Moves and Transition
Ai Lin Chun
Wednesday, 07 January 2009 14:53 UTC
Piles of manuscripts aside, one of the interesting things about my editorial job is that I meet lots of people and hear lots of stories. Recently, I met up with a University of Tokyo trained young Japanese scientist who returned to Tokyo from the United States for the holidays. We met up at a simple but delicious tofu restaurant in Ebisu and talked about various things including careers and making the transition after graduate school and post-doctoral work. I very much enjoyed the conversation and wished I had wise comments to make or advice to offer. Anyhow, I thought what would be better than to ask someone who has made this transition most recently…
I recalled a recent email from Professor Dan Peer, also another young scientist. Dan published a Review article with us in 2007 on Nanocarriers for cancer therapy. At that time, he was a senior post-doctoral fellow at MIT. He is now the Head of the Laboratory of Nanomedicine at the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Tel Aviv University in Israel.
I asked him about his decision to move and the prospects of nanotechnology in Israel, which unfortunately is now at war. He agreed to share his experience and here’s what he has to say…
Oh and before I forget, Happy New Year everyone! I wish everyone happiness, good health, success and peace in the new year.
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Replies
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Hi Ai Lin and everyone in this Nano community or should I say MACRO (nano) community.
First, let me start with a small correction: I was a postdoc at Harvard Medical School and not MIT, although I have a great respect to MIT.So I did made this transition very recently ,during mid August 2008, and this is truly an outstanding transition, because not only that I am in the process of establishing my own lab, but also the transition to another country with different culture than the US as well as different funding climate.
I found a very warm community that embraced me with a lot of attention and gave me all that I need to start my new life.
As for moving to a different country: this is a matter of one’s nature, since each one of us may handle a transition differently. I personally enjoy this move , because you find and learn of new cities with exciting people, fantastic food from different cultures and again wonderful people that really care.and yes, I think it is the people who make this transition easier!In this sense, Israel is an outstanding place. It has this wonderful mixture between old and new , inspiring places for all religious, mountains, dead sea, rivers and 24 hours cities very much like NYC (but much smaller in size).
From an academic standpoint I am enjoying meeting fellows, young or older colleagues, students that are very enthusiastic to learn different skills and eager to learn it from someone young (close to their biological age). Very innovative people that can do outstanding science having much smaller budgets.
So to summarize, I found a wonderful place both from a personal standpoint and from an academic one in Tel Aviv, and although Israel is under war these days, everyone in the street, the university or on the beach are wishing for peace, so I wish each one of you a wonderful, peaceful New Year and may this year brings good health, happiness and may all your dreams both your nano-dreams and your big ones will come true. -
Hello Dan,
Thanks for the post! So pleasant to hear the transition has been a good one and that you are surrounded by warm and hard-working people. I wish you continued success. And sorry for the error!
Could you please elaborate in some detail how you went about chosing this particular institution? How long did it take you to prepare for interviews, come to a decision and finally making the move?
Why did you choose to remain in academia?
What is the one most pleasant and one least pleasant thing you have to do now that you are the head of a laboratory?
If you do make another move in the future, what would be the one thing you will take away from your experience living/working in Israel? Would you implement it at the next destination?
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O.K.- so first, one needs to decide if he/she are interested in an academic career. If one is interested, then the journey starts by searching for an opening position (usually posted in journals such as nature, science, or more specific journals such as nature nanotechnology or websites designated for job posting).
Then, the process of sending the application with your past expertise and future plans, reference names (do not forget to inform them about your plans!), CV and list of publications and funding.
This process usually takes a few months, then if you are invited to interview(s) it takes a few more weeks. Preparation for the interview include practice on your presentation with some peers such as your scientific group and / mentor(s).Then, the day comes – excitement – you are surrounded by faculty members (often you already know them from their work, but did not met them personally) and it is time to give your talk.
Depending how many applications one submits, but in my case, I had to repeat this process for 11 times in three countries.
After receiving offers from 8 of them, I tried to calculate where I will be able to do the best scientific work with excellent people.
It is not a simple task to try and ‘calculate’ where your life will be better, but after considering many factors (seed money, people, equipment available as core facility, safety of the place, teaching duties, career development options and salary) – I have decided to move to Tel Aviv university.It took me a while to understand that I may be better in an academic setting than in industry, but this is really looking into yourself and decide that although , many times , life in the industry is more exciting (especially in startups) I may have more freedom (from an academic standpoint) to investigate any topic I wish (if I can convey research foundations/ federal institutions that it is worthy in funding this idea).
Looking at the day-to-day work: I like to interact with the students (tech graduate and undergrad students), plan experiments together and analyze them.
I am a bit unhappy from the paperwork we need to handle for everything, but having an outstanding lab manager – even this task becomes more pleasant!For your last question -it is still very early to answer, I am sure that they are many things I will improve in the process for my next move (if I will move), however, as of now, I cannot put my finger on any specific issue, I would do differently.
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