Showing posts with label NESCent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NESCent. Show all posts
03 May 2013
Spring Fling!
Today is the day everyone at NESCent talks for three minutes and we get to throw things at them if the go over time (see pic). So exciting!
26 March 2013
Catalyzing landscape genomics.
Earlier this month, I participated in a catalysis meeting at NESCent on landscape genomics. There is a common theme for each catalysis meeting. Sometimes that uniting principle is a historic area of research with multitudes of literature that could benefit from synthesis and identification of uniting principles. Sometimes the theme is an emerging area of science for which new questions are being elucidated. The landscape genomics catalysis meeting was interesting in that it addressed several major themes in evolutionary biology (population genetics, signatures of selection, comparative genomics) and was looking for ways to unite them theoretically and statistically into predictive methods. I was initially curious why the organizers chose to invite me, but quickly came realize how aligned the themes of the meeting are with my own research interests. Here are a few impressions from the time I spent sharing my thoughts with other scientists.
First, catalysis meetings are an interesting conglomeration of scientists. The goal of such meetings are to throw 25-30 scientists from different research foci and at various stages in their careers into a room together. No one person was an expert on landscape genomics. There were experts in landscape ecology, comparative genomics and statistics, and we worked together to devise common projects and goals. The beautiful part of synthesis is that contributions from various participants are required to achieve the goals of the meeting. There are many people contributing, and everyone learns something. As a recent article from NESCentians points out, this is a fertile ground for incubating new collaborations, projects, and ideas.
Second, an aggregate of such brains allows new insight into how science works. Well, that's certainly a vague statement. At this meeting in particular, several of us were struck by the differences in how genomics and ecology view data. The former tends to throw out data left and right, paring down sequences and levels of variation so the remaining data can be described more easily. Ecologists, on the other hand, attempt to describe the overall variation in a given system, and try to model the nature of that variation. I personally believe genomicists have a great deal yet to learn from ecologists in this respect.
All in all, I believe this meeting was particularly fruitful. Sometimes tempers and egos flare at these meetings, to the point that I'm urged to start chanting "Fight, fight, fight!" and hope for fisticuffs. As exciting as it is to see other scientists so passionate about their research, I was pleased that members of this meeting were more focused on bridging gaps between disparate disciplines. There are a number of incipient projects jumpstarted from it, including one manuscript I volunteered to lead.
Synthesis FTW!
First, catalysis meetings are an interesting conglomeration of scientists. The goal of such meetings are to throw 25-30 scientists from different research foci and at various stages in their careers into a room together. No one person was an expert on landscape genomics. There were experts in landscape ecology, comparative genomics and statistics, and we worked together to devise common projects and goals. The beautiful part of synthesis is that contributions from various participants are required to achieve the goals of the meeting. There are many people contributing, and everyone learns something. As a recent article from NESCentians points out, this is a fertile ground for incubating new collaborations, projects, and ideas.
Second, an aggregate of such brains allows new insight into how science works. Well, that's certainly a vague statement. At this meeting in particular, several of us were struck by the differences in how genomics and ecology view data. The former tends to throw out data left and right, paring down sequences and levels of variation so the remaining data can be described more easily. Ecologists, on the other hand, attempt to describe the overall variation in a given system, and try to model the nature of that variation. I personally believe genomicists have a great deal yet to learn from ecologists in this respect.
All in all, I believe this meeting was particularly fruitful. Sometimes tempers and egos flare at these meetings, to the point that I'm urged to start chanting "Fight, fight, fight!" and hope for fisticuffs. As exciting as it is to see other scientists so passionate about their research, I was pleased that members of this meeting were more focused on bridging gaps between disparate disciplines. There are a number of incipient projects jumpstarted from it, including one manuscript I volunteered to lead.
Synthesis FTW!
13 November 2012
Impostors in synthetic science
An interesting article about "impostor syndrome" popped up in my twitter timeline this afternoon. It took a few moments to realize the article wasn't talking about some sort of animal mimicry. Rather, it refers to a prevalent phenomenon in the sociology of academic scientists, where we hesitate to offer information or opinions for topics outside our highly specialized area of expertise.
