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Student Information Session and Pizza
Social Tuesday August 3
This Tuesday, PBD will host a first of its kind student
social, designed to bring students together to talk
with one another and get an exclusive perspective on
some of the science going on in the division. We will
feature Jamie Cate from the Advanced Microscopies Department,
who will talk about his work delineating the molecular
machinery of the ribosome. Following the talk will be
a tour of the Cate Lab and a pizza social. Science-and-a-slice
starts at 4 pm in the Calvin Lab Seminar Room. Please
contact Eskedar Tadesse (etadesse@lbl.gov, x4151) to
save a spot.
PBD Unveils Student Website
In an effort to provide our students with a one-stop
resource for information and opportunities, PBD has
created a PBD Students Website, located at www.lbl.gov/pbd/students.
The site includes links to valuable student resources,
as well as our Student Registration page and upcoming
events. Please visit the site and let us know how we
can make it more useful.
The Importance of Knowing Your Facts
and Figures
adapted from CAREERS IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING:
A Student Planning Guide to Grad School and Beyond
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/careers/contents.html
As a scientist or engineer, you know the importance
of not just making assumptions or listening to anecdotes
when you're analyzing a situation in the laboratory
or the field. The same is true when you are trying to
understand graduate education or the job market. 
For example, how many science and engineering PhDs
do you think obtain employment in the academic employment
market? 90%? 75%? The real answer, as shown in the graph
to the right, is less than 50% in 1991, and it is an
illustration of a steadily declining trend. On the other
hand, employment of science and engineering PhDs by
business and industry is increasing in
that same period. If you look at how many science and
engineering PhDs are in tenure-track positions 5-8 years
after receiving the PhD, you will find that it is less
than one-third.
What is the employment marketplace like this year for
those with bachelor's vs. master's vs. PhDs in different
disciplines? How many people in different disciplines
get master's vs. PhDs? How many years does it take to
get a PhD in different disciplines? Is postdoctoral
work in your discipline customary? How long does it
usually take? For the answers to these and other questions,
check out the National Research Council's Career Planning
Center For Beginning Scientists and Engineers at http://www2.nas.edu/cpc.
One section, entitled "Trends and Changes in the
Job Market," analyzes such data from a student
perspective. Another good source of information is your
scientific or engineering disciplinary society. Many
societies produce an annual employment guide that discusses
the employment market for their discipline, especially
for recent graduates. The National Science Foundation
also issues its annual Science and Engineering Indicators
report with many useful statistics.
So take the time to look at the available facts and
figures about the job market and graduate education
before taking that next big step.
Feature Article:
Summer Internships in the Biotech Industry
by Liam Bradshaw, Undergraduate Student in Stephen Cramer’s
Lab
When I first came to LBL after finishing my junior
year of high school, it was a big, mysterious place:
I didn’t know my way around, and the very idea
of being at a government lab was intimidating. It was
not until shortly afterwards that I realized that Berkeley
Lab was boiling over with opportunities. Working here,
I have learned many things about science, research,
and the way to make doors open for me.
As a junior in high school, I had planned my life around
becoming a physicist. At the time, I did not see how
I could possibly be interested in anything but pure
physics; but then again, I had never really tried anything
else outside of my high school survey courses. That
is where the lab came in. Nearly by chance, I ended
up working in the ALS building with Dr. Simon George
and Prof. Stephen Cramer, working on the spectroscopy
of metalloenzymes. The research, an exciting fusion
of physics, chemistry, and biology, immediately opened
my eyes as to how many different possibilities there
were in science. My outlook on the way I wanted to plan
my career changed almost immediately: no longer was
physics the only thing that could interest me, but I
instead saw that some of the most fascinating research
is going on at the interfaces of the fields. It appeared
to me as if in today’s scientific world, one can
not easily go through a career focused narrowly on one
subject, but needs instead to be almost “multilingual”
in the three fields.
The experience of working in a lab on cutting edge research
was also quite a bit of a shock to me. Although I had
had a fair amount of experience doing labs in school,
I had not realized just how different real research
was. In all of my previous encounters with experimental
science, I almost always either knew or was easily able
to predict the outcome of an experiment. Here, as there
is not really any reason to do experiments that you
already know the out come of, I was introduced to the
thrill of seeing a result that was completely different
from anything I ever could have expected. This thrill
confirmed for me the fact that research was what I wanted
to do for the rest of my life.
Arguably one of the most important skills that I learned
while working at the lab was how to create opportunities
for myself. What I found was that the overwhelming majority
of people that I encountered were extremely enthusiastic
about giving me the best possible experience I could
ask for. The best example of this is the group’s
willingness to include me on the various beamtimes that
we had at synchrotrons around the world. Because I was
enthusiastic about learning about the various methods
of x-ray spectroscopy that we do, and was willing to
work hard, the group sent me first to the APS at Argonne
lab outside of Chicago, and then to SPring-8 in Japan,
in addition to beamtimes close to home at the ALS and
SSRL in Stanford. I may be lucky to be working with
people so willing to contribute to the experience of
a student, but I believe that opportunities like the
ones I had abound in a place like Berkeley Lab. You
just have to reach out and find them.
PBD Summer Picnic Friday September 24
Mark your calendars: the PBD Annual Picnic is scheduled
for Friday, September 24 at the Padre Site of Tilden
Regional Park here in Berkeley. Our annual picnic is
always a big hoot, and students are invited to come
enjoy the last days of summer sun. Don’t forget
your soccer ball! More details to come…
Have you filled out the online student
form?
Please be sure to complete our online PBD
Student Registration Form, if you haven't already.
As part of our student program, we have developed this
tool to keep in touch with you -- our students -- after
you leave the division. The information you provide
will help us serve you and future students better, as
well as help us keep you informed about Physical Biosciences
and Berkeley Lab events after you move on. If you have
questions about this or any of our programs, please
contact Ellen Ford at EFord@lbl.gov
or Monica Miller at MMiller@lbl.gov.
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