Lab Life
Dealing with Difficult Advisors
Sometimes establishing and maintaining a good relationship with your research advisor is challenging. Having similar research interests does not guarantee harmony. Use these tips to manage conflicts and improve your relationship.
Lab Life
Lab Safety Teams Are Shaping the Future
For many academic labs, safety standards lag behind those of the modern workplace. But a grassroots movement led by grad students is causing a major shift to address deep challenges in academic safety culture while enabling students to take charge of their own safety.
Lab Life
A Strategy for Writing a Standout Research Proposal
From solidifying ideas to writing and editing, the process of writing a research proposal can be made less difficult if you start with a plan.
Lab Life
Game Plan for Writing a Thesis
The biggest favor you can do your future self is to make a plan for writing or finishing your thesis now. This realistic, step-by-step plan will keep you on schedule and spare you from a lot of stress.
Lab Life
Teaching Chemistry During COVID-19 Through the Eyes of a First-Time Faculty Member
The pandemic changed the way this first-time faculty member saw teaching, her students, and her own career. Read on to learn more about her unexpected conclusions.
Lab Life
Celebrating the Identities of Graduate Students in the Chemical Sciences
Happy Graduate Student Appreciation Week! We're celebrating the unqiue lives and interests of graduate students from around the globe with this special video collection.
Lab Life
Improving the Academic Safety Culture: The Place of Lab Safety Teams
If you feel unprepared for the lab safety aspects of your work, or if you think that the lab safety culture in your lab or department could be improved, a Lab Safety Team can empower you and your peers to make meaningful improvements that benefit everyone.
Lab Life
The Benzine: A Graduate Student–Led Zine Celebrating Art and Chemistry
We are proud of how The Benzine has highlighted the broadness of our community, and we hope our work will inspire you to indulge in your own creativity or, even better, produce your own zine celebrating art, science, and diversity in your community.
Lab Life
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Students, Staff, and Faculty Fight Racism and Perfunctory Campus Change
Despite academia’s commitment to truth¬—Veritas, as Harvard would say—racism lives within our hallowed halls. Sometimes we can see it as we pass it by. Sometimes it opens doors. Sometimes we encounter it and struggle to pass. Sometimes—and most insidiously—it is structural, stretching above our heads, holding up the roof and walls, something we could see if only we ever cared to look up.
Lab Life
How to Choose the Right Lab: Advice from Someone Who Didn’t
Few things will have more impact on your happiness and success than joining the right lab. Read on for strategies to help you find a good fit.
Lab Life
(Re)Defining Moment: Should You View Graduate School as a Race, Marathon, or Something Completely Different?
Have you ever wondered whether the assumption that earning a Ph.D. is like running a marathon could be stopping you in your tracks? A runner examines the analogy, with surprising results.
Lab Life
Meet Four Ph.D. Students Who Passed Their Candidacy Exams in Quarantine
The candidacy exam experience in quarantine was close to normal, but the pandemic also made it unique. Read about four Ph.D. students who passed.
Lab Life
Grad Students Weigh In on Returning to Lab After Quarantine
See what chemistry graduate students from four universities think are the keys to a safe return to the lab and research during a pandemic.
Lab Life
The Chemistry of Culture: Studying in a Foreign Country
Chemistry is universal around the globe but you may not be prepared for how different the culture surrounding chemistry could be. Read about some of the challenges you may encounter while studying in a foreign country and how you can overcome them.
Lab Life
Hindsight Is 2020: What I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Ph.D
A Ph.D. chemist reflects on her time in graduate school. She uses her personal experiences to give advice to current and future graduate students.
Lab Life
Sexual Harassment: What Would You Do?
Dive into a delicate, yet relevant topic, sexual harassment, in which a lot of female students encounter. Learn resources for you or anyone who needs help.
Lab Life
Confronting Sexual Harassment in Chemistry
Sexual harassment can take a toll on a person’s physical health and even derail a chemist’s career. There are many different justifiable reasons why students are hesitant to report these issues and how often they are placed in these situations.
Lab Life
How to Break Down Cultural and Language Barriers in the Lab (adapted from C&EN)
Although research groups today are more diverse, cultural separation still exists especially with language.
Lab Life
When You Need a Mentor
Who is a mentor? What do they do? Learn about how to find a mentor, and what to expect from a mentor-mentee relationship.
Lab Life
My Experience as a T.A.: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Get first-hand scenarios and tips on how to not only survive in the role as a TA, but also grow from the experience.
Lab Life
Thank You for Being a Horrible TA: Pointers from an Undergraduate Chemistry Major
Learn about several types of bad TA's and advice on how not to fall into these categories.