This topic is of particular relevance to me, as my brain has always functioned at the level of "big picture." I recall an assignment from high school English for which my classmates were selecting research topics related to a specific book, while my topic encompassed "feminist literature from the twentieth century." Yup...broad patterns.
In my current position, I think often about the push for specialization in methods, techniques, theory, and research programs. NESCent focuses on synthetic science, which involves fusing sometimes seemingly disparate research areas to achieve novel conclusions or tackle innovative questions. Synthetic science, therefore, is full of "imposters," since we constantly broach new theoretical areas and incorporate methods/results in non-traditional ways.
I'm totally okay with this label. It was nice to read this article and think about other types of scientists that regularly face this issue of being "PhD generalists," not just once during a career (i.e., changing from animal to plant research), but on a daily basis. The thoughts from other self-described impostors at the bottom are also enlightening, highlighting not only the characteristics of such researchers but their value as scientists as well.
This topic is of particular relevance to me, as my brain has always functioned at the level of "big picture." I recall an assignment from high school English for which my classmates were selecting research topics related to a specific book, while my topic encompassed "feminist literature from the twentieth century." Yup...broad patterns.
In my current position, I think often about the push for specialization in methods, techniques, theory, and research programs. NESCent focuses on synthetic science, which involves fusing sometimes seemingly disparate research areas to achieve novel conclusions or tackle innovative questions. Synthetic science, therefore, is full of "imposters," since we constantly broach new theoretical areas and incorporate methods/results in non-traditional ways.
I'm totally okay with this label. It was nice to read this article and think about other types of scientists that regularly face this issue of being "PhD generalists," not just once during a career (i.e., changing from animal to plant research), but on a daily basis. The thoughts from other self-described impostors at the bottom are also enlightening, highlighting not only the characteristics of such researchers but their value as scientists as well.
11 September 2012
Greetings from the mountains!
NESCent post docs are retreating at Mountain Lake Biological Station this week, and I'm personally very appreciative of the sunshine, trees, and chipmunks. Despite our shared research focus of evolutionary biology, those of us gathered here have quite diverse educational backgrounds and correspondingly, very different views on teaching, communication, and other topics relevant to our professional development. I'm enjoying both the discourse during discussions and intervening breaks, during which we explore things like awesome caterpillars defoliating nearby plants.
Much to my chagrin, I'm skipping a hike with other folks right now so I can finish up a few things for teaching. I'll go sit on the porch of my cabin in awhile, though, and bask in the glow of no cell phone reception and quiet forest.
10 September 2012
Retreat! Retreat!
I leave in a few hours for University of Virginia's Mountain Lake Biological Station, where NESCent postdocs are aggregating for our annual retreat. I can't help but think of us a battalion of scientific soldiers, withdrawing from our offices to regroup and plan our next attack.
I'm reminded of many lovely field trips from my time as an undergraduate at Western Kentucky University. Our small class sizes meant that loading students into a few vans and galavanting off for the mountains or Gulf coast was par for the course (pun intended) in ecology and evolution labs.
Thus, I'm actually quite excited to head off to the mountains for a brief adventure. I'm taking some field guides so I can stalk wild plants and mushrooms. I'm also eager to talk about the professional development topics scheduled for the next few days, especially in light of upcoming deadlines for job applications (eep!).
I'm reminded of many lovely field trips from my time as an undergraduate at Western Kentucky University. Our small class sizes meant that loading students into a few vans and galavanting off for the mountains or Gulf coast was par for the course (pun intended) in ecology and evolution labs.
Thus, I'm actually quite excited to head off to the mountains for a brief adventure. I'm taking some field guides so I can stalk wild plants and mushrooms. I'm also eager to talk about the professional development topics scheduled for the next few days, especially in light of upcoming deadlines for job applications (eep!).
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