One of the most difficult jobs I have in teaching people how to write better grants boils down to convincing them of one simple thing:
A grant is not about promoting or pursuing your own interests, it is about promoting and pursuing your funders and reviewers’ interests.
If you are so lucky as to be at a place where you can find the juncture between your interests and reviewer/funder interests, then you’re in the sweet spot. But most people aren’t.
I have worked ...(read more)
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I did this interview with Nobel Laureate Dr. Oliver Smithies in the Fall of 2010. In this interview we discussed:
How to maximize your scientific creativity How to persevere with a project in the face of detractors and naysayers The number one “performance enhancer” for science (starts with S) The brain as a hologram A laureate’s vision for the future of grant funding Why you must be a “courageous optimist” Keeping this one thing is critical to gaining Oliver’s stature And a whole lot more… enjoy this interview, ...(read more){ 3 comments }
I wanted to find out: what is the most pressing challenge you’re currently facing in your science career, and how can I help?
I used good ol’ Survey Monkey, and got > 200 responses so far. Yay! The results were interesting and a bit surprising to me. They also caused me to go off on a bit of a rant about how to learn effective grant writing. Ok, not really a rant, but kind of a Morgan ...(read more)
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A lot of what you do in science is judged through the lens of who you are. Actually, that’s true of nearly any human endeavor, not just science. But since this blog is ostensibly about science careers, I’ll focus on those.
Honestly, it amazes me that I managed to build up some kind of reputation in my community of peers. It is not like I spent nearly as much effort at this as I probably should have. ...(read more)
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We all know that science education has been slipping … along with our society’s general interest in things related to science.
This is really bad, methinks. We need more scientific innovation, not less, to face the challenges of today – energy, hunger, poverty, disease, and all those other nasties.
The question is, how do we do this? One way is to improve our science communication and marketing skills, so that when we encounter members of the general public (like those pesky inlaws ...(read more)
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