As the head of the lab, I have many responsibilities and commitments to you. I share some thoughts, so you have the right expectations. I am very much involved in all research activities in my lab. I meet with everyone at least bi-weekly and more frequently as needed (determined by you). I provide feedback and guidance at many levels. I love to discuss big ideas and what questions are exciting and interesting and why. I help in making sure your project can be nicely integrated with the intellectual powerhouse of the lab. I expect that you think hard about hypotheses and predictions and discuss extensively these questions to help you gain clarity. I help you in finding the relevant literature you need to know for your project. I am involved in the project design down to the minute details to make sure we come up with the simplest experiment that could address the problem of interest. I value simplicity and make sure we don’t complexify issues beyond what is needed. I help you in acquiring the technical know-how you will need to succeed including developing a suitable training curriculum for animal training, hands-on skills required for neurophysiology experiments, developing sophisticated analysis techniques, and developing models of behavioral and neural data, framing the question for a manuscript, and preparation and writing of grants, fellowships, and manuscripts. On all these topics, one thing everyone in the lab appreciates is that I extremely responsive. Finally, I am responsible to make sure you have all the resources (financial and beyond) you need to succeed.

In return, I have expectations from you. If you are a graduate students and postdoc, I expect you to come with your ideas and be in the driver’s seat of your project. If you prefer a lab where the PI gives you a project, then my lab is not a good home for you. I expect you to take ownership of your learning and be a scholar and read the literature broadly and deeply. I expect you to follow through with actions we agree on. I expect you to take time and prepare for our meetings with an easy-to-follow presentation for me. I think of many projects – not just yours – and need your help if I am to give you the best advice. I expect you to keep me abreast of your project frequently and transparently, all roadblocks, all success, all new plans. I expect you to feel comfortable stepping into my office to ask questions and to ask all urgent questions urgently, and not sit on them. I expect you to be honest and transparent about you time managements. Basically, when it comes to our science, I expect you to see me as an excited collaborator. And when it comes to resources, I expect you to see me as a caring boss that must hear clearly and often about all your needs to make sure your research goes smoothly.

I am passionate about what we do and discuss science intensely. Some really like this characteristic of mine, and some find it overwhelming. I can’t help but to be passionate, so you must decide for yourself if this is something you like or not. I am honest and transparent and avoid diplomacy when possible. The places that this becomes relevant to you are twofold. Firstly, you can be sure that I have no agenda, and you can always step into my office to ask about anything you are uncertain about, and I will give you an honest answer. Secondly, you can expect honest feedback. I may not volunteer to give critical feedback when I feel it may cause negative emotions unless I feel it is essential for the science we do. I am also happy to give general feedback about you if you ask for it, and if you feel you can handle comments about weaknesses and areas of improvements. In return, I appreciate honest and critical feedback from you and accept it gracefully.

Commitments to science

Relatively speaking, doing research in Jazlab is not “easy.” We aspire to tackle big problems and we realize that they are hard. We succeed at what we do because of a few important characteristics. First, we are seriously committed and put the time and effort needed at all stages, from early explorations and inception of ideas, to iterating and working out the kinks, to conducting the research at the highest standard, to unwavering commitment to complete the work and honest reporting. There are challenges and frustrations along the way, but we accept that and work through them together because we are curious and passionate about what we do, and we recognize that nature doesn’t reveal its secrets easily. If you are committed that way, then you will find a welcoming home in Jazlab.

Second, we promote a healthy work-life balance and actively create opportunities for fun, both within and outside the lab, to maintain mental health, avoid burn out, and ensure that we remain motivated. In some sense, we see our commitment to science as deeply intertwined with having a healthy mind. That will elevate our science as well as our well-being. As a result, you can expect that I will respect your mental health and need for time off, and I expect you to speak up and let me know where, when, and how I can help.

Third, we collaborate. The projects in my lab are highly multifaceted. A single project may involve designing a novel task, collecting data from human subjects, building latent models to test computational hypotheses, devising a variant of the tasks for monkeys, many months of animal training, learning and using highly specialized skills to record from or perturb neural responses in awake, behaving animals, developing neural network models either to generate or test hypotheses, using dynamical systems analyses to understand the principles by which neural activity compute behaviorally relevant variables, and putting this all together to generate a comprehensive understanding, from mental computations to brain mechanisms. The satisfaction we get from tackling problems so deeply and comprehensively is hard to describe; it’s exhilarating when you figure the whole thing out. But doing all that is far too much work for any one individual. We collaborate because it is necessary and because it is fun. We have many ongoing collaborations and value them, so much so, that I view collaboration as mandatory for all new members. We think together, learn together, do together, and we share the joy of discovery together. In some sense, we enhance the experience by sharing it.

