Welcome!
Dr. Skop takes mentoring very seriously and subscribes to the Growth Mindset Theory. This theory suggests that abilities and skills can be improved with hard work and effort. Therefore, whether you are an undergraduate, graduate students, postdoctoral fellow, research intern, senior scientist, or lab visitor, these are the expectations Dr. Skop has for you and you should expect of her. Dr. Skop believes there is a place for everyone in science, at all levels, and with the right mentor, you can accomplish your career goals.
*Please note this is a working document and can be revised by any member of the lab.
Lab Philosophy
Dr. Skop is a strong advocate for inclusive learning environments. People from all backgrounds are allowed to pursue research and all students have the ability to succeed and achieve what they set out to accomplish. Labs are diverse and dynamic because this is how innovation and discovery works best. Everyone’s voice matters and thus, people who join the Skop Lab (including Dr. Skop) are expected to:
Our mission is to do good science. To make discoveries. To have fun while we do so. To support each other, but challenge each other too. To give away as many good ideas as possible. To spend our time and the funds of our supporters wisely. To be members of good standing and good reputation in our communities, both scientific and geographic. To feel no shame when we don’t yet know something, but to fill the gaps, patch the holes, and learn everything we can. To be constructive with our criticism. To be creative and collaborative. To follow our experiments, data, and analyses to whatever interesting conclusions they support, even if those aren’t the conclusions we’d hoped for. To be curious. To respect each other, both by giving the respect due to every human being, and by earning the respect of others by how we act.
Our lab focuses on three areas:
Everyone: The Big Picture
Everyone: The small picture
General Expectations
Expectations for Post-Doctoral Scholars and Research Scientists
Expectation of post-docs
Expectations of Graduate Students
Expectation of Research Interns
Undergraduate/REU/Summer Scholars
Ahna’s responsibilities to undergraduates
Expectations of undergraduates
Expectations for Me
What you can expect of me
I will…
Dr. Skop takes mentoring very seriously and subscribes to the Growth Mindset Theory. This theory suggests that abilities and skills can be improved with hard work and effort. Therefore, whether you are an undergraduate, graduate students, postdoctoral fellow, research intern, senior scientist, or lab visitor, these are the expectations Dr. Skop has for you and you should expect of her. Dr. Skop believes there is a place for everyone in science, at all levels, and with the right mentor, you can accomplish your career goals.
*Please note this is a working document and can be revised by any member of the lab.
Lab Philosophy
Dr. Skop is a strong advocate for inclusive learning environments. People from all backgrounds are allowed to pursue research and all students have the ability to succeed and achieve what they set out to accomplish. Labs are diverse and dynamic because this is how innovation and discovery works best. Everyone’s voice matters and thus, people who join the Skop Lab (including Dr. Skop) are expected to:
- BE AUTHENTIC: be who you are
- BE COGNIZANT: Develop self-awareness and understand your biases
- SHARE: Ask others about their life experiences and share yours
- ENGAGE: Show up, be present and fully committed
- UNITE: Focus on similarities rather than differences to find connections
- BE CURIOUS: Seek to understand and respect the differences
- BE ACTIVE: Be intentional about inclusion
- BE CREATIVE: Use your unique perspective, skills, and gifts
- SPEAK UP: Advocate for others, especially people very different from yourself
- HIGHLIGHT: Highlight success and recognize potential, value people
- EMPATHIZE: Understand enough to take action
- BE MINDFUL: self education and also professional development is available
- APOLOGIZE: Be accountable for your behavior and hurtful comments: Offer an apology and commit to learning and doing better.
Our mission is to do good science. To make discoveries. To have fun while we do so. To support each other, but challenge each other too. To give away as many good ideas as possible. To spend our time and the funds of our supporters wisely. To be members of good standing and good reputation in our communities, both scientific and geographic. To feel no shame when we don’t yet know something, but to fill the gaps, patch the holes, and learn everything we can. To be constructive with our criticism. To be creative and collaborative. To follow our experiments, data, and analyses to whatever interesting conclusions they support, even if those aren’t the conclusions we’d hoped for. To be curious. To respect each other, both by giving the respect due to every human being, and by earning the respect of others by how we act.
Our lab focuses on three areas:
- We study the midbody (MB) and the midbody remnant (MBR), which are assembled at the end of mitosis.
