Careers – Blog

This week we are featuring the Faculty Job: Myths and Realities Series created by ASPB Ambassador Arif Ashraf. In each interview, faculty members describe their journey from student to newly appointed faculty and answer the following questions: What inspired you most to pursue your current career? …

The Plant Science Research Network attends two conferences each fall to support undergraduate research and education: SACNAS and ABRCMS. Connecting undergraduate students to research opportunities in the plant sciences is a goal of the PSRN, which curates resources to support student research, careers,…

Guest post by George Kantor, Senior Systems Scientist, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University This much is a truism: a successful career in any interdisciplinary field requires collaboration with people from different disciplines. It is more difficult to define what skills are needed to be…

Guest post by Guillaume Beaudoin, Scientist, Conagen Inc. About one year has gone by since I had begun seriously looking for a job to end my postdoctoral experience at the University of Florida. I had read all the doom and gloom: how the ratio of the number of faculty positions to PhDs is forever…

If you had 48 free hours, what are the odds you’d spend them at a leadership retreat? Prior to my own experience I would have said “not likely”. After all, I’m a second-year graduate student with coursework, experiments, and TA responsibilities clamoring for my time. I’m also a member of the…

Internship Posts: Recent Job Posts: Make the most of your profile on Jobs.Plantae.org: · Upload your resume/CV, so you can apply for jobs faster · Make your resume/CV public, so employers can find you · Set up Job Alerts, so you’ll get an email any time a job that fits…

Internship Posts: Recent Job Posts: Make the most of your profile on Jobs.Plantae.org: · Upload your resume/CV, so you can apply for jobs faster · Make your resume/CV public, so employers can find you · Set up Job Alerts, so you’ll get an email any time a job that fits…

    Internship Posts: Undergraduate Summer Research Experience Program, Center for Engineering MechanoBiology (CEMB), Philapelphia, PA, USA Biochemist Intern - Trait Discovery (199253W-01), DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA, USA PhD student in Hydrology & Climate…

    Internship Posts: Internship; Lab Technician; Postdoc in Crop Metabolic Engineering and Genome Editing, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA PhD student in Hydrology & Climate Applications, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA Recent Job Posts: Post-doctoral…

  NEW Internship Posts: Internship; Lab Technician; Postdoc in Crop Metabolic Engineering and Genome Editing, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Internship in Crop Genetic Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA PhD student in Hydrology &…

Preparing graduate students and postdocs for diverse careers Changes in the workforce are challenging academia to prepare scientists to be adaptable and adept at communicating across boundaries. To meet these demands, the Plant Science Research Network (PSRN, plantae.org/PSRN) is shifting the focus…

  Make the most of your profile on Jobs.Plantae.org: ·     Upload your resume/CV, so you can apply for jobs faster  ·     Make your resume/CV public, so employers can find you ·     Set up Job Alerts, so you’ll get an email any time a job that fits the criteria…

  Recent Job Posts: Postdoc Position, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA Potato Geneticist, USDA-ARS, Prosser, WA, USA Research Assistant, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA BioCurator, Plant…

  Recent Job Posts: Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis CA, USA Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor (Plant Molecular Biology and Crop Improvement), Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China Post Doctoral Research Associate…

Find your next position – or your next hire – at Plant Biology 2018 Career Fair in conjunction with the Plantae Career Center. Are you an employer? Post your jobs and then sign up for space in our on-site interview booths. Jobs will be marked with a special icon to let people know you…

From Facebook to disease control, starting in New York via the UK to the Volcani centre in Israel and back again, my interview with Benjy Firester, winner of the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2018, felt like a whistlestop global tour. This bright senior student at Hunter College High School in New…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we offer the Plantae Job Center. The Job Center will provide service includes features that will…

This month we will be highlighting Alexander von Humboldt, who lived from 1769-1859. While he wasn't a classically trained plant scientist, he has had an enormous impact in our field, particularly in the dissemination of research to the public. Von Humboldt is most known for his expeditions to South…

The inaugural class of ASPB Conviron Scholars are wrapping up their virtual course, which included discussions and exercises on various aspects of professional development, from communication to leadership. As part of the course, they were asked to write a blog post and do some sort of independent…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

Science is a rewarding career, but challenges those who pursue it because the road to a permanent position is long and fragmented. Not surprisingly, many of the early-career researchers we’ve spoken to say they’d like to see more advice and resources to help them navigate their career path. With…

Note: This is the first post in a new series, "Self Reflection" organized by Amey Redkar written for (and largely by) early-career researchers - read more here. Every step in your career starts with a document to present yourself clearly and concisely, to crack the advertised placement. You may have…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

