My goal in teaching and mentoring is to inspire and support students, and young scientists, to understand and explore the natural world. Throughout my education, a few great lecturers and professors stand out. The ideas they presented, the questions they fronted, and their scientific missions became the torches that lit my way into the library stacks on nights and weekends and out into the field. In my classes and scientific lectures, I similarly aim to move students and fellow scientists to look further, and in their own way, so that the learning journey is their own. Inspiration also comes from spending time in nature or enmeshed in scientific problems in the lab, and as a mentor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, I work to enable students to have these firsthand experiences. Support, likewise, can mean many things depending on the situation – often it means listening more than anything else, and working to remove the barriers and connect the people needed to solve the problem at hand.
I have a very interdisciplinary group, so many of the techniques and approaches use by students of mine are learned from working closely with the true experts in the relevant fields. Regardless of how closely my expertise aligns with a mentee, I encourage lab members to build a broad network of mentors so they gain a spectrum of influences. In the lab, each member contributes to mentoring others by teaching skills (or ideas) from their area of expertise and by mentoring more junior colleagues, or those new to the group. This aspect of how the group works is by design—as one of the best ways to learn is to teach, and because the group as whole depends on the input of everyone –not just the principal investigator!
What this does mean, however, is that I expect a high level of ownership and engagement from students in class, and from lab members. In no setting am I a micromanager and I hate busy work, or any task resembling it. I am more like a lighthouse, shinning a light so others might see the best direction to sail in. For many this is tremendously enabling, but for many more this freedom requires some getting used to, although I do try to help with the transition. For some, my mentoring style is a truly dreadful setup with a vertigo-inducing lack of guardrails, so please keep this aspect of my mentoring style in mind if you are considering applying to the lab.
I have been delighted by the fact that my lab group has been a collegial, kind, and engaged group since the very start, with a high level of respect and inclusiveness baked into the lab culture. Many current and past lab members have led departmental, university and societal committees, including efforts focused on broadening diversity and inclusion in our fields. I am supportive of these efforts, as well as of training and engagements beyond the laboratory, because I view success in my mentees and their future careers through a multifaceted lens. The best science, and scientists, leave a lasting, positive impact on the world. We need these impacts to be felt across all fields and levels of society, from teaching in elementary classrooms, to local politics, to how we build and run our built environment, to environmental policies within the US and beyond, to discoveries and academic articles that deepen our understanding of the natural world. Achievement in this worldview looks different for each person—and achieving the grand vision requires the unique contributions of a diverse set of scientists.