My supervisor is dying.

[lightly-toasted]

Long-time lurker, first-time poster - it sucks that I'm doing so under such unfortunate circumstances, but here we are.

I just learned today that the supervisor for my MSc (which I have been working on for a couple years, currently writing up and preparing to defend) is being transferred to hospice care after a year+ of cancer treatment. He has been in and out of hospital for the past couple months so the writing was already on the wall, but we all tried to keep a positive, hopeful outlook - but things are not going well.

On the academic/administrative level: I have a meeting scheduled with my department head and graduate chair in a few days, presumably to discuss what happens next, including, I assume, alternate supervision. I'm a little worried because our group is very small and already a bit of an oddball in the department - my supervisor was our only PI and no other faculty members really deal much with our research area. I have a couple other mentors/contacts in my field I would be comfortable going to for informal advice, but they are all outside the department/at a different institution altogether, so would only be able to do so in an "unofficial" capacity (and not able to, say, chair my committee or whatever). I'm definitely not going to be able to get a reference from him, unless my interviewers are cool with ouija board as a method of communication. Has anyone else here ever had to deal with such a thing (an abrupt change in supervision at the late stages of your degree)? How did/does it go? What happens to the funding that I'm getting from his grants (and any future plans for conference travel, etc that we may have had)? I know that these answers will varying based on the institution and individual circumstances, but I'm just trying to get an idea of generally what to expect based on others' experiences.

On a human level: My supervisor was not perfect but is an eminently decent human being who took his duties as a teacher/mentor to his students very seriously. This blows.

tl;dr: What happens when your supervisor suddenly can't supervise you anymore, and you're supposed to be finishing your thesis in the next couple months? Also, fuck cancer.

 

[cowgirlsdontcry]

My master's thesis advisor said this happened to her. Her PhD dissertation advisor decided to retire. She said you just have to deal with it. She told me to be very careful in choosing my advisor, but how does one anticipate such a difficult and sad thing happening? I'm very sorry this happened to you.

[crontab]

First off, my deepest condolences for you and your supervisor in this difficult time (seriously, fuck cancer). I recently went through a similar transition, albeit under circumstances that are not as tragic as yours: I'm about a third of the way through my phd program and at the start of the summer my PI abruptly decided to leave the university (and the field, so things like working with her remotely or relying on her for references/advising are also off the table). My department has been very supportive throughout the process (making sure I don't "fall through the cracks"), and I'm sure yours will be as well. In response to your more specific questions, though:

 

33 minutes ago, lightly-toasted said:

I'm a little worried because our group is very small and already a bit of an oddball in the department - my supervisor was our only PI and no other faculty members really deal much with our research area. I have a couple other mentors/contacts in my field I would be comfortable going to for informal advice, but they are all outside the department/at a different institution altogether, so would only be able to do so in an "unofficial" capacity (and not able to, say, chair my committee or whatever).

I think the good news (and it's important to focus on the positives throughout the transition) is that if you are currently writing your thesis up and preparing to defend then you already have a good idea of what you need to do to graduate. This is a positive because you don't need your new adviser to completely direct your research, you just need someone to offer feedback and invest some of their time and attention towards your project to make sure your thesis is sound and your defense goes smoothly. Even without complete overlap with the research interests of another faculty in the department, you should be able to find a faculty member that is willing and able to take the time before your defense to actually read your work and be able to appreciate it academically (which is more than enough prep to serve as your chair). Your department head/grad chair should be able to give you some guidance on this if you don't already have someone in mind.   

You should also take full advantage of the mentors you have outside of your department. While they might not be able to serve as your chair, they can probably be on your committee. I'm sure they would also be more than happy to take a larger mentoring role given the circumstances (such as actually reading/offering edits on your thesis).

 

48 minutes ago, lightly-toasted said:

What happens to the funding that I'm getting from his grants (and any future plans for conference travel, etc that we may have had)?

This will depend on the specifics of the funding (that the department head probably has at least an idea of), but in the case of my former PI, some of her grant funds were able to be accessed by the department to continue funding students for the summer after she left. I was lucky enough to have secured outside funding that started just as she left, but two other students from our lab are currently being funded using the money she left behind. If your current supervisor's funds can't be used in this way, the department may be able to fund you directly; you should not be timid about asking your department chair to explore all the possible options to fund you the rest of the way. 

 

55 minutes ago, lightly-toasted said:

I'm definitely not going to be able to get a reference from him, unless my interviewers are cool with ouija board as a method of communication.

If your current supervisor is willing, you might consider getting him to write you a reference letter now. My former PI gave me a "generic" reference letter before she left with her permission to use it for anything that I needed it for. If not that, your supervisor can provide a reference letter about you to your new supervisor or department head and they can use to write you a letter. Either way, you should be able to get a reference for the work that you've done while in your department. 

 

[samman1994]

My condolences, I have seen first hand the difficulties of the death of a PI, both emotionally and mentally regarding the work afterwards. That being said it usually goes one of 2 ways:

1) If you have enough to graduate (which if you've started it sounds like you do), you can probably continue your research within their lab, with the continuation of their grant money (or the schools), until you finish up. 

2) If you do not have enough, you start from scratch and join a new lab. 

That being said this is what happened to someone in our department;

The PI had an illness very few people knew that they were not getting treated, and thus, abruptly died to the extent no one even knew until a few days later. It was a surprise to both the department, and the students, and therefore, they were not prepared. Most of the students had to start over with a new lab, but one of the students was basically almost done. So they stayed in the lab and continued their research individually, asking questions and advice from another PI in the department who's research and knowledge most closely matched the PI who had passed away. They continued this for approximately 2 months, using leftover grant money, until they basically finished. 

