Getting Started in a Lab

If you are a new graduate student in the sciences, you will rotate through several labs during your first year at the University of Washington. Your challenge is to find the right lab for you — one that best matches your intellectual interests and that helps prepare you for your career.

How to get started in a lab

Sample a range of lab environments and cultures. Find a lab that will help you develop as a researcher.

Find out what the ground rules and expectations are.

How many hours are you expected to be in the lab? (Remember that research is not a 9 to 5 job; you should look forward to hanging out in the lab—but also make sure you know specific expectations for your time).
What’s the definition of “progress” in lab work? What’s the definition of progress in graduate work in your discipline?

Look for opportunities that will benefit your career.

Will you have an opportunity to publish?
Will you get credit—as an author, co-author—for the work you do in the lab? Will your intellectual work really be your own? Seek a lab that gives ownership of your ideas to you.
Will you have a chance to push beyond the boundaries of particular grants?
Will you be able to collaborate with other labs?

Be smart.

The best lab is not necessarily the one that pays the most.
Success is not always about being comfortable— so look for a lab where you will be pushed a bit.

How to evaluate labs

Both established and new labs have great merit.

In an established lab, find out: What’s the lab’s track record? Where have people ended up working after their lab experience?
Recognize that some younger faculty—who do not have well established labs and therefore do not have the same track record as established labs—often bring the newest ideas to the discipline and are often willing to spend time with graduate students. Such labs might be a better place to try new things.
Where do people in the lab publish? In top-tier journals?
Ask other students about the labs.
Trust your instincts.

Be clear about your own expectations for mentorship in a lab.

How often would you like to meet with faculty mentors? (Make sure that the time you request is for the most pressing matters; don’t waste time on minor details that you can find out elsewhere).
Can you get on the mentor’s calendar? (Ask other graduate students in the lab about the nature and extent of mentorship).

Make good use of your lab work: Publish early and publish often.

Publications are the currency of success.
Publications are a guaranteed path to a relatively carefree thesis preparation.

How to succeed in a lab

Participation is the key to any successful lab. A successful lab draws on a variety of skills, so contribute.
Recognize that a good lab is one with mutual mentorship; that means you need to contribute, too. As a first-year student, you may well have expertise that others in the lab don’t have. Be a good citizen; contribute the work. Recognize that you have the potential to be a valuable contributor from the very first day you walk in the door.
Learn from others and support others in the lab. Recognize the expertise of all of your lab colleagues (faculty, visiting scientists, postdocs, graduate students, undergraduates, and even high school students).
During your first year, complete at least one research paper.

by Tom Daniel, professor, Biology

Succeeding in a Graduate Seminar

Some of your most important and impression-forming interactions with your classmates and professors occur in graduate seminars. Your stellar performance in graduate seminars is paramount to your success in the graduate program. Graduate seminars are the building blocks for your knowledge in the field and in graduate school.

How to succeed in a graduate seminar

Prepare for class

Do the reading. All of it. But don’t stop there. Annotate your reading. Ask questions of the text in the margins. Maybe even type up your notes. Always consider what’s at stake in the reading, how the reading informs your understanding of the class themes, other course materials, the methods, the content. How does the reading relate to your own burgeoning research questions?

Come to class with questions and discussion points. If you are reticent about speaking in class, recruit a friend to chat about your ideas for five minutes the day before class. Do not, however, memorize one point in the reading so that you make your one perfunctory comment in class. Everyone is on to that game!

In class

Do your part to help foster community. This means: Listen. Participate fully. Be respectful.

Showcase your intellectual curiosity by engaging with all types of ideas, not just the ones in your designated area of study.

When you speak, remember to look at your classmates, not exclusively at the professor.

Use your breadth of knowledge — connect the readings to other readings in your class and other out-of-class readings. Feel free to apply the readings or theme of the day to your project, but don’t be so focused on utilitarian knowledge that you fail to engage fully with all of the issues at hand.

Do not fall into the trap of wholesale skewering the reading of the week. This is intellectually lazy. The work must have some redeeming value if the professor has chosen to assign it. Even if you want to make a serious critique of the reading you should attempt to articulate its contributions/interventions as well as limitations.

Writing

Turn in all writing assignments on time. Do not save your seminar papers for the last week of class. Begin generating ideas the first week of class. Talk about your ideas with your classmates and your professor. If the professor has not given you a series of deadlines, create deadlines for yourself (i.e., identify paper topic in the third week of class, generate working bibliography in the fourth week of class, create abstract in the fifth week, write your first draft in the sixth week, etc.).

Graduate seminars are your first practice attempts at being a scholar. It should be fun to engage with ideas. Be prepared to spar respectfully — and always be prepared!

by Ralina Joseph, professor, Communication

Lecture library

Video Lectures

Morris Dees: Responding to Hate: Voices of Hope and Tolerance

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After witnessing firsthand the painful consequences of
prejudice and racial injustice, Morris Dees co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in 1971 — a nonprofit organization specializing in lawsuits involving civil rights violations and racially motivated crimes. In this talk,
Dees discusses his book, “Gathering Storm: America’s Militia Threat,” and offers strategies to combat domestic terrorism. This lecture was originally presented on January 23, 2001.

Vandana Shiva: Ahimsa: Beyond Violent Traditions of Science and Technology

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Vandana Shiva advocates an approach that is based on the principle of ahimsa – meaning non-violence or harmlessness, drawing on the ethics of ecological and feminist thought that promotes diversity and pluralism in knowledge, action, nature and culture. Shiva is a world-renowned environmental thinker and activist. In 1991, she founded Navdanya, a national movement to protect diversity and integrity of living resources. Navdanya sets up community seed banks, supports conversion to organic agriculture, and is establishing direct producer-consumer links for food security and safety. This lecture was originally presented on April 17, 2001.

Audio Lectures

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Julie Lythcott-Haims is the author of the New York Times best-selling book How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success (2015) and Real American: A Memoir (2017). She is deeply interested in what prevents people from living meaningful, fulfilling lives.

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News correspondent and journalist Maria Hinojosa has spent decades reporting on immigration and the treatment of immigrants – both documented and undocumented – by law enforcement organizations. In this lecture, she will give powerful witness to the routine denial of due process to immigrants and its effect on our broader society. This lecture was originally presented on November 1, 2017.

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Data can be a powerful tool for fighting systemic racism and police violence. In this lecture, Sam Sinyangwe will present strategies for using data to support organizing campaigns focused on equity and justice in the United States.

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Many look to “the school” as the great equalizer, a meritocracy where equal opportunity is realized. For communities of color, this is often far from the truth. Throughout history, each time communities of color have made progress toward equal educational opportunity, a major societal pushback has caused the loss of gains that appeared won. In this talk, Joy Williamson-Lott looks to history to show how we can work toward real progress. This lecture was originally presented on February 15, 2017.

Advice Topic: Performance