Teaching Philosophy
Research is my passion, but as an university-level educator, I regarding teaching and mentoring as my top priority. I would not be here if I didn't enjoy this aspect of my job. I believe that often the best and most insightful work is done by students and postdoctoral trainees, provided they have adequate support, motivation, and training.
I believe in a philosophy of learning science through doing science. Although all educated adults should be familiar with facts and figures learned from scientific research, trained scientists should in addition be able to apply the scientific method and evaluate critically the scientific knowledge generated by others. In training students, I focus on teaching the scientific process as much as in communicating scientific knowledge itself. In addition, I believe that training students in the so-called "soft" skills of scientific research should be a top priority. These include: verbal and written communication, career development, and scientific ethics. If you work with me, we will develop a concrete plan to help you achieve excellence in all three areas as well as in the technical and intellectual aspects of scientific practise.
Last but not least, I also believe that our student-mentor relationship can extend far beyond the period in which you are working under my direct supervision. As you will learn, every career transition typically involves assistance from your former mentors in the form of networking, letters of recommendation, and informal advising. I would not be where I am today without the support and guidance of my own mentors. As a mentor myself, I continue to support and assist my former students throughout their careers. Your goal should be to achieve personal excellence; my goal will be to provide guidance, financial and technical support, training, and constructive criticism.
Postdoctoral research.
Duration: Two to Three years. Because you are a postdoctoral researcher, I will assume that you have committed to a career in science. Your main goal should be to develop and demonstrate your ability to operate as an independent scientist, regardless of whether your ultimate objective is to become a university professor or industry scientist. My goal will be to help you develop a project, make sure you get the technical support and training needed to complete it, and walk you through the publication process. I will also work with you to find your next position by helping you plan, conduct, and complete your job search. For example, if you decide to pursue a faculty position, I will help you develop a "job talk," assemble your statements of research and teaching interests, and evaluate offers. Depending on your background, you should expect to spend at least two years working with me. The first year we will devote to getting your research program started; however, if you have very little training in computer science and statistics, this phase of your postdoc will likely take longer as you simultaneously develop programming skills and statistical expertise. The second or third year we will devote to publication; refining and promoting your research; and carrying out the job search. Once you have obtained a position as an independent investigator, we may continue to collaborate. If this is the case, I will help you develop grant proposals to support joint research projects. Regardless of our level of continued collaboration, I will do anything I can to get your career started.
Graduate research.
Duration: Five to six years. Your main goal should be to generate a body of work that contributes in a substantive way to human knowledge while at the same time mastering the terminology, concepts, and techniques of computational molecular biology. Although earning a Ph.D. will qualify you to pursue a career in science, I will ensure that you develop broadly-applicable skills that will help you achieve success if you pursue an alternative career plan. This may involve cross-training in disciplines such as science writing, secondary education, legal and social issues, or other complementary fields. During your first and second year, you will most likely focus on classes and preparing for your candidacy exams, spending most of your energy mastering programming or other technical skills while at the same time learning about major problems in the field. Subsequent years you'll spend developing a research project and practising writing, presentation, and networking skills needed for a scientific career. As you perform background research for your project during the beginning of your third year, you may write a review article which can become the first chapter of your dissertation and which will demonstrate your scholarship abilities and mastery of a sub-field in computational molecular biology. You will also select a dissertation committee, a group of scientists whom you should regard as mentors who can help you develop as a scientist and who will use their contacts to help you develop a career plan. Depending on your home department, you will select your thesis committee in the beginning of your third year in graduate school. If you work with me, you should expect to co-author at least three research articles, including at least one first-author publication. At the beginning of your fifth and final year, we will develop a strategy for you to complete your dissertation, complete any outstanding papers, and locate your next position.
Undergraduate research
Duration: One to two semesters. Computational biology, unlike other biological fields, requires very little in the way of equipment in order to do research: all one needs is an adequately-power computer and a high-speed Internet connection. However, the skills required are perhaps harder to learn than conventional lab-based science. Not only do you have to learn the basics of programming and statistical analysis, you also need to grasp the terminology, concepts, and outstanding problems of molecular biology, an enormous and ever-expanding field. To prepare yourself for a career in this field, you should take courses in computer science, mathematics, and biology. Depending on your course of study, by the beginning of your senior year you should have acquired the skill sets needed to undertake a supervised research project in computational biology. Undergraduate students who do research with me will complete a year- or semester-long project that is a hybrid between a conventional coursework and purely independent study. I will give you a well-defined problem to solve, help you develop a research plan with defined milestones, and evaluate your progress in regular meetings. We will also develop a plan for you to develop technical skills (most likely programming) you'll need for the project, and I will design the project to ensure that the technical skills you learn will apply to other fields as well as computational biology. Regardless of your ultimate career destination, your project should be an enriching and rewarding experience. Near the end of the project, you'll give a presentation on your work either as a talk or in poster format at a scientific conference. My main goal as a mentor will be for you to have a successful and productive experience doing a short research project, which you can then present to potential graduate schools, medical schools, or employers as evidence of your scientific abilities and outstanding scholastic achievement.