One of the tasks most postdocs end up doing a lot of is writing.  Articles from the dissertation, posters for conferences, the backlog of articles from your new PI, blog posts.  I went down an Internet rabbit hole a couple of months ago , as the semester was winding down and I had several writing deadlines on my calendar, looking for advice on how to write.  Translation: I’m not sure how I ended up exactly where I did, but I was happy with the result. Not how to string sentences together into something coherent, but more about the logistics of writing (I have a fellow postdoc friend who is convinced that this part of her life/career is all about logistics).  When is the best time to write? How much time out of your day/week should you devote to writing (as opposed to the hundred or so other tasks on your to-do list)? Is it better to write is short bursts, or to block out several hours or more to write effectively?

The answer to all of these questions is, not surprisingly, it depends.  On what the rest of your work schedule looks like, other commitments on your time, how much sleep you would like to get in the next two years. But, having said that, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, is a nice guide/pep talk for budding writers.

I’ll admit, I skipped the sections devoted to fiction writing (chapters on plot, dialogue, and character), since my writing is primarily technical non-fiction. But most of the book applies to any kind of writing. In fact, the title comes from advice that the author’s father, who was also a writer, passed on to his procrastinating son, who had an elementary school report on our feathered friends due at the end of a long weekend. Having put the assignment off for several weeks, he was overwhelmed by the amount of material he was expected to cover and didn’t know where to start. Those who have written dissertations understand that feeling completely.  His father’s advice? “Bird by bird.” One piece at a time.

With chapters on short assignments (blog posts fit nicely here), shitty first drafts (everyone, no matter how good a writer they are, has them), how to know when you’re done, writer’s block, and publication, there’s a lot of advice for technical writers. For me, it’s still a luxury to have time to write. I end up squeezing it in around other deadlines, meetings, commuting, dishes, and taking care of the baby.  I’m taking the summer off from classes just to get the articles from my dissertation written. One down, two to go!  From my experience:

• Keep writing, even short pieces like blog posts put you in the writing frame of mind.
• Set deadlines, or work from ones that have been set for you, nothing like incentive to get the creative juices flowing.
• Have others read your work, except those shitty first drafts.

Summer’s here.  I capped off my semester with graduation. Even though I defended my dissertation last June, I was just over the deadline to graduate last Spring, so I got to graduate with two of my lab buddies, instead. Totally worth the wait.

That's me on the right, with another PhD (left) and master's candidate (center) from my grad lab.

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The last few weeks of the Spring semester leading up to graduation were rough, trying to meet deadlines for coursework and other projects.  This semester I finished:

• Intro to Epidemiology (two exams, four quizzes, a final presentation and a paper)
• Grant Writing (a draft potential R03 grant)
• Biostats II (a final project)

and submitted:

• one project to IRB
• one grant proposal to a local foundation
• one application for a summer workshop
• one poster for an international conference
• one poster for the national meetings
• one poster for the departmental program annual symposium

My semester, especially towards the end, felt a bit like this

Except without the tutu.

For the last several weeks, I was jumping from one deadline to another, having just a few days between to work on the next project on the list.  Not surprisingly, I’ve felt the need to have a way to keep more on top of things: projects, due dates, meetings. While I was writing my dissertation, I had used LifeBalance, but decided against upgrading because their iPhone app apparently has issues, and I had stopped using the desktop version over a year ago because it just wasn’t working for me and I didn’t want to pay for the update.  I downloaded the trial version of Things, but decided it didn’t fit my current (lack of) workflow, and required adaptations that didn’t really work for me.  Same for Midnight Inbox. I settled on OmniFocus instead, personal task management software based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done.  ProfHacker has a nice series of posts on applying the concept as an academic, including an Introduction, Contexts and Academic Work, Mind-sweeping, and Managing Project Files.

I’ve slowly been adding projects, setting contexts and due dates. I’ve been using OmniFocus for about three weeks, but I haven’t completed a mind-sweep yet, partly due to lack of time (cleaning up from the end of semester crazy), partly because I’m still in the process of learning the system (reviewing podcasts, screencasts, and blogs about implementation), and partly because I’m a little afraid to have all of my commitments down on paper. I’m still figuring out exactly what should go on the list. Everything? Or just those out of the ordinary things that I might forget if I don’t write them down? Most of what I have set up so far are work projects, and I feel already like I have a better idea of where things are and what needs to be done next.

That’s good, because my summer is shaping up to be very busy, even without taking classes.  Right now, the project list looks like this:

• resubmit proposal to IRB
• write three articles from dissertation
• write/contribute to other articles as assigned
• write book chapter
• help with PI R01 submission
• present research idea to local partner organization
• meet with biostatistics re. R03 proposal
• develop syllabus/course description for potential class
• plan analysis of samples from PI’s current R01
• create a career development plan

It feels really good to be finishing up the first year of my postdoc, despite feeling like I’m eating an apple while juggling knives balanced on a rickety table sometimes.  I’m hoping GTD and OmniFocus can alleviate some of that end of semester panic in the future.

For the other postdocs out there, what strategies/tips do you have for task management?

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Image credit: Graduation photo courtesy of lab buddies. Knife juggler photo Creative Commons licensed by peter.bryant via Flickr.

I, along with several of my postdoc friends, spent last week in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the national AAPA and HBA conferences.  As a grad student, I attended these conferences several times, a couple of times with my oldest daughter in tow.  She was 6 when our department hosted the national meetings, and 12 when we went to Philadelphia.  This is the first year, however, that I went to the conference with an infant. That adds a whole new level of complexity to the experience.

Greetings from Albuquerque

Now that we’re home and reasonably rested, it seems like a good time to share a few tips for having a successful conference experience with little ones along (noting that all of these depend on your personal circumstances/budget).

• For getting on and off the plane, a baby sling is wonderful.  We have an Ergo, so Charlie rode strapped to my chest while boarding, disembarking, through baggage claim, and on shuttles. And I still had my hands free to carry stuff.
• If possible, have your spouse come along.  Having a dedicated caregiver makes those poster sessions a little less stressful (the sling comes in handy here, too, since he could walk around with her while she napped), and made it possible for me to attend some podium sessions uninterrupted.
• Rent a car.  And a car seat.  Waiting for a shuttle is tedious enough without a fussy baby. And by renting the car seat you don’t have to worry about yours being damaged in transit.
• Since we’re still breastfeeding, I tried to take breaks from conference activities every 3-4 hours to feed her. The conference hotel had a nice sitting room off the ladies restroom, which was frequented by several breastfeeding moms, but many of us also breastfed during podium sessions if necessary (and if our babies we’re being disruptive).  I just sat near the door in case she got cranky.
• Take naps. On most days, we’d all be strung out by around 3 pm, so we’d head back to our room and rest for a while before dinner.
• Baby proof your hotel room – unplug unnecessary items (lamps, phones, clocks) so baby can’t chew on the cords, put trashcans out of reach,  close the bathroom door, block the dresser drawers with a chair or suitcase to prevent pinched fingers, and give your baby a safe place to explore while you catch up on work or have a little siesta.  One thing I wish we had done, bring some outlet covers for the wall sockets.
• Get a cheap umbrella stroller – you can gate check it, and it’s lightweight and small enough to get around in restaurants or while playing tourist.
• Make friends with the other moms.  We gravitate towards each other, anyway, but the conference moms know exactly the level of crazy you’re dealing with, and may have some useful strategies for handling it while still being professional.

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Image credit: K. Beaty

To make the most of the postdoc experience, it’s imperative to take advantage of all the resources available. Being a postdoc is an opportunity.  To receive additional skills and training, develop a career track, and establish a network of colleagues to facilitate your research.

Your institution may have an Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.  This serves as a clearinghouse for information relevant to postdoctoral researchers, providing professional development activities and networking with others at the same stage of career development.  In addition, your organization may be a sustaining member of the National Postdoctoral Association. If they are, you are entitled to a free affiliate membership in the NPA. The National Postdoctoral Association provides advocacy, resource-development, and community for postdocs in the US.

In March, the NPA is hosting an the National Summit on Gender and the Postdoctorate in conjunction with their annual meeting. The purpose of the summit is:

• To examine the unique challenges faced by women as they seek to make the transition from postdoc to faculty.
• To consider the key factors influencing postdoc women’s decisions to pursue a career in academic science and engineering.
• To share promising practices and success stories for retaining postdoc women in the academic pipeline.

The keynote speaker at the annual meeting is Dr. Francis Collins, head of the NIH and former director of the Human Genome Project.

The NPA also has resource page, with information on tax issues, career planning, conflict resolution, and retirement. I’m starting a page of helpful postdoc links, which will be regularly updated as I come across new information.

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Image credit: The “Gold Guys” Blog

I’ve had a few colleagues ask me if Biostats I was a useful class, given my statistics background in grad school.  It’s a requirement for the master’s degree program I’m pursuing, so I have to take it, but I have found it to be a nice refresher of the Biometry course  I had years ago.  Maybe I just know more about statistics now, so it makes more sense; or maybe it’s just explained better in this course, so I have a better grasp of the material. When I started grad school, statistics felt like Farsi. But not now.

Take Type I and Type II error, for example.  In study design, you have to try to minimize both. Type I error is the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true. The acceptable Type I error rate is determined by alpha, which is generally fixed at 0.05 or lower in the analysis phase of a study.  Type II error, or beta, is the probability of failing to reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.  While I understood these concepts empirically, the relationship between them had never been explained.  What I had were random facts, with no framework to pin them on.

The relationship between alpha and beta.

This plot represents a one-tailed Student’s t-test of the difference in means between two independent samples, both with a sample size of 75  and with alpha set to 0.05. The probability of accepting the null hypothesis is represented by the red line, while the probability of accepting the alternative hypothesis is in blue.  Notice that the null hypothesis distribution is centered at 0, meaning that you’re testing the hypothesis of no difference between means, and that the two distributions overlap.  The area under the red curve which overlaps the blue curve is alpha, the chance of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true.  The area under the blue curve which overlaps the red curve is beta, the chance of failing to reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.

Notice also, that you can’t change the value of alpha without affecting the value of beta. Here’s the same t-test with alpha set to 0.01.

Changing alpha affects beta.

Reducing alpha increases the critical value for rejecting the null hypothesis (from t=1.6552 to t=2.3518), thus increasing the likelihood of failing to reject the null when the alternative hypothesis is true. And the rest of the blue curve, which equals 1 – beta?  That’s power, or the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.

That’s the framework I was missing. The biostatistics course was worth that alone.

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Images generated using G*Power 3.

The Center for American Progress has released a new white paper, in response to a report by the National Research Council which stated that women with terminal degrees were less likely to enter the tenure track, and more likely to drop out before receiving tenure, than men.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the life sciences, women now earn more the 50% of the PhDs. However, women are more likely to “leak” out of the system before getting tenure, primarily as a result of family obligation. Getting married and having children are the source of the biggest leak between earning a terminal degree and achieving tenure. Married female PhDs with children are 35% less likely to enter the tenure track than their male counterparts.  So being married and having children doesn’t prevent you from becoming a fully tenured professor, but add being female on top of that, and your chances drop by 35%. And married women with young children who do enter the tenure track are 27% less likely than married men with young children to achieve tenure. Why? Part of the reason women opt-out of the tenure track is the lack of family-friendly work policies, especially for junior researchers.

From the chart, between 77-87% of junior researchers (graduate students and postdocs) are NOT entitled to paid maternity leave. My graduate institution falls into that ad hoc category. None of the women in my program (14 babies!) were given paid maternity leave. And many took only 4 weeks off before returning to work at least part time.  At that’s just the beginning. Even for those faculty who have protected paid maternity leave, once they return to their jobs, they face more work. What constitutes work?

When combined with caregiving hours and house work, UC women faculty with children, ages 30 to 50, report a weekly average of over 100 hours of combined activities (in comparison to around 86 hours for men with children). This staggering amount of overall work gives a sense of how challenging it can be for women to combine children with a fast-track career in the sciences. [In addition,] the number of care hours provided by women faculty with children stays very high through age 50, averaging more than 30 hours a week of care. By age 58 women faculty with children still engage in 15 hours a week of care, and a full convergence of care hours provided by all of our faculty, regardless of gender and children, does not occur until the age of 60.

These talented and highly-trained women are being set up to fail, thanks to a system that doesn’t recognize the importance and effect of family obligations, and to the detriment of American science as a whole.

To lose talented scholars…because of our failure to provide baseline family responsive policies seems pennywise but pound foolish. If young scholars continue to leak out of the pipeline prior to seeking fast-track careers in the sciences, there is no way to make sure that they are not largely or entirely lost to our nation’s capacity to generate new scientific discoveries.

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Reference: Staying Competitive Patching America’s Leaky Pipeline in the Sciences

Heh.  Something that has been on my mind, she says, typing one-handed while balancing sleeping babe, Boppy, and laptop. Earlier this month, Female Science Professor posted a survey on careers in science, helping out a high school student with a senior thesis project.  While I was dismayed that anthropology wasn’t included in the science categories, there were lots of comments, and FSP noted in a follow-up post:

I found it interesting that the majority of respondents are women (not surprising) with no children (perhaps also not surprising, depending on the reason for the lack of children).

So she asked readers to elaborate:

I am [female/male] and I do not have children because.. [rest of sentence].

Many who are early in their careers, like SpiderMonkey, responded that they were in grad school/doing fieldwork/postdoc, and couldn’t see adding kids to the stress/craziness, but that they wanted children eventually. Some never wanted children to begin with, and preferred to focus on their careers.

Dr. Isis, who is the mother of a young child herself, also wanted to know why people chose to have kids while pursuing a career in science. Some said that they were having children now, because they didn’t want to wait until their careers were established and discover that it was too late.

The responses and comments got me thinking about my own situation, and that of my friends and colleagues.

When I started grad school, I think I was one of two students in my lab, maybe in the entire department, that had a child.  Oldest daughter was 2.5.  When I finished my PhD last summer, pregnant with youngest daughter, many of my fellow grad students had (multiple) children.  In my lab alone, fourteen babies were born during my years as a graduate student, and that was just the biological anthropologists! Doing our bit for the evolutionary fitness of the group. My dissertation advisor cautions new students not to drink the water, just in case.

