I am about to finish my undergraduate degree in genetics, into which I have incorporated a bit of compsci/compbio/bioinformatics (my university allows a lot of flexibility with study plans).
I am planning to continue my education with a Masters in biosciences next year, which involves a mix of higher-level classes and an ongoing research project. We need to seek out the research project by approaching potential supervisors to find one that interests us. I would like to make sure that my thinking is on the right track, and so I was hoping that some of you might be happy to provide some feedback/guidance on my plans so far.
I have met with two supervisors so far. The first already offered me a bioinformatics project around large-scale genomic/transcriptomic analysis of a couple of invasive species, with the aim of informing the design of suppression-drive technologies for pest control. I find this project really enticing as I have a strong interest in both animal welfare (including wild-animal welfare) and bioinformatics, and I think this would be a great way to combine the two. The second supervisor I met with had projects that were less applied, and had a broader scope, all using bioinformatics to study large datasets to investigate sources of diversity among humans. This lab was a bit less exciting to me but the supervisor was more hands-off in terms of projects, giving their students freedom to develop their own projects (within reason), which might mean that I could develop a more optimal project than the other one I was offered. However, the projects seemed more about discovery rather than application, which makes me uncertain about how interesting/beneficial it could be, although they do use a range of highly-transferable techniques.
Overall I'm trying to think through a list of pros and cons about both of these labs, as I would ideally like to a) have a project that is directly beneficial and b) gain useful experience that sets me up for an effective career in industry or research, whichever I decide. With that being said, I have a few main questions I'm mulling on:
- How important is making the right choice, really? Is it more important to just find a project that interests me, and hope I can transfer my skills anyway?
- On that point, is my choice likely to cut off other options and pathways?
- Should I aim for a lab that isn't as directly interesting to me but might allow me greater freedom to design an optimal project?
- Is it worth going for a project that is less interesting but will make me more employable/broaden my options?
Though the first supervisor/project still interests me the most, I'm wondering if I'm missing opportunities to work on a more fulfilling project that would set me up better for my next career step. Some of the areas I'm especially interested in working in are wild-animal welfare and cell agriculture, so I'm trying to keep my options open there. Some of the other projects available that I was also interested in are related to pesticide design, environmental DNA for monitoring waterway ecology, threats to human fertility, and plant engineering for nutritional enrichment.
I realize I'm just dumping a bunch of information and this might feel more like a journal entry than a question, but it's because I'm really not sure what things I should be prioritising or thinking about when making my decision, and I'm not sure what bits of information are important. I'm very sorry for being so verbose!
I would really appreciate if anyone with more experience would be willing to provide any advice or thoughts on my decision-making so far, as it would be a great help in coming to a decision. And even if you don't want to provide any advice, thank you so much for reading to the end of my ramblings.
Thanks in advance :)
Hi!
It's great that you are trying to make these kinds of decisions with impact in mind!
I have a comp bio background but more in proteomics and have spent time this year looking at different ways to have a large impact, although my own focus was much more on pandemics preparedness / x-risk.
Probably this problem is underspecified. It's just very hard for anyone at this level of abstraction to make the decision for you. Details like your relationship with the supervisor, other lab members for example could be critical. It does sound like you like the first option but I'd encourage you to test your hypothesis thoroughly (or proportionally to the subsequent time investment).
However, some guiding principles may help:
EffectiveThesis might have some useful content too. https://effectivethesis.org/
Good luck and all the best!
Hi Joseph, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, it's interesting to hear your own angle from a pandemics preparedness background.
Those are some really useful guiding principles to follow, and I'm going to send an email to a member of the lab to try to get a better understanding of the supervisor's style of supervising and the culture of the lab overall. I really should try to connect with more bio experts, I've had a look on Effective Thesis but I hadn't heard about that consultation service, so I'll look into it. More generally, I will try to seek ou... (read more)