Many journal articles in the plant sciences – including some of mine – finish with statements like “these findings can potentially contribute to solving the challenge of feeding the world’s growing population whilst saving the planet’s limited resources”. That is a noble ambition. Sadly,…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

Earlier this year I gave a Plantae seminar on "Images for Impact" - simple, free tips about how to source and create images to use in your science writing and communicating. Here is the text of the handout I created to accompany the seminar. You can get this as a PDF here. You can download the…

Are you interested in science writing? Do you want to help people understand complex scientific issues?   Apply for the ASPB/AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellows Program and learn how to increase public understanding of science and technology. Fellows in the 10-week 2018 summer…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

Another excellent entry in PLOS Computational Biology's "Ten Simple Rules" series. Read "Ten simple rules for writing a response to reviewers" here. Short version: Rule 1: Provide an overview, then quote the full set of reviews Rule 2: Be polite and respectful of all reviewers Rule 3: Accept…

We're delighted to welcome our newest class of Plantae Fellows, selected from an outstanding pool of applicants. This year's Plantae Fellows span from Graduate Student to Professor, and come from many countries and states, from Western Australia and Vietman in the east to California in the west. They…

Rene Schneider, featured first author of Two Complementary Mechanisms Underpin Cell Wall Patterning during Xylem Vessel Development Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Education: PhD (2013) Bio-Physics, Dresden University of Technology,…

July 2017 marked the debut of a new podcast that digs beneath the surface to understand how plant science publications are created. The Taproot Podcast was developed and is hosted by Elizabeth (Liz) Haswell (Professor at Washington University in St. Louis) and Ivan Baxter (Research Computational…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

Choose a program, have a life By Samantha H. Jones (Published in Science) As I formally accepted the offer to join my Ph.D. program, the massive weight on my chest began to dissolve, my shoulders relaxed, and my headache subsided. Choosing a program had been quite the roller coaster ride,…

I am a PhD Student at the University of Adelaide in South Australia with a background in agricultural science and molecular biology. My PhD project focusses on seed coat mucilage biosynthesis in the genus Plantago for applications in food technology. I also have a passion for citizen science, science…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

Looking back on his 40-year career gives author Stephen Campana the opportunity to distill very useful career advice. Very briefly, here are his 12 steps, but we recommend you real all of this interesting and useful article, found here, from the ICES Journal of Marine Science. Read, read, read …

Really useful post about whether or not graduate school is right for you. "If you’re unsure about whether you should pursue a Ph.D., taking some time away from academia to explore your career interests and professional goals can help crystallize whether further training makes sense. For chemical…

Rebecca Mosher is an Associate Professor in the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona who studies small RNAs and epigenetics. You can reach her at @rm0sher . Have you ever felt like you don’t belong in academic science? Do you think that you aren’t as smart as the people across…

ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…

Plant geneticist Dame Ottoline Leyser talks to Alison Woollard about the difference between working with animal and plant genomes, and her work to make science more inclusive The Biologist 64(4) p16-19 Dame Ottoline Leyser is a professor of plant development at the University of Cambridge.…

We all know that your PhD studies and postdoc prepare you for a career in academia. Your advisor, who has been pursuing a career in academia, should be able to advice you on submitting your research to journals, writing grants, and interviewing for other academic jobs, but may not have much to say about…

A 2011 editorial from the journal Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC). Any jackass can trash a manuscript, but it takes good scholarship to create one (how MBoC promotes civil and constructive peer review) http://www.molbiolcell.org/content/22/5/525.long Key points: Review a manuscript only…

PlantingScience is an online mentoring program that virtually connects scientists with junior high or high school students as they participate in inquiry-based activities with plants. Mentors commit to an hour or so per week over roughly two to four weeks, during which they respond to student questions…

Published on Apr 28, 2016 How do you juggle a toddler in a research lab? Very carefully. This talk looks at issues facing women (or any caregiver) in scientific careers, along with examples from women who have found ways to be successful as parents and as scientists. As a member of the Biology…

Publications are important, but these days it takes more than a couple of nice papers to move your career to the next level. Also, increasingly scientists are looking outside the (academic) box for their next career move. ASPB provides many ways through which scientist can build their careers and…

CropLife International has a series called "Food Heroes" - recently they profiled plant scientist Sophien Kamoun. Why did you want to be a plant scientist? I became a scientist because I grew up being extremely curious about the natural world. I wanted to know how living organisms function. How they…

Current Biology interviews Jane Langdale, Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University. Jane Langdale received a PhD in human genetics from the University of London. For her postdoc, she switched to plant genetics, working with Tim Nelson at Yale University on maize leaf development.…

