The last several years of my career have put me against the heavy task of teaching scientists younger than myself how to do science. First you start small: during your senior PhD years you get a few rotating master students, perhaps someone that wants to do their bachelor thesis in your lab or, if you have enough work to share, someone who wants to conduct their master’s thesis with you. Without even realizing it, you go from showing someone how to pipette on the bench, to explaining them how to plot their data, do their statistics and write down their theses. For me this has been an amazing trip and even though I wasn’t always successful in inspiring and elevating the students that were assigned to me, I learned a lot along the way.

Because of this, I decided to write down some of the knowledge I earned the past 10 years on how to teach science trainees. Each person I taught was unique and even though I taught similar things to many of them, each one responded differently to the information I shared, my demeanor and my personality. I paid attention to these responses and as a result, each person taught me something on how I should present new information or how I should help them become independent.

And you know what else I learned along the way? That most people suck at teaching!

I guess that if you ended up looking up the topic you either know you suck and you want to get better, or you have to teach someone and you don’t want to suck at it. Whatever the case, good for you! You’re in the right place. Probably. This is the first of a few posts I’ll write on teaching and mentoring approaches I’ve seen working in science trainees. However, I feel I should introduce the motives behind the series of articles that will follow this one.

I truly believe that the only way science can advance is by passing on knowledge to the next generation in the best manner possible. And by this I mean not only ensuring the accuracy of the knowledge, but also instilling the love we have for science in others. It’s a sure bet that only a fraction of our students will stay in science and pass on knowledge when their turn comes, but it’s hard to say who these people are going to be from the start. It’s even harder or rather impossible to predict which ones will make a groundbreaking discovery in the future. That’s why you need to inspire, nurture and lead all the people who decide to follow science, regardless of what they’ll do with it (I’ll write a post soon on how to spot villains before they get a PhD-don’t worry). Supervising a student while they’re studying to become a researcher puts you in a responsible position as your work may have large implications in the career of said student. Being in this position is also a priviledge as you get the chance to shape new minds and affect the progress of science through more people than just yourself.

When it comes to research, the only way of running a lab that produces papers is that you motivate each and every one of your scientists. Leaving someone behind, means that work that was done or a project that got assigned and paid for, might not be published. Leaving anyone behind will only drain your resources. And that shouldn’t be your only motivation to teach your people. If the sheer pleasure of seeing someone developing and flourishing under your guidance isn’t enough (in which case, PLEASE, STEP AWAY FROM THE STUDENT RIGHT NOW!!!) you should consider that in the future, people who were taught by you and remember you fondly, will become a strong network for you. You would be amazed how fast the word goes around if a group leader is shitty or good at teaching and guiding their people. If you belong in the second category, you have more chances of having good people sent in your lab. If on the other hand you belong in the first category, well, do the math…

So, to sum up the main reasons you should take the time and put thought and energy into teaching more junior people that you (either as their official supervisor or as a person who just happened to train them for some time):

1) Pass on knowledge and love for science so that you can help advance science

2) Make sure you have a productive group (e.g. that publishes many papers) and where nobody is left behind

3) The sheer pleasure of seeing someone developing and maturing as a scientist under your guidance

4) Investing in a future strong network around you comprised by people who were mentored by you. That’s unbeatable!

Making good scientists does not only entail teaching them how to design and execute experiments or keep their notes clean. Yes, these are very important and I will dedicate entire articles on these topics. Making good scientists entails teaching them work ethics as well. And I am not only talking about telling them that faking data is bad. No. You should teach them how important it is to work in a team, how they should discover and pursuit their interests, how to build a network and that they shouldn’t sweep under the rug experimental evidence that contradicts their working hypotheses. A lot of that happens naturally; students observe their mentors and they mimic. But a lot of it as well needs to be actively taught and discussed. One of my mantras that I always share with my students their first day in the lab is “nothing is obvious”. It’s better to discuss one topic that didn’t really need to be discussed, than leave out something you thought was obvious and your student had no idea about. In my articles I will point out several points in a young scientists’ training that are not obvious or absorbed by the students via osmosis and need to be thoroughly pointed out and analyzed.

Fair warning: teaching junior scientists is a lot of work and it is one of the most demanding tasks we have in our profession. I do hope you will find my articles instructive and inspiring. More importantly, although I do refer mostly to senior scientists that have more junior charges, these articles can be highly useful to PhD students who currently lack mentoring and need help to guide themselves more effectively through the tough journey of becoming a scientist.

If there is a topic that as a science trainee or trainer you would like to read about, please leave a comment. I’ll check my autobiography and if I have a relevant (and fabulous) story about it, I’ll make sure I write a post.