PhD Program Transfer - Academic Suicide or Saving Grace?

[TK778]

Hi guys, 

I would greatly appreciate some advice on a conflict that I have been battling with for a little over a year now. I will streamline the background information to try and make this as coherent and easy to consume.

I am currently pursuing a PhD in EE (specifically in neural interfaces/BMI) at the same school I did my Bachelors (I know, I know, its a no-no, but I my reasons). I found a really neat lab that has a reputation for producing high quality papers not only in the engineering field, but also in the biological world where the impact factors are much higher and reaches a larger audience. The PI of the lab is a beast when it comes to publishing papers and getting large grants. I worked in the lab for about 2.5 years during my undergrad where I was exposed to a wide variety of hardware and software engineering principles under the supervision of the lab's postdoc. It was great, and I enjoyed my time, but when graduation came sneaking around the corner, I started to look at other schools to start a PhD program. In the midst of applying to school, fellowships, and grants my PI offered me to stay at the university to complete the PhD in a shortened amount of time by combining the previous work I did with my thesis since the department deemed it PhD level work. On top of that, he offered full tuition coverage and stipend support. Since I liked the project that I was currently working on, I decided to stay but I was a bit wary from the start because I really wasn't sure why he offered me a PhD for such a short time-frame. Later on, I received the NSF GRFP so it has made me even more anxious since I know I would have a good chance of possibly going somewhere else since the funding follows me. 

Fast forward about a year later and after working very closely with him (without the postdoc to pretty much shield me from all of the problems I am now dealing with), and I realize that I may have made a huge mistake. Now, I am not going to say my PI is downright stupid, but oh boy this man is so out of touch with an technical concepts in the field. My field is in mixed-analog design for ASIC's so I really need someone who can give me proper advice on IC design, fab, testing, etc. Instead of writing another paragraph, let me list the red flags that I now see. I am not sure if this is standard for a PhD student to be dealing with. 

1. PI has no idea how to advise on technical problems.When it comes to designing new chips, testing them, or even looking at the problem in a different light, you are on your own. He has zero clue what to do. For example, I was having a big problems with an ADC design and he had no input. It was pretty much read and search the internet. 

2. I recently wrote a few papers with him one-on-one as the first author and he is very bipolar. He gets in these fits of absolute rage where he screams at the top of his lungs if you did't format the paper margin correctly, make table the way he likes it, or even if the file doesn't open fast enough (he still uses windows 95 so there is a lot of issues). Any problem that comes up he assumes I should have known how to do it. Mind you, I am first year student, I am here to learn things like how to make a stellar figure, how to streamline certain parts of your paper to make the story line better, etc. He just assumes I know all of it as if I have been doing it for years and it creates a pretty hostile environment. He really takes a "my way or the highway approach" so there is no room for compromise.

3. He never wants to admit that any problem was in part or totally his fault. It is always the student.

4. He is super anxious all the time and instills poor confidence in the students. The other students literally let him run all over them. They have stopped standing up for themselves. They claim to have adapted to the environment, but its disturbing. 

5. Told me I can take a lot of classes outside my field (ie: high-level math courses, neurology, physics) . Now I am restricted to taking the most worthless and easy classes in the department so I can "focus" more on research. I am so so so bored. 

6. He makes false promises when he is backed into corner. 

7. The current project I am on, the one that he offered the PhD for, turns out to have been a total dupe. He offered the PhD because he needed a body to continue working on the project since there is a lot of money involved in it and there would be dead time trying to find a new student to train and get up to speed.  I learned this just a few weeks ago after asking some questions to my mentors/PI. I have been doing mundane tasks for almost 9 months now and I feel so worthless.

I could go on more, but I hope this paints a brief picture. I am asking for advice on how feasible is it to transfer programs (universities entirely) without jeopardizing my reputation and career. I want my PhD to be a journey where I am challenged to break past my limits and really explore my love for the interface between biology and electronics, but with an advisor like this, I feel like I am going to be miserable. Or is this the norm? Oh and I plan to go into industrial research after a PhD, I don't have a desire to stay in pure academia. 

Sorry if this turned out to be a bit all over the place. I am just pretty lost right now. 

 

 

[ZeChocMoose]

Since you are only a year in, I probably would apply to other PhD programs to see what my options are so I can make a more informed decision on whether to stay (and transfer to another advisor) or whether to master out and go elsewhere.  The good news is you have your own funding so hopefully that will make you more attractive to new programs.  You do need to get a recommendation from someone in your current department for applications and I am not sure if I would recommend your current PI given what you wrote.  Is there someone else you could ask?

(I have seen a handful of PhD students not get the degree due to a really dysfunctional dynamic between the student and advisor.  When it is not working and the student is fairly early in the program, I usually always advise to switch to someone else within the same school or to start over and enroll in another school. Do be aware if you go somewhere else, you may have to start all over again at year 1.)

[dr. t]

You're in an abusive relationship. That it's not a romantic relationship doesn't make it any less an abusive one. Get out.

Leaving may be academic suicide. You can take steps to mitigate that, but there's no guarantee, particularly given how you described your adviser - it seems to me like he'd be the vindictive sort. So, make the allies you can, but you should still get out.