- Second, we study the RNA granule that is assembled at the midbody and is packaged into the MBR. And how these unique RNA containing organelles are assembled, regulated and function during the cell cycle and development in the context of the whole organism.
- Third, we study how information is being transferred by the MBR between cells.
Everyone: The Big Picture
- Work on what you’re passionate about, work hard at it, and be proud of it.
- Scientists have to be careful. Don’t rush your work. Think first. Then implement. Include POSITIVE and NEGATIVE CONTROLS in each experiment. Ask others to look at your data if you need help, and help others when they ask. It’s ok to makes mistakes, but mistakes shouldn’t be because of carelessness or rushed work.
- If you do make a mistake, tell Ahna, your lab mates and collaborators. We admit our mistakes, and then we correct them and move on.
- We all want to make discoveries, get papers published, and do great things. But we do this honestly. It is never ok to plagiarize, tamper with data, make up data, omit data, or fudge results in any way. Science is about finding out the truth, and null results and unexpected results are still important.
- Support your fellow lab-mates. Help them out if they need help (even if you aren’t on the project), and let them vent when they need to. Science in this lab is collaborative, not competitive. Help others, and you can expect others to help you when you need it.
- Respect your fellow lab-mates. Respect their strengths and weaknesses, respect their desire for quiet if they need it, and for support and a kind ear when they need that. Respect their culture, their religion, their beliefs, their sexual orientation.
- Work schedules: Everyone has different levels of efficiency, skills, and experience. Don’t worry about your lab mate’s schedules. The most important thing is productivity. Ahna, is generally in the lab from 8:30-5:30pm. It’s best to work when other people around when you are starting so you can ask for help. Once you become more independent and feel confident about using microscopes by yourself, you can come in whenever you want. Main thing is to be focus on being productive and working towards figures and writing on manuscripts
- Feedback is great to get from any one of your lab mates or peers. Learning how to communicate science to a broad audience is critical. Practice your talks and visualizations on a wide variety of groups. Learn from feedback and revise.
- If you’re struggling, tell someone (especially Ahna!). Your mental health, physical health, and happiness come first. The lab looks out for the well-being of all its members. We are here to help. It’s ok to go through hard patches (we all do), but you shouldn’t feel shy about asking for help or just venting.
- If there is any tension or hostility in the lab, something has to be done about it immediately. We can’t thrive in an environment we aren’t comfortable in, and disrespect or rudeness will not be tolerated in the lab. If you don’t feel comfortable addressing the situations, tell Ahna.
- If you have a problem with Ahna and are comfortable telling her about it, do! If you aren’t comfortable, then there are a few others you can talk to. Those folks are Prof. Francisco Pelegri or Patrick Masson, or Aki Ikeda, all based in Genetics.
- Stay up to date on the latest research, by using Google Scholar, or getting journal table of contents. Also consider following scientists in multiple fields on Twitter.
- Have a life outside of the lab, take care of your mental and physical health, and don’t ever feel bad for taking time off work. Family comes first.
- Travel or Sickness: If you are going to be out, please add this to our Skop Lab calendar on Outlook. If you are sick and are slated to come in, please message Ahna and the lab via text or Slack on the #skoplabmain.
Everyone: The small picture
- If you’re sick, stay home and take care of yourself. If you’re going to miss a meeting or a deadline, let people know ASAP and then rest up!
- You aren’t expected to come into lab on weekends and holidays, and you aren’t expected to stay late at night. You are expected to BE PRODUCTIVE (whatever time of day you like to do it).
- Keeping regular hours in the lab is required, but it’s up to you to decide which and how many those hours those are. Working from home, a study room, or a coffee shop is fine, but we’ve also set up the lab intentionally so that it’s open, collaborative, and community oriented. It’s up to you to get things done, and active experimentation with what kind of schedule works well for you is recommended (and fun)!
- Keep the office/desk area clean. Eating at your desk is fine, but clean up food waste, crumbs, spills.
- Be on time for meetings. Text or message on SLACK us that you will be out or sick.
- Vacation and family time is important. Make sure that Ahna knows well in advance, so that she can plan ahead.
