In this article, Lynn Smith, * a postdoc working at a research university on the East Coast, describes her experience as an expectant mother and a parent. If you are interested in how different institutions and postdocs have addressed some of the issues she raises, read the accompanying article, Solutions for Pregnant Postdocs. Then share your thoughts in the Next Wave's forum. I am a fourth-year...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX One of the most diverse and challenging areas within science is the field of biomedical engineering (BME). A concise definition of bioengineering is "a discipline that advances knowledge in engineering, biology and medicine, and improves human health through cross-disciplinary activities that integrate the engineering sciences with the biomedical sciences and clinical pr...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX During the summer of 2000, I began asking myself the two questions that graduate students dread: When am I going to graduate, and what am I going to do next? I was in the midst of the 6th year of my Ph.D. research in the department of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and I was starting to think seriously about my future. My research into the mo...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX I am a very well qualified, experienced, and fairly well-travelled research scientist with a total of 20 years of practical and theoretical experience under my belt ... and I have been unemployed since December 1996. I hold an honours degree and a doctorate in Biochemistry, both from the University of Liverpool. I have completed postdoctoral research contracts at the Uni...
He is an anomaly in the world of science, a man who never intended to be a scientist but seems to have a knack for genetics. Joseph D. Terwilliger, assistant professor in the psychiatry department at Columbia University in New York City, ended up in graduate school at Columbia because it paid better than a fast-food restaurant. "Honestly, I never wanted to be a scientist," Terwilliger insists. "I...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX It dawned on me during my astronomy Ph.D. that I probably wasn't cut out for a life in research, but I was way too far in to give up, so I persevered. As my thesis took shape, I discovered an interest in science communication. I gave talks to the general public, showed groups around the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, and got involved with organising events for the Edinb...