Young Wha Lee, Data Scientist at Monsanto, talks about searching for a career that bridges interests and gives joy, and how to approach industry jobs.  In the Decoding Life series, we talk to geneticists with diverse career paths, tracing the many directions possible after research training. This…

Keiko Sugimoto, an Editor of The Plant Cell, was recently profiled by her undergraduate institution. Read more about The Plant Cell Editorial Board here. "At the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, the research team I lead as a Principal Investigator (PI) focuses on the two themes of…

From abstract algebra to zoology, women participate in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM), but sometimes their stories are not as well known as those of their male colleagues. To remedy this, PhD student Josie Maidment is conducting a one-year Twitter education campaign called "@365womeninSTEM,"…

About 30 years ago, a young geneticist in Boston did a seemingly simple experiment: she planted seeds and watched how they fared in light or darkness. First, though, she soaked the seeds in a solution with a DNA-damaging chemical. She hoped that a few of the induced flaws might serendipitously land…

Are you a creative, articulate and web-savvy plant scientist looking to connect with other like-minded folks? We need your help to nurture and grow Plantae, the online community for the global plant science community.  We are looking for individuals who are interested in being highly engaged contributors…

By Beronda L. Montgomery, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA From SAGE Open, Vol 7, Issue 2, First published date: June-03-2017 http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/izCuY6fGpyIi7B5JREqZ/full Abstract This article presents a proactive, individual-centered mentoring model which meets…

By Steven Burgess, posted on Medium "As I am coming to the end of my time as postdoc I have been thinking a lot about what I have learnt and perhaps wish I knew when I started out. Inspired by the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Letters To A Young Poet’, I am noting down some thoughts which…

Volume 95 Issue 20 | p. 30 Issue Date: May 15, 2017 | Web Date: May 9, 2017 By Chemjobber The best science happens when all hypotheses are considered and all voices are heard. Not only that: If important safety information isn’t communicated among all lab members, someone could get hurt. How…

PLOS Computational Biology has a series of "Ten Simple Rules" articles. Here is one for undergraduate researchers, "Ten simple rules to make the most out of your undergraduate research career" by Megan Yu and Yu-Min Kuo Here are the rules, read the article for elaboration Rule 1:…

May 2017, MIT Technology Review by James Temple Reinventing Rice for a World Transformed by Climate Change UC Davis plant geneticist Pamela Ronald wants to create rice varieties that can survive in harsher conditions, including more frequent droughts. "Pamela Ronald stands in front of two rows of…

The editorial team at eLIFE has shared some of their tips for writing about your research in an accessible way. In addition to reporting on the outcomes of their plain-language summaries (eLIFE Digests), they provide an excellent set of guidelines to help you write your own plain-language summary. All…

Communicating about science (or anything) on social media sites can expose you to rudeness and worse. In this column by Amber Dance from Nature Careers, several high-profile scientists and science communicators share how they avoid and cope with conflicts. Read more here.  

Evan Peck, an Assistant Professor at Bucknell College, writes about how he nearly didn't apply to a job he loves, and what a liberal arts college is. The Jobs I Didn’t See: My Misconceptions of the Academic Job Market Read more here.

If you're applying for an independent position, you'll need to submit a Research Statement about your future research plans. Bethany Hout (@huotbethany) writes about a Pub Club group meeting to discuss how to write a Research Statment. Topics include "What makes a good research statement", "How important…

"A curiosity for disease and a passion to cure led Mezzalama to a career as a plant pathologist. While studying for an undergraduate degree in agronomy in her hometown of Turin, Italy, she visited nearby vineyards to study plant pathogens for the first time. “It was working in the vineyards where…

Mike Blatt, Editor-in-Chief of Plant Physiology, was recently interviewed for the "People Behind the Science" podcast series. Read excerpts and hear the full interview here http://www.peoplebehindthescience.com/dr-mike-blatt/#more-5509.

The Hub - The Community of Minds, is the online presence of a group that meets weekly at Michigan State University (MSU), led by graduate student Bethany Huot. Browse the website for tons of useful information and resources about developing skills to help you navigate your career, from preparing for…

Kara Perrow (nee Vine), University of Wollongong; Amy Wyatt, University of Wollongong, and Martina Sanderson-Smith, University of Wollongong As children we are encouraged to dream big, and many young people – including young women and girls – aspire to a career in science. While there are role…

Frédéric Bouché, a postdoctoral research with Richard Amasino at the University of Wisconsin, recently caught our attention when he published a set of impressive visual abstracts to support his latest research papers. We invited him to share how and why he makes these images. -Editors When you…

"Don’t waste them trying to cram in eight more points or call out as many reminders as possible" One of a series of article by James Lang in the Chronicle of Higher Education on small changes that can make your teaching much better. The article includes links to his other columns. View resourc…