Looking for PhD positions

Many times I am asked this question by students: What should I be looking for when I am searching for a PhD position.

Well, as I look back at my own career, the first and foremost thing I realize is that how lucky I was to have Joel as my PhD supervisor. I was lucky because when I stumbled upon my discovery serendipitously, instead of dismissing it off as just one of those things, he encouraged me to chase it. The rest is history.

So if I were to look at a PhD position, that is the first thing I would look at. What is my comfort level with my PhD advisor? Can I talk to him/her? Can I discuss experiments with him/her? Will she/he listen to my ideas? Will he/she encourage me to explore?

The best thing that happened to me at UVa was the opportunity to learn. Many of us believe that learning days are over with M.Sc. and that all we have to now do is to work in the lab. Well, I had to sit back in the classes when I joined PhD. And my experiences in the classroom cloud the way I teach. It was a joy to know that I was not required to memorize reams and reams of textbook pages. What I was required to do was to understand the concept. Now when I teach, I remember my own moment of discovery, and try to bring that experience into my student's lives. So what I would advise the prospective students is that wherever you go, remember, your learning days are not over. Ask yourself whether the place you are going will enable you to learn.

One of the most wonderful memories I have is of the day when I finally figured out what it takes to make my protein active. The purification procedure was long and tiring involving two entire days with just about 3-4 hours sleep in total. The third day when I would start the assay to test my protein I would be half dead on my feet. Usually the assay would turn out negative but on this particular day the assay turned positive. I stood staring at the tubes, my mouth half opened. I spluttered and pointed at the thing as though it was some venomous thing. Patrick, my lab mate, asked me what happened and I tried, incoherently, to explain the whole thing. At the end of it I was laughing and just then Joel walked into the lab. He was of course clueless so Patrick kindly clued him in:

"She is drunk Joel."

That is another major requirement. Your labmates should be friendly. Of course you too need to have good interpersonal skills but if your labmates are the unfriendly sort, it does not matter how good your interpersonal skills are, you are going to be extremely unhappy.

Finally, and most importantly, you should like the work. If it does not excite you, does not motivate you to be in the lab, then there is no point in doing that particular project.

The remaining factors like whether the scientist is publishing in high impact factor journal or not, whether the University is amongst the top 10 or not, etc. does not matter. Publishing depends on the kind of work you do. Some areas you can publish many papers and some areas you cannot. Many of the scientists will not think it worth to publish unless there is a good story to tell. Similarly, the University might by amongst the best but if your PI expects you to be in lab 24 X 7, then what is the point?

There is also prevalent opinion that abroad is better than India. It depends where you trying to go. There are bad labs abroad too and there are good labs in India too.

So when you make your decision, try to think through what you want rather than going for glamour.