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Cite: Nature, 441 , 252 (2006)
Doinga PhD should be fun and rewarding, because you can spend all yourworking time discovering things and pursuing ideas — and getting paidfor it, without any administrative responsibilities. Those who stickwith a career in science do so because, despite the relatively poorpay, long hours and lack of security, it is all we want to do.
Unfortunatelymost new PhD students are ill-prepared, and as a consequence very fewwill fulfil their aspirations to be independent scientists. The mainreasons for this are the ‘grade creep’ inherent at most universities,making it difficult to identify the really talented first-classgraduates from the rest, and the pressure on universities to graduateas many PhD students as possible. The consequence is that we enrol fartoo many of them without telling them clearly what doing a doctorateshould entail. We therefore set ourselves, and the students, on a pathof frustration and disappointment.
So what should we be telling prospective PhD students?
●Choose a supervisor whose work you admire and who is well supported by grants and departmental infrastructure.
●Take responsibility for your project.
●Workhard — long days all week and part of most weekends. If research isyour passion this should be easy, and if it isn’t, you are probably inthe wrong field. Note who goes home with a full briefcase to work on atthe end of the day. This is a cause of success, not a consequence.
●Take some weekends off, and decent holidays, so you don’t burn out.
●Readthe literature in your immediate area, both current and past, andaround it. You can’t possibly make an original contribution to theliterature unless you know what is already there.
●Plan your days and weeks carefully to dovetail experiments so that you have a minimum amount of downtime.
●Keep a good lab book and write it up every day.
●Becreative. Think about what you are doing and why, and look for betterways to go. Don’t see your PhD as just a road map laid out by yoursupervisor.
●Develop good writing skills: they will make your scientific career
immeasurably easier.
●Tobe successful you must be at least four of the following: smart,motivated, creative, hard-working, skilful and lucky. You can’t dependon luck, so you had better focus on the others ！ ■
GeorgiaChenevix-Trench is principal research fellow at the QueenslandInstitute of Medical Research, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston,Australia.
➧ www.qimr.edu.au/research/labs/georgiat/Guideforphds.doc
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发表于 2009-5-24 17:13:33
