Blogging from Bio-Link, part III[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2636","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":"i-6acc85780a72ebc76de64b3369707f04-clock.jpg"}}]] High school teachers have different techniques for selling their students on the benefits of science and math. When some high school instructors step in front of a class, the quiet demeanor gets put away and another persona steps out - the USED-CAR SALESMAN SCIENCE EVANGELIST ...
What do you call a biologist who uses bioinformatics tools to do research, but doesn't program? You don't know? Neither does anyone else. The names we use People who practice biology are known by many names, so many, that the number of names almost reflects the diversity of biology itself ...
My husband brought this fantastic book home from the ASHG* that I think many of you will find interesting. The book is: Making the Right Moves A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty, published in 2006 by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Howard Hughes Medical ...
What do people in biotechnology do on the job? What can students do with a science degree once they've finished college? Some answers can be found at the " Life Sciences Central web site. Created by the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County, this is a wonderful resource for anyone ...
I had an enlightening experience recently, after I wrote some bioinformatics activities, under contract, for a community college. At the end of the project, the person at the college asked me if the activities were anything like the things that a " bioinformatics technician" would do on the job. tags ...
What do people do in bioinformatics software companies? tags: , In our old conference room, in our last office, we used to have this little card on a stand, entitled "Sun's universe of stars." Over the years, we watched several of those stars blink out, one by one. The card ...
I don't usually blog about work for wide variety of reasons. But, last week, since I wanted to write about bioinformatics software companies, I broke with tradition and wrote about Geospiza as an example. Naturally, I got some feedback about this. Some people liked it, but one of the most ...
In this, and the next post in this series, I want to answer some of the questions that came up in the comments. One of the commenters on part II wrote that: For most academic biology groups, however, being a bioinformatics specialist is a dead end job! People in these ...
I'll continue with the remaining parts of my career series shortly, but for the time being, I want to bring your attention to a really good post on doing bioinformatics as a software professional, and some commentary on the question that never seems to go away: " do biologists need ...
If all the information you had about scientific careers came from newspapers or TV, it would be easy to think that everyone who works in life sciences / biotechnology is either a Ph.D. scientist, post-doc, or graduate student. In reality, the life sciences are more like an iceberg. The public ...
"What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet" - Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare I realized from the comments on my previous post and from Mike's post that more explanations were in order. It seems we have ...
I get asked this question often enough and now that's it's come up again, it seems that I might as well answer it once and for all and get it over with. First, I want to change the question. Of course they don't need to learn programming. A better question ...
A little over ten years ago, Dr. Elaine Johnson obtained funding from the National Science Foundation to start Bio-Link, an Advanced Technology Education center, focused on biotechnology. Since that time, Dr. Johnson has become a national leader in biotech education, enlisting the country's top educators and industry captains to ensure ...
For aspiring technicians, who live in the right parts of the country, biotech jobs are out there and waiting. But what if you don't want to be a technician? Or what if you're in graduate school, in a post-doc, or have a Ph.D. and simply want to do something else ...
When I was a post-doc, I spent a few months seriously thinking about changing careers and teaching high school. I might have followed through on that plan, too, but I didn't know how to pay for it. Today, if you have a background in science, technology, math, or engineering, you ...
The first lab mouse I touched had soft white fur and a light pink tail. It looked cute enough to snuggle and take home as a pet and I was smitten. I slipped my hand into the cage, thinking the mouse would respond like my pet gerbils or my brother's ...
A simple web search says biotech is really big. One estimate indicates that the industry will have $400 billion in sales in 2017 with growth to over $775 billion by 2024 [1]. Another report suggests there are over 77,000 employers [2]. That’s big, but is it real, and what you ...
A simple web search says biotech is really big. One estimate indicates that the industry will have $400 billion in sales in 2017 with growth to over $775 billion by 2024 [1]. Another report suggests there are over 77,000 employers [2]. That’s big, but is it real, and what you ...
start all over again. MDRNA Inc., a Puget Sound area company formerly known as Nastech, announced on Monday that they'd be laying off 23 people including their president and chief business officer. This might not sound like a lot, but according to Joseph Tartakoff, from the Seattle PI, this brings ...
If you missed reading some of the comments on yesterday's post, I highly recommend that you go back and catch up. I especially want you all to pay close attention to the comments from Deepak and Keith Robison. Like me, they work in industry and not in an ivory tower ...
" Why won't biotech companies hire people with Ph.D.s to be technicians?" " I already have a Ph.D., how do I find a job?" These were some of the questions that commenters left after my earlier posts ( here, here and here) on biotechnology workforce shortages. Unfortunately, for these students ...
I've just returned from two conferences that focused on educating students for careers in science and technology and what do I find here at the home fort? There's Chad writing a very nice series on science careers! I was a little puzzled by PNAS acryonym in his titles since to ...
I'm tempted to joke and say " Recruit hotter guys?" but that would be just as wrong as Razib's charming notion of what cute women read for fun or our uncertain physicist's misconception that there's nothing that he can do to improve the situation for female students at his small ...
Disclaimers - just so you know... This information is cross-posted at www.bio-link.org All the data and graphs in this post were obtained from Simplyhired.com. I do not have any kind of commercial affiliation with this company I found their site via GenomeWeb. Having worked around biotechnology for several years, I ...
Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing Where do all the flowers gone? Long time ago Where do all the flowers gone? Young girls picked them everyone, When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? -Pete Seeger Where do graduate students and post-docs go when they ...
A friend of mine; serial entrepreneur, and former president of Genetic Systems; Joe Ashley, told me once that starting a business is an unnatural act. Now that I've done it, I agree. Even with my multiple back-up plans, possible grants, and part-time activities, my stomach still hurts and my mind ...
Pfizer has pledged to donate up to $10,000 to the cause of science education, through Donorschoose.org, but only if enough of you, dear readers go to Big Think: Think Science Now and vote for your favorite video. If you're not familiar with Pfizer, they're a pretty well-known drug company. You ...
Have you ever wondered how people actually go about sequencing a genome? If they're sequencing a chicken genome, do they raise chickens in the lab and get DNA from the eggs? Does the DNA sequence come out in one piece? Why is there so much talk about computers? What are ...
Our new Scibling, Jane, is a real life computer scientist. If you've ever wondered what computer scientists really do during the day, Jane will set you straight ( I guess they're not playing Nintendo. Darn! Another illusion shattered, just like that.) Jane has also promised to explain why computer science ...
Some of them work for Bayer. The San Francisco Chronicle has a nice article on a 15 year old education program in Berkeley that serves students from Berkeley High and Life Academy. Over 1500 students have participated in this program, with 862 placed in internships. I really liked reading about ...
Workforce shortages are a growing problem in the biotech industry. Communities are concerned that a lack of trained workers will either keep companies away or cause companies to move. If companies do have to move, it's likely those jobs might be lost forever, never to return. According to Robert Reich ...
In part I, I wrote about the shortage of technicians in the biotechnology industry and the general awareness that this problem is getting worse. This part will address the challenge of getting more students into programs that will prepare them for jobs in the biotech field. I've also been asked ...