[fuzzylogician]

My condolences. 

On the practical side, since you're close to done, what I imagine the department head will offer you is the opportunity to finish your research under someone else's supervision. It won't be perfect, but this situation is far from ideal and everyone will make do. You shouldn't have to start over since it sounds like you're pretty advanced in your research. The technical aspect of who is your advisor on paper could be separate from where you actually get help. This would be a good time to cultivate these other mentorship/advising relationships that are outside your department, both for advising and for future LORs, in case you plan to apply for a PhD (you didn't say). In the latter case, you might also discuss with the dept head ways of securing a strong letter from your department, which may be a combination of a generic letter on file from your advisor if he is willing and able to do this for you now, and a letter from the head possibly building on this letter and explaining the situation. In the event that you want to apply for a PhD or use LORs for anything else in the future, it might be best to have the head be responsible for letters, combining insights from your advisor as best you can get them with additional feedback on the rest of the process once someone else takes over. (Or, whoever takes over as your supervisor might do this for you; either way, ask about this now.) It's better to have someone who you can reach out to for updated letters, though a letter from your supervisor saved with some archiving service would also be helpful, given the circumstances. 

Re funding, it probably depends on the source and you'll have to ask your department to be sure, but in similar cases I know of, the grant continued to be disbursed and students continued to be supported for some time after the untimely death of a PI. 

[lightly-toasted]

Thanks all for the thoughtful advice and anecdotes.

Re: finding a replacement "on-paper" supervisor, it's not clear to me at the moment how much say I'll have in the process (I guess I'll find out soon) but if I had to choose who to approach in the department, should I prioritize someone whose research aligns more closely to my thesis, or someone with whom I have a stronger pre-existing working relationship? Unfortunately the two groups don't have any overlap. I don't have any immediate plans to continue on to a PhD, and if I were to change my mind in the future it's questionable whether or not I'd want to stay in this subfield, anyway.

[samman1994]

38 minutes ago, lightly-toasted said:

Thanks all for the thoughtful advice and anecdotes.

Re: finding a replacement "on-paper" supervisor, it's not clear to me at the moment how much say I'll have in the process (I guess I'll find out soon) but if I had to choose who to approach in the department, should I prioritize someone whose research aligns more closely to my thesis, or someone with whom I have a stronger pre-existing working relationship? Unfortunately the two groups don't have any overlap. I don't have any immediate plans to continue on to a PhD, and if I were to change my mind in the future it's questionable whether or not I'd want to stay in this subfield, anyway.

From anecdotal experience:

The department chose, and they chose the Professor with the most experience and the research that had time to help the individual. You can build a new relationship with anyone, so I'd say go with the one who's research aligns with yours, it'll be more useful. 

[TakeruK]

1 hour ago, lightly-toasted said:

Thanks all for the thoughtful advice and anecdotes.

Re: finding a replacement "on-paper" supervisor, it's not clear to me at the moment how much say I'll have in the process (I guess I'll find out soon) but if I had to choose who to approach in the department, should I prioritize someone whose research aligns more closely to my thesis, or someone with whom I have a stronger pre-existing working relationship? Unfortunately the two groups don't have any overlap. I don't have any immediate plans to continue on to a PhD, and if I were to change my mind in the future it's questionable whether or not I'd want to stay in this subfield, anyway.

Sorry to hear about your supervisor

For your latest question, I think it depends on what you are hoping to get from the "on-paper" supervisor. It sounds like you are very close to finishing, right? So, your "on-paper" supervisor might just be that: on-paper only and you may not require that much interaction with this person in a supervisory role. In this case, it doesn't really matter who your "on-paper" supervisor is because they are largely filling an administrative role: just signing off on your thesis and graduation documents. In your case, I would still put the name of your current supervisor as your thesis supervisor on things like CVs etc. and explain the situation if it ever comes up.

However, if you are looking for more guidance from a faculty member as you finish up, have you considered asking both of these faculty members to be on your MSc thesis committee? Your MSc supervisor serves two roles: someone who can read over your work and give you guidance on the science and someone who knows you professionally and can provide guidance on career and professional development. It seems like you can split these two roles between the two people you mentioned quite nicely. It might also work out better because these two faculty members might not have time to suddenly add a whole student to their groups, but if you split the duties, it could work out.

In addition, if you do decide to go for a PhD program and cannot get a letter from your first supervisor, you might want to have both of these letters. One can speak to the significance of your work since they know your field better and the other can speak to you as a researcher because they know you better (if you could only choose one letter though, I would pick the stronger relationship prof).

Finally, if you are actually constrained by who can officially serve on your committee, for some reason, I would pick the person that would be the most helpful to you finishing sooner. If the person that is aligned with your field is the type of person that continually asks students to do more experiments, you might want to avoid that person for your committee, especially since someone who is close to your field but isn't actually in your field is the type of person most likely to ask for unnecessary experiments/analysis! But, if you feel that not having this person on your committee might make your dept/committee think that there is no one "expert" enough to evaluate you, then there's good reason to include this person. I think this is a good discussion to have with your dept chair, or whomever is in charge of determining the transition plan for your supervisor's group.

[lightly-toasted]

Oof. Four days after posting this he passed away. Everything happened way faster than anyone was expecting, so everyone was caught a bit off-guard, and late August is also the time when everyone is away on vacation/nothing gets done, so it's been hard to deal with feeling "fallen through the cracks" + sadness over losing a good mentor and supervisor... I guess there's not much to do other than try and muddle through the best we can.

[rising_star]

@lightly-toasted, so sorry to hear this! Wishing you the best in what must be a very difficult time.