Advice about PI who is moving to another country...

[Threesdu]

Hi all, I'm not actually a grad student, but I came here to get some information for my boyfriend. 

 

He texted me today, horrifically depressed and said, "My PI is moving back to Japan at the end of March. He just told me. I'm just telling you so you don't ask why I didn't say anything, but I'm in a really bad, bad, BAD place right now. I don't want to talk about it." Silence.

 

As any SO of a grad student will tell you, I've been there through it all. Too busy for dinner? I shall bring the fine dining experience to the lab. Need somebody to rant about your project to 24/7? I don't really understand some of it, but I'm your girl! Awww, you want company during one of your strings of all nighters? Sure, I'll come hangout with you...at the lab.

 

I've seen how hard he's worked for the past year and a half. He hypothesized that his PI would get fired by the head honcho because he hasn't published anything in 2-3 years now. His PI (from what I hear) is very unorganized, spends a lot of time being "away" from the lab, and really isn't much of a leader. Personally, I think if my boyfriend can contact his program coordinator and explain the situation/enlist help contacting potential new PIs, then this could be a blessing in disguise. I've read up about this issue extensively now, and many people who made a switch said that starting a new project took much less time, since there was less trial and error. Im not sure if the PI will relinquish the research or take it with him, but the funds will be reallocated elsewhere.

 

That said, my boyfriend is beyond distraught and won't even answer a text message right now, let alone discuss a plan of action. Right now he really needs somebody to be there for him. After spending hundreds of hours at the lab with him/discussing his project/listening to him rant/learning about all things medical biophysics and rearranging our relationship around grad school, I literally feel his pain. When I heard, I started to cry and got very stressed. Therefore I cannot even imagine how the hell he must feel right now. 

 

So, ADVICE! What would you do in this situation? Has this ever happened to you? If you have a personal story to share, I'd love to hear it and potentially share it with him when he's ready to talk. What do you think the best way for me to help/support him would be at this time?

 

Thanks for reading

 

OH, and we live in Toronto. He would be unable to move to Japan, although I'm not sure his PI gave him that option.

[fuzzylogician]

I understand that this is shocking news for your boyfriend, and it has certain implications which just make his life more unpredictable, hence miserable. However, these sorts of things tend to end positively, with the students being taken care of by their department one way or the other. Since your boyfriend can't move to Japan (regardless of whether that's even an option), he needs to find out what happens next and how he should go about changing labs/advisors. This question is probably best addressed to someone in the department, e.g. the DGS or the department head, not to his current advisor. This may be a good time to evaluate how things are going and choose a lab/advisor that fit with his current skillset or interests, or alternatively have a chance to pick up new skills he may be interested in learning. Since it's a done deal, I'd try and view it as an opportunity. The experience he has is his to keep, and starting over doesn't have to mean starting from scratch. Alternatively, if he needs to pick up new skills, it should again take less time than when he had no prior experience, and he'll end up with more skills than the average graduate from his lab, which could be presented as a plus. Moreover, having a good, productive advisor will be beneficial for his professional growth and later for stronger letters of recommendations when he is looking for jobs. 

 

Since this is all happening very fast, I'd start talking to people now. Once he has his situation figured out, he might also want to talk to his current advisor about the status of his ongoing project(s) with the advisor and agree on a plan of action for either getting them to a publishable state soon or perhaps stopping them now so he can concentrate on whatever project will come along next. My understanding is that your boyfriend has only been working with this advisor for a year and a half, so this doesn't need to be a big setback. (Things are different if he is much further along than that in his program. If he is already in advanced dissertation stages he may just need to become more independent and find someone other than his advisor who can provide on-site support; let us know if this is the case and we can say more about this kind of situation.)

 

This sucks and he is justifiably upset. But once the initial shock wears off, there are opportunities here and it doesn't need to be a huge setback. Kudos to you for being this supportive; I hope he appreciates it! 

[St Andrews Lynx]

I've seen it happen to others - it isn't uncommon for PIs to switch countries, after all. The fact that your boyfriend has less than a month before the move is really rough (most PIs know ~8-12 months in advance that they will be moving institution - I can only assume the PI hid this information from their students).

 

In the scenario I witnessed, a student was able to transfer to another group in the same Department. No issues. They started work immediately on their new project and I don't think they were set back too much. There are also scenarios where the PI keeps the lab at their old institution running in the short-term as they switch - that might allow your boyfriend more time to wind up their current project before switching lab group.

 

But no, it isn't the end of the world. As you've said, it sounds like in the long run this will work out favourably for your boyfriend. In your place I would tell the poor lad to take a few day's complete break from the lab, just to sort themselves out. Go along with him to any DGS meetings and be with him if he makes any important phone calls/emails. Focus on strategies and plans of action, rather than platitudes.

 

Hopefully he'll recover from the shock soon.