We’ve been numerous among the science blogging and journalistic community to wax lyrical about conferences and how stimulating and enriching they can be.
On one hand, conferences can be undeniably fun. Maybe a little awkward to set up arrangements beforehand, but once there, they can be a boost to the intellect as well as to the ego.
On the other hand, conference scams and spurious “networking” abound – I myself have been invited as a speaker to speak at an Indian medical conference on a topic I don’t master, on the mere strength of my being a foreigner, potentially willing to go, and able to deliver a talk in fluent English. Presumably the invitation came from the recommendation of one of the students who attended an earlier master’s level course I gave in Thailand a few years ago. That prestige factor – well, no successful conference escapes the aura conferred by at least one local star. Fame is a strange and seductive beast, indeed.
Some conferences apparently exist only because of the reflected glory of having invited a famous scientist, who accepted for a plenary session. The scientist in question gets accolades, and it’s good ego-massaging all around.
We do all love connecting and learning from one another, near and far. That’s why anyone comes to read this blog, and I’m perfectly conscious of this, and also that allowing nine days to elapse between posts is not optimal for maintaining a sense of conversation and community. (This was supposed to go up last night, but I only hit “preview”.)
As an aside: I’m clearly not following the good advice in How to set up a science blog post. It’s nice enough to have you here. Thanks for stopping by! But other bloggers: you can do better than this.
Better to be physically near, once in a while, those who are usually far.
A colleague of mine, with whom I collaborate but whom I had never met in person so far, was held up due to circumstances beyond her control (much like I was, but for different reasons). She was greeted more than once, upon arrival, with semi-joking accolades of “here’s the rock-star scientist! she shows up for her presentation and leaves just after!” Which was hardly fair, given that she was to present the last afternoon of the conference.
Now that I am back in my Paris lab, my two students have finished their degree-earning manuscripts. One for the Ph.D. and the other for an M.S. The latter, in particular, was not nearly grateful enough to satisfy me, for my allowing him to take over half of the physical space and as many resources in my small lab over the last year. He’s nearly finished, but his resentment is palpable. Clearly he feels like I did not do enough for him. I’ve asked him if he could tell me what he wants from me, and he made it clear that in his rational head, he understands that I can hardly do more than open the doors, the freezers, the bank accounts and my time when in Paris for him to carry out his project, which I only very reluctantly accepted to co-direct. But in his heart, I didn’t do enough. Absence does not make the heart grow fonder.
As for Ms. D.Q., whom a few older loyal readers may remember, she wrote an almost embarrassingly fulsome tribute to her co-director in the acknowledgements (I don’t have the habilitation and must enroll this month to obtain it this year). Citing O Captain! My Captain! – and the boss is hardly dead, yet. Undying gratitude to her (one-and-only) wonderful thesis director. Formally, that’s true. In reality, if there was one-and-only, it was me. I received the following appropriate, but slightly inflected thanks to “my lab supervisor”: it was the first time for both of us, and she hopes I learned as much as she did from this experience.
Well, that will teach me in the future to start off by telling postgrad students that we will be learning from one another, to put them at their ease. It’s not what they want to hear, and they get to be at their ease quickly enough. They want an authority to look up to. I have a hard time being an authority figure as such. All I want is as much respect and mutual help as I extend to others. A bit much to expect from kids or trainees, or both. So, yes, I’ve learned a lot from the experience. Enough to put me off of major trainees this year (students who want a stint of a few weeks are still welcome).
Being back in Paris is good and bad. I am not exactly an authority on getting organized. On the other hand, I keep running into people who want to collaborate with me. This must be a good sign. I just have to keep from being flattered into accepting all such invitations. Schmoozing continues, in the corridors and over the Internet.
You’re too young to be an authority figure…
I could use some ego-massaging.
I’ve been lab supervisor to a few undergrad students and they are the same – either totally gushing or don’t think you really helped much because they already knew it all! Students – what can I say.
Still, at least once you have your habilitation maybe you’ll get more of the gratitute you deserve.
It’s really hard to gauge the expectations and needs of individual students – and most won’t say anything until they’re leaving (if at all). I can see how that would put you off of advising long-term projects.
Heh, I don’t know if I deserve gratitude, but I clearly want it! (A little, even.)
No, I’m just venting, it’s pretty chronic among all advisers, but some have a little more long-term perspective than others.
Being a supervisor is extremely difficult (I have only been the lab supervisor of a couple of junior students, but I still think it’s really hard). What do students want, and what do they need? Students might want all the solutions presented to them in an easily accessible way, but that definitely isn’t going to be good for them (or us, I should say, being a student myself) in the long run. Another question is what “junior supervisors” need in terms of support and encouragement from their institution? Do you have any ideas of anything that could make your life as a supervisor easier? I’ve actually been asked to join a work group on exactly that topic (how to help young supervisors to become good and confident in their supervising) as a student representative, so any ideas are most welcome. And good luck – and you know, sometimes we don’t realize until much later how much we actually learned from someone.
Ahh Heather, it is so true with the “we’ll both learn from this”. Yes we will, but don’t tell me that to start with. (as a former student told me when I said something like that) I have given the supervising a lot of though and your post makes me happy. I’m not alone in feeling slightly grumpy/[something along with notcompletelysatisfied. I think the “what do they think they will get” and “what will I give” is important to start out with asking/talking about. Then again, you can never know what it will be like since it is about personality and attitude too…. and as you so nicely pointed out, what people do about it (DQ’s thank you for example).
I think it is harder the earlier degree it is, the hands on and more relying on you for practical things. That said, being a mentor for a post doc will always be more important for their carreer (imho) and involve more subtle things and talking/schmoozing techniques than a supervising an undergradute, or maybe even a MS?
_I have a hard time being an authority figure as such. _
Oh, go on: crack the whip. I think students and even many post-docs secretly crave direction, no matter how independent they may come across. I’m sure you do it with charm.
I can crack a whip – not so sure about the charm part – and I will have to learn to do it more. Part of doing it well is not being insecure about it. Or unreasonable, of course.
The thing about supervising postdocs is that it is mentoring a current colleague, but at the same time, as I haven’t been long out of the position myself, I feel very involved in their immediate future plans. I need to get away from that and be more objective. Younger students do require more hands-on supervision, but some of that can be delegated to people who are more at the bench than I end up being. They don’t realize perhaps the cost of being at all hands-on at later stages, not having been there yet. And perhaps I shouldn’t try to be, anymore.
Hey, how did this post of all of them end up featured? Strange…
I’ve never figured out the ‘featured’ blogs bit. Fancy a pint?