one particular idea can often... you can end up being stuck, going down the... it's very difficult getting a good idea – I don't think I've had any really good ideas in my whole career; I've had some reasonably good ones. But if you get even a reasonably good idea often you can be so bowled over by it and so pleased with yourself you can end up ignoring evidence that doesn't quite fit. You can keep plugging away at something which is actually a little bit hopeless.”
-Nick Davies, Ph.D.
Professor of Behavior Ecology, University of Cambridge
“If scientists get a fact wrong, that's very bad. If you make a mistake in your experiments or you make a mistake in technology, that's held against you. If you get a theory wrong, it's not. People realize that most theories are incomplete or wrong, but they add, by being wrong, they add to understanding, if you see what I mean. He talks about the things that Darwin got wrong. Darwin for example believed in blending inheritance; he was just wrong of course. Einstein didn't believe in dark matter – of course, 98% of the world is dark matter. And so on. What else… the Big Bang theory and Fred Hoyle. He's pointing out that all great scientists, even though they are great, make big mistakes.
The point is two things. First of all, they get one right too, which is what matters, then people don't mind about big mistakes, and secondly, if they are great scientists, they admit they are big mistakes. And he actually gives an example, where he confidently predicted something called a w-boson didn't exist, then two friends of his discovered it. He said, “Right, well yeah, well done.”
-Joe Herbet, Ph.D., M.D.
Professor of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Cambridge
“Some people are real perfectionists and they never quite finish anything off because they are never happy with it. And it's very hard to judge when it's your first paper. When is the point at which to draw the line? When do you have to say this is ready to go out the door? So that's hard, I think you just have to talk to people and listen to others.”
-Chris Jiggins, Ph.D.
Professor of Evolutionary Biology, University of Cambridge
“I think the other thing you should do is talk to lots of people and go to lots of seminars. Even seminars which seem peripheral to what you might be interested in, because it's stuff at the interface which is often where all the new action is, opening up new fields of study.”
-Nick Davies, Ph.D.
Professor of Behavior Ecology, University of Cambridge
“I think this curiosity is a very important thing, and trying not to kill it. I think this is what I see often, that in the process of graduate school sometimes people loose that curiosity.”
-Alfonso Martinez Arias, Ph.D.
Professor of Genetics, University of Cambridge
“Let me tell you – it's a lot of luck in this. It’s like being an actor or being a writer, or being anything else. Ok, you need a certain amount of talent, what ever you want to call it, or ability. You need a lot of luck too. I was lucky I got the right labs and right people.”
-Joe Herbet, Ph.D., M.D.
Professor of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Cambridge
“What I advise is I say be true to yourself. I've seen many people being transformed because they change from wanting to pursue knowledge to wanting to pursue fame. Never do a Faustian pact, because that will not get you very far. Don't sacrifice your will to know for your will to succeed. I think that that is very important.”
-Alfonso Martinez Arias, Ph.D.
Professor of Genetics, University of Cambridge
“You should start on a project which is fairly pedestrian and observational. That really looks at something, describes it, or some experiments that will get you into the material. And then as you're doing that questions will come in your mind, hopefully, that will be new. And then you have to weigh out which of them if any are worth following –and you can do that on the side, while you're doing your bread and butter project, because at least there will be something.”
-Peter Lawrence, Ph.D.
Professor of Zoology, University of Cambridge
“I think in a PhD it would be a bit risky to not fluff whip, because you need to get your PhD, and I've just mentioned you're still at an early stage. You've got to learn how to do experiments, how to write up data, and so on. So it's not good to be too risky at that stage. But when you get to the post-doctoral level I think it's quite a good idea to start to think carefully about the project.”
-Sir Michael Berridge, Ph.D.
Emeritus Fellow of Cell Signaling, Babraham Institute
“In my opinion, many students, particularly graduate students, thinking about their post-doc, don't spend enough time thinking about the subject and looking at themselves, and asking what they are personally suited for and what do they like to do.”
-Peter Lawrence, Ph.D.
Professor of Zoology, University of Cambridge
“I read something that somebody once wrote that when you come up with good ideas that have nothing to do with your current project, but you still feel they are good ideas, keep a record of them; think early on about what you'd really love to do next and where you'd love to do it and approach people very early for a post-doc, because somebody who is that committed and doesn't say, “I'm getting my PhD next week and I desperately need a place to move to.” Somebody who says it’s going to be at least another year, but I'm thinking about post-docs already and I'm really interested in your work.”
-Margaret Scott Robinson, Ph.D.
Professor of Molecular Cell Biology, University of Cambridge
“One thing that is not to underestimate is that you will need your PhD mentor for years after you’ve graduated. You will need a lot of recommendation letters, for every fellowship you apply for, every studentship, for every position you apply you will need a letter of recommendation from your graduate advisor, and so it's much better if you get along with your supervisor and if he's really supporting you.”
-Kristian Franze, Ph.D.
Principle Investigator, Department of Physiology, Development, and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge