_Photo by starfish235 _
I recently met with one of my dissertation committee members in order to discuss my proposal for the completion of my PhD. We discussed the aims, the preliminary data, and the results I had obtained thus far. We also spoke briefly about my publication prospects, which journal(s) do I plan to submit my work to. After a brief pause, seemingly weighing his words, he said to me, “You’re picking the low hanging fruit.” This confounded me a bit, as it took me a moment to figure out what he actually meant. Basically, he was trying to tell me that I’m taking the easy route through graduate school. He agreed that I could graduate with the work that I proposed, but he forced me to ponder if this is all I wanted out of graduate school…just to graduate.
When I joined my lab, I picked up on a project that was already funded from one of his grants. It was his idea, his experiments, but I was doing the work. In a few places I was able to actually use my own brain, but most of the ideas were all his. I thought this was normal, as I didn’t think graduate students could be expected to generate their own dissertation projects upon first joining the lab. However, what my committee member made me realize was that the great graduate students do come up with their own ideas. For me, coming up with my own high-risk project is…well…just that, risky. I feel quite safe working on things my mentor has already established. However, I now realize that if I ever plan to run my own research lab, I need to begin generating my own ideas.
I’m now beginning my fourth year and I hope to publish my first, first-author paper soon. Maybe after that I can begin working on my own projects and establishing myself as an independent scientist. And maybe then will I be able to reach the ripe fruit at the top of the tree.
Speaking from recent practical experience, if you want to pick the high-hanging fruit, you’ll need a ladder. Or a girrafe.
The key to working on your own is to identify the low hanging fruit that others have not seen yet. Sometimes this involves applying new techniques to a field or spotting connections. The art isn’t easy to develop but it is the secret behind many successful stories.
I think there has to be a right time to venture out to independent thought. Once you are comfortable in lab and understand how things work, independent projects become a good idea. Rushing into lab and starting up your own project as a novice grad student seems like it could end in disaster. In my own experience, it was also really nice to have the PIs ideas as a back-up thesis project when my own either failed or were published by other groups. Fourth year in grad school is the perfect time to start poking around science on your own. Best of luck! Should anything go wrong, you know you have your PI’s ideas to lean back on. That’s what PIs are there for.