In the juggling act that is your work, a new student in the lab might make you feel that you have one more thing to keep aloft. Nonetheless, a mentor's job is to transform that student into a juggler, too. That student must first help keep your hoops airborne and eventually juggle as a standalone act.
Your main responsibility is providing opportunities to conduct research. That involves providing a hypothesis or two, bench space and equipment time, training in techniques, office space and a lab coat, and analytic software and a computer. You also provide guidance on the processes involved, from experimental design to scientific communication, and that includes one-on-one appointments, weekly or monthly lab meetings, appraising data or raising up beers after work, event-specific gatherings, and rehearsing a presentation or editing a manuscript.
You are also a role model. When trainees watch in disbelief as you perform a difficult ...
