Advices for starting research early? [Chemistry]

[Cookie]

I am offered to do an early-bird research program by my Chemistry Department this summer.  As an incoming PhD student in the Fall, I'm incredibly excited about getting my feet wet and settling in before school starts.  Some background info about me: I'm a theoretical/computational chemistry student that have done 2 years of computational research (molecular dynamics), but steering to a more theoretical approach (quantum theories -- electronic structure).  Very very different line of work, so even though the new research mesmerizes me, it also terrifies me.

 

I would love to have advices on how to make the most of this program? 

How did YOU start your journey as a baby scientist, learning an entirely new research area from scratch?

Did you start research early, how did you do it?

What would you have done differently?

 

Thanks so much in advance

[Eigen]

I have no idea what an early bird program is, specifically, but I started early and really liked it. 

 

I started in July, which gave me time to wrap up stuff at my old place, and time to move. Getting my stipend over the summer was very nice, as it helped cover rent, etc. and gave me more time in the city to get used to it before school started. 

 

It also helped to have two months to read background on my new research area, figure out where everything was in the lab and department, and get all my safety trainings/instrument trainings in, so once the semester started I was completely ready to go. 

 

I completely switched (well, not completely, but almost completely) research areas- large scale wet synthesis (organic) to biological chemistry with more of a design/characterization focus. It was great to have a few months without course overlap to read background papers, read all my groups publications, and figure out what the hell I was supposed to be doing. 

 

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk in more detail, as well. 

[Cookie]

Thanks Eigen!

 

An early bird program is designed to facilitate select students to begin their research early; they get to pick their own mentors and get paid full stipend.  I'm doing it for 10 weeks starting this June. 

Afaik, many schools do this now.

[Pitangus]

I'm not in chemistry, but I received a separate "early start fellowship" as part of a first year recruiting fellowship from my department/college. It wasn't really a program though; that is, there was no requirement to be at a certain place or work during a specific time frame (besides "summer").  I basically just received the fellowship as a lump sum and used it to visit my advisor's field sites, help with data collection for current projects, and start planning my own project. It definitely helped to scope out potential field sites and better visualize how I could develop a project that ties into the ongoing work in my lab.

[Eigen]

Thanks Eigen!

 

An early bird program is designed to facilitate select students to begin their research early; they get to pick their own mentors and get paid full stipend.  I'm doing it for 10 weeks starting this June. 

Afaik, many schools do this now.

 

Ah, yeah. 

 

That's pretty much what I did, but I was paid off of a specific grant, and it wasn't as formal. 

[Cookie]

there was no requirement to be at a certain place or work during a specific time frame (besides "summer").  I basically just received the fellowship as a lump sum

 

'Must be nice!'

This is separate from another fellowship I got.  Because the dept is paying me, I feel a bit pressured to be super awesomely productive... Thoughts?

[kaister]

I'm not in chemistry, so maybe my advice isn't relevant.  I'm working as a RA in my future lab during the summer and while I'll be helping out with a lot of the experiments going on during the summer it also gives me a considerable amount of time to focus on my own project(s).  So I get the whole sense of pressure (which is probably not as bad as I feel it to be).  My plans are just to focus on reading literature and forming a more concrete plan of action on my experiment.  I have a general idea, but I need to break it down and figure out what measures, etc I will want to use.  Maybe if I get so far, I will get to fill out an IRB before Fall comes.  That's my plan.  The ideal situation is that I'd be so prepared that when school starts I may potentially get to start running the experiment.  Now the catch is that I already have a somewhat formed research question and I've already run that by my PI and she likes it (I just have to refine it a bit).  It may be a little harder if you haven't figured out what you want to tackle first and figuring out feasibility. Good luck! I'll be starting around June as well!  It's exciting!

[Pitangus]

My plans are just to focus on reading literature and forming a more concrete plan of action on my experiment.  I have a general idea, but I need to break it down and figure out what measures, etc I will want to use.  Maybe if I get so far, I will get to fill out an IRB before Fall comes.  

 

 

That was how I approached it as well. When I wasn't helping with current fieldwork, I did a lot of reading and started looking into the relevant forms (not IRB, but something similar for animals). 

 

I felt pressured at first, but in my case it ended up just being what I wanted to make of it and what my advisor thought would be useful. Unless a program or fellowship specifically outlines things that need to be accomplished or produced, then I think it's up to the student and the advisor/PI to decide on the best use of the time. I think building a solid literature base and learning about/taking part in the current projects of a lab are worthwhile starting activities for anyone in a science field. Beyond that will be more field/lab specific.

[user25]

I would say read papers. Read a lot of papers. Read review papers on the topics you will be going through, textbooks, etc. If your quantum mechanics is weak, I would brush up on that as well. I found that once I started grad school, I had less time to read and had to spend more of my time doing experiments (although I'm  in experimental so maybe it's a little different).