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Harsh Remarks

June 06, 2012

Sticks and stones might break your bones, but words could kill a scientific career? That's what University of California, Davis' Paul Knoepfler says, discussing scientists' insults toward one another at his blog. These disparaging comments, which range from snarky to downright conniving, "are sometimes brutal or fatal career-wise," Knoepfler says. "Inserting one or more of these into a grant critique or tenure review could be lethal, so use with caution."

Among the worst offenders, he says, are statements asserting that a scientist's research program is not very productive. "If you are only putting out a trickle of papers, other scientists will slap you for it," Knoepfler says. Further still, saying that a scientist "mostly publishes in specialized journals" or "mostly middle-author publications" is clearly derisive.

Another zinger, Knoepfler says, is pointing out that a scientist's former trainees are not landing academic research positions of their own. This particular insult, he says, it "brutal," implying that "as a mentor, you suck. You're attracting and/or guiding your trainees to be patent lawyers, glorified technicians, industry pawns, teachers, or worse, anything but independent PIs running their own labs."


No, really?

Submitted by Biotreker on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 12:51.

No, really?

I was my mentor's first grad

Submitted by rickilewis54 on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 13:20.

I was my mentor's first grad student, and I became a science writer. Was he a failure? I think not. He taught me how to continue learning, a priceless gift.

Sadly, the academic model

Submitted by phdnofuddy on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 18:04.

Sadly, the academic model does reflect this reality. While a grad student, I expanded my horizons beyond pure academic research by helping the state health labs deal with emerging ethical issues around pre-symptomatic screening for genetic disease. Right about the same time, the AIDS epidemic hit - same issues regarding screening, but now it was not a genetic disease. My work with the state health labs felt very important to me, but when a tenured, very well-known professor almost flat-out told me that this "extracurricular" activity was not a boon to my career, he added - "unless your goal is to become a [school name omitted] professor, you are wasting your slot here." I was bold enough to do the math right there in response and then ask him if he was willing to give up his job in order to achieve the goal he just articulated. Never heard another word out of that professor, but probably didn't help my academic career much either. Anyway, 20+ years later, I'm very happy with the "bilingual" place I've earned having had academic and industrial positions that are very rewarding.