None of us would claim that finishing a terminal degree while trying to have a semi-normal life (nevermind children) was easy. My first was born the summer before my last year of undergrad. I was excused from the final exam in my early childhood education class because I was in labor. With our latest, my husband and I convinced ourselves that we could handle it (jobs, kids, school, life, new baby) because we had done the parenting thing and knew what to expect. So this summer, I defended my dissertation, had a baby, and started a new job, all within the space of three months. Because one stressful life event at a time isn’t enough, or like Dr. Isis says, parenthood “is just not compatible with anything rational or sane.”

I am now convinced that parents forget the first six weeks with a new baby. Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation, shifting hormones, whatever.  Those first six weeks with youngest daughter were rough. Maybe because we’re older, maybe because we haven’t parented a newborn together before, maybe because we live away from family, maybe because every baby is different. Add to that the stress of starting the postdoc, and it’s been a difficult adjustment for everyone.  Trying to do homework/housework/eat/blog/shower/sleep(?!)/start a career around a newborn’s (utter lack of) schedule is daunting.  And when I’m at work, I’m also pumping every few hours, missing the baby, going to class, trying to remember to eat, attending meetings, etc.  Add a 90 minute commute round trip on top of that, and some days I feel lucky to remember my own name.

A couple of things have helped during the adjustment phase:

• Cosleeping.  Youngest daughter sleeps with us (technically on me), so I can sleep while she has a midnight snack.  I don’t think I’m getting the quality of sleep I was getting before I got pregnant, but I am getting more sleep than I would if I had to get out of bed (and fully wake up) to nurse her.
• Other mom friends.  Fourteen babies.  Most of the grad students in my lab are in the same situation, so if one of us needs help, we can depend on each other.  We babysit each other’s kids, pick them up from school, and have playgroups together. That support is invaluable.

So for those women who want both a career in science and a family, it can be done. Cloud at Wandering Scientist is compiling a list of professional women who are making it work (Yes, Virginia, There are Scientists who are Mothers). I respectfully disagree with those who feel they can’t be a scientist and a parent.  I AM a scientist, I was a scientist before I had children, and that mindset influences how I parent them (much to the chagrin of oldest daughter’s high school teachers, I imagine. She corrected her French teacher the other day when his picture for singe –monkey– was a chimpanzee). I’m also a parent. And I should be able to be both.  I shouldn’t have to sacrifice my entire life for my career, or give up the career I love because I have kids.  Doesn’t make the balancing act any easier, but my life is full, and doubly rewarding.

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Image Credit: clarity via flickr

Like most universities, or at least the ones at which I’ve been employed, space at my new job is at a premium.  When I started in August, one of the fellows had just gone on maternity leave, and graciously offered her space for me to use.  But she’s coming back full time next week, leaving me office-less.

My department found a second temporary space for me, but it was less than ideal, as student interviews are routinely conducted there.  I moved my stuff (OK, my laptop) into my new “office” before a meeting last week, and when I came back an hour later, someone was there.

A faculty member finally took pity on me and offered to share her office until the department can find something more permanent.  Hopefully next month, but I’m not holding my breath.

Image credit: smcgee via flickr

It’s been a very busy summer here in Oz. How do I know? It’s October and I’m just now talking about what happened this summer (facepalm).  In June, I defended my PhD dissertation. I’m officially a doctor now.  I finally achieved what I set out to do as an undergrad.

Not one to rest on my laurels, in July I saw the results of my own little experiment in Mendel’s laws of unit inheritance and independent assortment.

Meet Charlie

She’s a nice mix of her father and I. Here’s an interesting tidbit of trivia: Do you know how many genetically unique offspring two individuals can have? Each human parent has 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes

2²³= 8,338,608 genetically distinct gametes

Each parent contributes one gamete a zygote, so double that number for two parents:

= 16,677,216 unique offspring

And that’s without recombination. So even the Duggars haven’t scratched the surface of their genetic potential.

In August, I started my first post-graduate job, a postdoc.  Gainful employment, a real paycheck, and intellectual stimulation (not related to my dissertation), yay! Juggling a new job, commute, babysitter, husband, household chores, classes (did you know there were any more classes to take after getting a PhD?!), kids, sleep deprivation, breast feeding, research, meetings, networking, family – scary and exhausting. Notice that blog appears nowhere on this list, and the dearth of posts is understandable.

I’m beginning to get my bearings now – just finished a midterm exam last week (more on that later), and discovered that I miss the intellectual outlet that is Freethinkers. So expect the posting frequency to increase as I figure out this postdoc gig. Now, if I only had an office! I’m borrowing space from another fellow who went on maternity leave just as I was starting.  If they don’t find space for me soon, I’m afraid I’ll be sitting in the hallway.