Complicated situation (Undergraduate Academic Lab tech) Need advice

[krimghor]

 Dear Forum,

I am currently in need of advice and I do not know where to turn. It is what I think is a complicated situation, so I will do my best to explain, perhaps it is common and my perspective is cloudy, but that is why I am here to ask for help. 

 

Background: 

 

• undergrad - 3rd year - Neuroscience/biochemistry double major (University of California)
• 1 year in my current neuroscience lab as of last Tuesday 
• 0 publications
• Fellowship award for 2015 summer on the table with the American Physiological Society http://www.the-aps.org/
• Slightly relevant fact due to time budgeting concerns: Ice hockey official considering full time job with the NAHL official development program after graduation with hopes of working professional ice hockey in the future. 
• GPA dropping due to outrageous laboratory expectations and poor organization by PI, without payoff of publications --- PRIMARY CONCERN WILL EXPLAIN BELOW. <<GPA still not terrible ~3.65>>

 

Hello again, So to jump right into things, My workload in this lab is becoming ridiculous. We have one graduate student in this lab, who WAS set to graduate this year. However, the PI is refusing his graduation because she needs him to continue work for her, as funding is quickly diminishing (common problem I know), and she has few warm and experienced bodies to work for her. Myself, and one other undergraduate are the only experienced lab techs. There are several other new initiates, however their sites are set on medschool, and research experience on the CV is their only real concern. Needless to say, myself, my grad student, and one other undergrad bare the bulk of the workload. At the end of last year, right when I started, The 4 most experienced members graduated early. With very little training, I was thrown into running my own experiments, and my own project. 

 

At first I thought this was awesome, I was being treated like a grad student and I was eager to please, with mentions of my name on publications and a summer fellowship application. As things progressed this academic year, working conditions and expectations have gotten out of hand. My PI has had students without proper training and certification handle animals, one (no names given) was almost arrested for tripping an alarm during a late night dose in the vivarium. 

 

I currently have 3 animals (mothers) with pups in a perinatal exposure experiment. They have not taken the dose for 7 days, and we are on PND 8... She wants me to switch to methods we do not have IACUC approval for to make them take the dose, but these pups will be useless in experiment. (sorry for detail for those in other fields). 

 

My PI has also tried to use optimization data (Can't really call it data) from my IHC experiments because the data "looked good" despite the fact that one of the techs made a critical error in the protocol. The lab tech tried arguing with the PI, but she decided to use the data. The tech asked her to remove his name from the publication because he did not stand behind the data. 

 

TLDR;

I expected hours to be tough, but in short in recap, I did not expect things to become unethical by going around IACUC protocol and unscientific by using data that was not soundly procured. One should have to prove their data is good to their PI, not have the PI convince them that what they did is fine. 

 

I have an award from the APS sitting on the table that I must accept or decline by the beginning of next week.

A fellowship would look great on my CV (at least I've been told?) and put 5,300 in my pocked for 10 months 40hrs a week. 

 

This lab was great when I first started, until my PI became desperate for funding and able lab techs like she is now. 

 

Finally, The big question: 

1.Do I stay and risk my GPA in order to continue trying to get a publication and obtain a fellowship? (Again, end of my third year, not much time left until graduation) 

2.Or, do I leave and find a better lab, one that publishes more frequently (another detail, we haven't published at all in 2014/2015 and are out of extensions on the PIs grants (we run on our Grad student's money)). 

 

option 2 seems risky and I feel like I'm throwing away a lot, but I don't want my name tied to shady papers and I'd prefer to not hate my life for the next year and a half. 

If anyone can give me insight, or point me in a direction to where I can obtain insight, you'll have a new best friend (seriously I'll be extremely grateful). 

 

Thanks again everyone for your time and consideration,

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Krim 

 

[landshark]

Sounds to me like you already know what you want to do, it's just a matter of figuring out how to do it.  If you can, document the situation in your lab, get others to corroborate what you have documented.  That way, when you leave, you have some ground to stand on if your PI starts trashing you.  Just my thoughts.

[TakeruK]

Do you have another professor in the department who you can talk to / trust? The situation sounds bad but without being there, I can't give really specific and useful advice. Just keep in mind that graduate and undergraduate students don't always know the full details of the situation, but I'd still trust your gut that something is not right here.

 

landshark is right that you should document everything, but you don't have to "report it" if you don't want to get into a fight with this PI. It might work out best if you just thank the PI for the training and say that your interests are elsewhere and join a different lab for your final year. Unfortunately, in most cases like this, the PI has all the power and the student has none so you have to also think about not putting yourself in a bad situation if you try to "fight" the PI. Ultimately, you are going to need a faculty member on your side, which is why if you have a mentor or someone you can trust, you should seek their guidance.

[krimghor]

Thank you everyone for your insight, I will find a faculty member and talk to them. I just wasn't sure if this was a bad idea, as like you all said, I do not want to fight my PI unless I have to... Thanks again for all your time.