🥸Mentorship

Because this page is about how lab members interact with Hua, it's written in the first person :)

One of the best parts of my job is mentoring students. I take this role seriously, because when I was a student, I had fantastic mentors who looked out for me and taught me much of what I know. I'd like to pay that forward.

Advising

I'll always make myself available to meet in person or by Zoom. We can talk about research ideas, what you're doing in lab now, what you'd like to do in the future, what your career aspirations are, about a new paper, whatever.

While many students typically focus on collaborative work in our meetings, it's also always appropriate to bring up other topics that you'd like advice on: what you'd like to do next; plans for applying to new programs, grants, and the like; ideas about other faculty to get in touch with who might be good co-advisors; etc. Our meetings are also a good place to raise any issues that you've run into in the lab; things you're not feeling great about; things you'd like to change about your experience in the lab; etc.

I aim to make our advising discussions a space where you feel comfortable discussing pretty much anything that's on your mind, with the goal of both helping us to do good science and to help you develop as a scientist (whether you end up in academia, industry, or an entirely different field).

Drop-in meetings

When I'm in my office, it's totally fine to knock on the door for a drop-in meeting. It's also totally fine to do the remote equivalent on Slack, via direct message, at any time of day. If I'm online I can often try to find a few minutes to chat.

Each week I also post dedicated drop-in office hours in the lab-wide Google Calendar. At these times, you can count on my being available for sure. Ping me if you want to have a quick chat! You don't need to schedule an appointment ahead of time, but you can if you like. You should also feel free to ask for meetings outside those hours, just in case I happen to be free.

Recurring meetings

All regular lab members should have a weekly recurring meeting with me. These are usually a half hour for undergraduate RAs and an hour for thesis students, staff, grad students, and postdocs.

Why do we have these? First, it's often hard to tell what you need feedback on while you're doing a project yourself. By having dedicated time to check in on your progress, it can help us to fix issues before they become real problems, and, even better, can save you a ton of time by steering you away from rabbit holes, land mines, and the like. Second, while I always try to be available on a flexible and informal basis, sometimes things get very busy for me, and it can seem to students like asking for a chat is a bit of an imposition. By keeping scheduled meetings on the books, it ensures that we set aside protected time for you — this time is there to maximize your learning experience and development as a scientist.

How to schedule a meeting

For one-time appointments that you schedule yourself, find a time that you know works for me (e.g., during my drop-in hours or find it on Calendly), make a calendar event on your own Google Calendar, and invite me to the appointment with the email. Last, send me a DM to let me know that you booked it.

For recurring appointments, a lab manager can help you find a time that works every week; they'll add it to my calendar directly and invite you to the appointment.

What to do ahead of a meeting

While it's OK to have a meeting just to talk about new ideas, it is also helpful to prepare for meetings by writing down an agenda, posting relevant info for me to read ahead of time, and so on. If you are going to post something for me to read, please do so at least 1 day before your scheduled meeting.

It's usually OK to cancel

While most of the time, meetings are productive and useful, you may find yourself with a scheduled meeting that you don't think you need. For instance, if we planned on discussing the results of an analysis, but not enough subjects' data came in for you to run the analysis, it might be better to wait a few days and reschedule. It's always OK to suggest that we raincheck; just let me know and we'll figure something out.

Logistics

Expectations & deadlines

In general, I'm pretty good at responding to everything that I'm tagged in on Slack. If you don't get a reply from me within 1 day, either I'm traveling without reliable internet access, or it's possible that I missed your message (the likely culprit is it getting marked as read on my phone before I get a chance to reply on a computer). It's always OK to nudge me when you need a response! You are never a bother by doing that. If I need some time before I can get back to you, I'll just let you know — no worries.

If you need me to do something for you in time for a deadline (like edit your conference abstract) post the details on Slack well in advance of the deadline.

• For something with a hard deadline that doesn't require much work, like reading an abstract or filling out paperwork, I need one week's notice.

• For something with a hard deadline that does require substantial work, like writing a letter of recommendation or editing a grant proposal, I need at least two weeks' notice.

• For anything requiring lots of back-and-forth, like manuscripts, grad school applications, etc, give me as much notice as possible.

Also, when we're particularly busy in the lab, setting arbitrary deadlines for getting things done can be helpful. We usually do this in the darllab-status board. Feel free to set these for me, just as I'll set them for you.

Letters of recommendation

Let me know if you are applying to graduate school, postdocs, or grants that require a letter of recommendation. In general, I am happy to write these for all members of the lab. For some students and RAs, it makes sense to co-sign a letter with a senior PhD/Post-doc since they have often worked with you more directly than I have. We'll sort this out when you ask for a letter.

For most letters, it will be helpful if you provide a CV, instructions about the content of the letter, and information about what you're applying for.

It is a fabrication to submit a recommendation letter without the content of recommenders.

Becoming a thesis student

Many of my undergrad/master thesis students began their work in my lab as RAs or volunteers. If you think you might want to do a thesis under the aegis of my lab, let me know! The best way to make this happen is (1) to do a fantastic job with your RA duties, and (2) to chat with me early and often about project ideas. It's quite often that a student's thesis project ideas overlap substantially with research that's already happening in the lab, which is great — it means that a thesis project will be very strong on its own, and can often result in a publication for the student. For example, several of the authors of papers in the Reading list worked with me as thesis students, and their projects were published as part of larger papers.