Fourth, almost everyone works on multiple projects with different degrees of complexity. I help everyone think through project selection when needed. I make sure there are some projects that are relatively more straightforward so you can be sure you feel the progress when your other more complex project slows down. And doing multiple projects plays directly into our goals of doing collaborative work; it creates many arrows connecting different people on different topics. As a result, you can expect to be involved in multiple exciting projects. And, it is expected of you to treat collaborations genuinely, work with others effectively, and treat misunderstandings and disagreements with thoughtfulness and grace.

Fifth, we teach each other. We do this thoughtfully to increase collaborations and to make the environment more enabling. For example, new students may be paired with a more seasoned researcher to help in their research. This benefits both parties. The one who learns benefits from learning and not having to deal with lots of uncertainties when they start their own research. The one who teaches gets a collaborator who can help in data collection, analysis, etc., and the cycles continues so the learner later becomes the teacher. All of this make our science better, and as a dividend, increases everyone’s productivity. A second example is teaching each other coding. We have an active weekly code review session where people teach each other about the best practices for coding, new tools that some may not know about, and pieces of existing code that you can readily reuse. The code review helps with our scientific rigor, reduces the chances of making errors, helps us generate more readable and usable code by others in the lab and others outside the lab, and makes everyone a better coder. A third example is informal “pizza nights” where we get together to discuss something fun and learn from someone on an intriguing topic that we think may be relevant to our research, but we don’t know enough about. Topics in our prior pizza nights include topological analysis of neural data, philosophy of mind versus neuroscience, and the mathematics of manifolds. This will enable our science to reach farther and help everyone increase the basin of their knowledge.

Sixth, we recognize the privilege of working at the bleeding edge of science in one of the most enabling institutions in the world. And we understand the responsibility that comes with it. This responsibility has many dimensions to it. I’ll highlight a few. First, we must have the highest work ethics because very few in the world can do what we can to advance human knowledge. Second, we must conduct our work extremely rigorously and report our results honestly, both to be a role model and to minimize the chances of misleading. Third, we must share, which means that we adhere to the most progressive forms of open science and sharing. We aspire to lead in that space – not to follow, and expect you to commit to this aspiration.

Learning from examples

If you are new to the lab, we have something valuable for you to learn about what your trajectory might look like in the lab. We have put together a repository of research trajectories of past and current members that goes over general topics like the pace of research, expected time of completion for different stages of research, milestones to be mindful of, and more. You can reach out to the lab manager or me to get the URL link to this repository. The main purpose of this repository is to help you envision your own trajectory in the lab. The documents contain summary information about each member’s background, interests, and timelines, etc. They also include information such as conference and fellowship opportunities, as well as a list of topics that the individual members can provide good advice on. It is recommended that you read through these documents when you first join the lab, and when you schedule 1-on-1 meetings with members for the first time.

Once you are well-adjusted to the lab, we want you to pay it forward by creating your own trajectories document and updating it at least once every year. Beyond serving as a guide for others, hopefully it will also serve as an aid for you to review, assess and plan out your own trajectory.

What is my outlook after my tenure in Jazlab?

Rest assured that my support does not end once you leave. If I can help you in any way at subsequent career stages, just ask – I will always be eager to help. I fully support both academic and non-academic career paths for people in the lab, as well as academic careers that are more teaching oriented than research oriented. If you are wanting to get to grad school, I will be happy to give you honest feedback about where you stand and will write you a recommendation letter that highlights the best in you. If you are a graduating PhD student, I will be happy to be a sounding board for your next move, offer thoughtful advice, and support you to the best of my capacity, regardless of where you want to go. I know the most about career paths in academia, but also have contacts in industry and am happy to make introductions if helpful. I want to stress that I will not be disappointed if you express interest in a path that deviates from the academic research trajectory, so don’t be shy about raising it for discussion. I can tell you about my trajectory to MIT, so you know how much I respect following your personalized path.

For those of you who aspire to become a faculty right after leaving Jazlab, I will do what I can to help you succeed. I will be happy to discuss ideas that you may want to pursue in your own lab. I will help you prepare a top-notch faculty application and will be happy to work with you on your job and chalk talks. You are free to choose whatever research topic you wish to pursue after leaving Jazlab; that is, Jazlab does not impose any restriction on what you wish to do. Don’t hesitate to talk to me about your ideas if you are worried about overlap with ongoing or upcoming research in Jazlab. Also, resources permitting, I will try to support you if you wish to explore some ideas of your own prior to your departure.