Postdoctoral Researcher Expectations - GremerLab/Resources GitHub Wiki

Please review the general Gremer lab expectations. This document will provide additional information specific to graduate students in the lab.
What Jenny expects of you:

  1. Be an engaged member of the lab and contribute to our collaborative and inclusive lab environment. Welcome new members to the lab. Treat each other with respect and courtesy. Pay it forward with sharing information, knowledge, and ideas. Provide feedback on each other’s ideas, experiments, presentations, and drafts. Contribute to lab tasks and activities.
  2. Communicate your academic and career goals, both short and long term. We will discuss these when you join the lab and revisit these at regular intervals (often annually in the fall, or every 6 months).
  3. Decide on a structure to work when and where you are productive and communicate this to me. Those hours can be flexible, as long as you are meeting timelines and making satisfactory progress. Note there may be exceptions when activities require your participation at certain times/days (e.g., field or experiment data collection). Clearly communicate when you will be away or on vacation, including posting out of office times to the lab (and relevant project) calendar(s). Also be ready to have some flexibility around that schedule, including times when there are big pushes for experiments or data collection.
  4. The postdoc stage is a transitional time and requires managing progress on past and current projects, as well as planning for the future. Communicate with me about projects outside of the lab, such as those from your PhD or other projects. Include this in your planning and discussions with me. In general, I expect the majority of your time should be focused on your current project(s), but also encourage you to follow through and finish your previous work and recognize the importance of applying for career opportunities. We can discuss this balance. If you have your own funding or fellowship, you have greater flexibility about projects and time commitments, but also the responsibility to meet objectives and manage time and funds accordingly.
  5. Make an effort to be present in the lab community, and balance this with your own work and life schedule. Be in the lab enough to interact and build lab community. This facilitates peer and near-peer learning, builds relationships, and can be critical for your own productivity, as well as paying it forward for others in the lab. Attend lab functions when you can.
  6. Develop independent research ideas, which requires deep dives into the literature, attending seminars, brainstorming, and discussion.
  7. Engage with constructive criticism and feedback. Be open and receptive to feedback from me and others. Provide constructive, supportive criticism to others.
  8. Provide timely notice of when you need feedback and when you need a reference or letter of recommendation. Remind me a week in advance of deadlines. If I haven’t written you a letter yet, make sure to give me at least a month notice.
  9. Use your meeting time with me well. Come prepared with ideas, results, and progress. Make an agenda for our meetings, share it with me, and we can fill in notes and action items together in our meetings. Google docs is a great way to do this, and we can have a shared document that we add to.
  10. Attend research seminars, at least 1-2 per week. More when you are getting started and developing research ideas.
  11. Adhere to rigorous data management. See data management guidelines in the general lab expectations document.
  12. Mentor undergraduate and graduate students in the lab. This can include informal mentorship, as well as formally supervising undergraduate assistants or advising students as they conduct independent research. Discuss expectations and guidelines with me, which will depend on the type of work and level of independence for the student. In any case, if you are welcoming a new student to the lab, I expect to meet them when they join the lab and for you to outline general lab expectations and culture, as well as clear expectations and structure for the student. If they are registering for academic credit, make sure they have submitted forms and enrolled for credit, and tell me at the end of the term if they met expectations.
  13. Take initiative with finding opportunities for professional development and networking, including presenting research, cultivating collaborations, or applying for funding. Communicate plans and strategies with me.
  14. Contribute to annual project reports for grants as relevant. If you have your own funding, work with me to manage your project’s budget and report activities and outcomes.
  15. Attend scientific conferences. Grant funds may be available if your work is related to a grant, otherwise there are internal (UC Davis) or external (e.g., Ecological Society of America) funds that you can apply for. Applying for travel funds can also save grant funds that can be used for your research, so discuss options with me.
  16. Follow all lab protocols and procedures, including safety protocols, equipment check out and care, etc.
  17. Practice self-care. The postdoc stage includes managing multiple demands on your time and uncertainty, but also can be a time of personal and professional growth with quite a bit of flexibility. If you would like some extra support, UC Davis has great resources for physical and mental health, as well as work-life balance and stress management. Let me know if you’d like help connecting with resources.
  18. Departing the lab: Before you head off to your next steps, make sure you have provided clear documentation of your data, analyses, and samples. Clear out any of your personal belongings and leftover samples/supplies/materials. Discuss any lingering manuscripts or projects with me, as well as next steps on them, and what future directions and roles may be for continued collaboration or working with my systems. Make sure I know how to contact you in the future!