Illustrated by Lauren Boglio
Parsa Taheri, a first-year graduate student at the University of Houston, Texas, was acutely aware that academia’s reimbursement culture doesn’t work for many early-career researchers.
Taheri Paid over $1,000 out of pocket to attend the 2023 Association for Child Development Research Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Luckily, she had secured a prize money from the university to cover some of her travel expenses, but it wasn’t until she returned from her trip to turn in conference registration fees, air tickets, and hotel receipts. , the funds were not available. Meanwhile, these costs were a significant amount for someone on a graduate student scholarship, and her credit card went unused for months, temporarily lowering her score, she said. says.
Even when graduate students are funded with grants covering conference-related costs, they are often asked to pay up front and must seek reimbursement after the trip. Graduate students are “expected to have that money,” or have the ability to use credit, says Taheri. “So it becomes a huge equity problem.”
Researchers who can’t afford to attend meetings may be at a “slight disadvantage research-wise,” he said. Lillian Brady, Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. “Part of academic science, or research in general, is being able to communicate your science and get to know people in your field.”
Brady said many travel benefits don’t cover all the costs of attending a conference. She tends to apply for more than one at a time, she says, hoping she’ll get at least one.
Conference organizers, as well as academic societies and researcher affiliations, often offer travel awards. Also, applicants don’t necessarily have to be members of the conference’s organization or association, he says, Taheri. It also helps to choose meetings that you attend in person rather than online. Taheri now says she attends one big conference a year and will look for additional regional conferences where she can meet face-to-face on a budget.
But the system also needs to change, she says. If universities are to stick to redemptions, “they should at least make redemptions faster.”
Book of the Month:
Tomasz NovakovskyAn associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of California, San Francisco, recommends:Does God Play Dice New Mathematics of Chaosby Ian Stewart – so much so that he says he “actually grew up reading” non-fiction books that tackle the mathematics of chaos theory.
job,training and funds:
- A current or recently graduated Ph.D.Students researching childhood disabilities are welcome to apply Holland Bloorview’s 2023 Pursuit AwardApply until July 18th.
- Mirella Daplet and Shulamite green At the University of California, Los Angeles, Staff Research Associate Help coordinate participant recruitment and data collection, and support grants and publications for autism neuroimaging research.
- Alessandro GozziSenior Research Fellow at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Rovereto, Italy, I am trying to get my Ph.D.student To study the mechanisms of brain connectivity in the mammalian brain.
- At Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, doctor student Belongs to the Advanced Neural Network Group.
- Eric LevineProfessor of Neuroscience at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Farmington, doctor student His lab focuses on synaptic regulation in the hippocampus and cortex.
Recommended means:
- Nautical Hue The professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands grew up poor and often felt like an outsider in academia, but opening up about her background helped her connect with her peers, she writes. . article for chemistry.
- Anyone with autism considering a career in academia should definitely find supportive colleagues, remember their well-being, and “go cautiously but passionately.” investigation of current autism scholars published last month in autism.
- When working on a new talk, she writes, it helps to start with a simple story. David RubensonDirector of NoBadSlides, a science communication company in Los Angeles, California, career column for Nature“Audience members seldom, if ever, recall a particular slide the day after your talk. Think of two or three key ideas you want them to remember.”
- Researchers say you can make a difference in your community by speaking out and using social media effectively. Gandura BossProgram Director, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland online talk For the Neuroscience Society.
- Ann article of Trend of Ptimeweapons science We offer tips to impartial endorsements from scientists, especially from underrepresented groups.
- and article For the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Daniela WittenA professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington in Seattle, she writes about the challenges she faced as a researcher and new parent. “[G]Setting tenure is not the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s also not the most challenging. After all, my publications will never love me. But I don’t even have to help them poop.
Do you have any suggestions for making this newsletter as useful as possible, or recommendations on what topics to cover next? Send them [email protected].
Citing this article: https://doi.org/10.53053/ADMU7670