In 1990, fresh out of his first postdoc, David Woodland walked into his very own lab at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. All he wanted was to dive into the viral immunology that he had spent years thinking about, but found that a lot of his time was consumed by the other tasks that come with being a principal investigator (PI). “It was difficult,” he says. “No one had given me guidance in writing grants, or [told me] that I would principally be in a management position.” Twenty years later, he uses his experience to help guide the postdocs at the Trudeau Institute, where he is the director.
These so-called “soft-skills” are an important part of a successful postdoc education. While some postdocs will shun the idea of taking on organizational, writing, and managerial tasks, the PIs who successfully train their fellows to succeed in all aspects of running a ...