General Expectations
- Everyone in this group has a right to feel safe and respected regardless of career position, gender, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, or country of origin. I expect everyone to treat everyone in the lab (preferably in life more generally) with the same way you would like to be treated.
- We work collaboratively and support each other in our research and career development. We each have our own specific interests, backgrounds, and research projects, but we are ultimately a team. I expect lab members to be supportive and communicate directly, openly, and empathetically with one another.
- Treat everyone with respect. Think particularly hard about how you engage with the many hard-working administrators and support staff at our university and beyond. Our success depends on the inputs and good-will of many people whose work all-too-often goes unappreciated and unrecognized.
- If you feel someone is not doing well or having mental health issues, please see Ahna to chat about how I can help this student or staff member of the lab navigate healthcare or mental health resources.
- Ahna is available in person, by phone or text message. Please don't hesitate to bring something up if it's on your mind and you want to chat about it.
Expectations for Post-Doctoral Scholars and Research Scientists
- Do high-quality, independent research. Collaborate with me and with others in the lab.
- Show leadership, take an extra role in organizing lab events.
- Think actively about the job market. Work with me -- and other faculty -- to formulate a strategy for professional advancement. This should be a central part of your Individual Development Plan (IDP).
- Help mentor students.
- Help write grants. Grant-writing is a fundamental skill for junior faculty and getting practice at it while a post-doc will pay dividends when you make the next career move.
Expectation of post-docs
- Eventually develop your own independent line of research
- Help train and mentor students in the lab (both undergraduate and graduate) when they need it—either because they ask, or because I ask you to
- Present your work widely
- Meet with Ahna every semester to talk about professional development and career progress.
- Apply for grants and fellowships. I will only hire you if I can support you, but it’s nevertheless in your best interest to get experience writing grants. Plus, if you get them, you’ll be helping out the entire lab as well as yourself. You’ll free up funds previously allocated to you, and grants look nice on a CV!
- Apply for jobs (of whatever type you choose) when you’re ready. If you think you’d like to leave academia, that’s completely ok—but you should still treat your post-doc seriously, and talk to me about how to best train for a job outside academia. When you’re ready, we can talk about strategies for strong application materials.
- Challenge me (Ahna) when I’m wrong or when your opinion is different, and treat the rest of the lab to your unique expertise
Expectations of Graduate Students
- Develop your dissertation research. Your dissertation should consist of around 3 aims/projects, built around answering answer a big-picture question. In cartoon form, those 3 projects, chronologically, are (1) a project that I suggest that you do, (2) a project that we discuss and develop together, and (3) a project that you decide on and drive forward.
- Help mentor undergraduate students in the lab when they need it.
- Present your work at departmental events, at other labs (if invited), and at conferences
- Apply for fellowships, conference funding, and awards, like the NSF. When you’re ready, we can talk about strategies for writing good statements and proposals.
- Meet with Ahna every semester to talk professional development and progress toward a degree.
- Make sure you meet all departmental deadlines (e.g., for your exams and thesis), and make sure Ahna is aware of them!
- Prioritize time for research.
Expectation of Research Interns
- Develop your research project with Ahna.
- Maintain a digital lab notebook.
- Work on figures, data analysis and manuscripts with Ahna and other lab members
- Help mentor undergraduate students in the lab when they need it.
- Present your work at on campus, and at conferences
- Help manage the lab needs and maintain a clean lab
- Seek out advice from Ahna about your career goals on a monthly/semester basis
Undergraduate/REU/Summer Scholars
Ahna’s responsibilities to undergraduates
- Provide training in both laboratory techniques as well as scientific thinking. This will involve both your graduate or postdoc mentor and working with me.
- Analyze and interpret results
- Discuss career goals and make an individualized training plan that works towards those goals, this includes summer opportunities
- Review abstracts and application materials, this is a must. Before you submit anything, Ahna needs to read it if it’s associated with Lab/
Expectations of undergraduates
- Come to lab on the days and hours that are pre-arranged each semester.
- Be willing to learn and make corrections when given.
- Communicate to your mentor and to Ahna: either about work, class or if you’re sick.
- Maintain a digital lab notebook and detailed methods. These need to sufficient to reproduce results without additional instructions. A good working example can be found here.
- Work on data analysis, figures and manuscripts depending on mentor.
- Help maintain common areas
Expectations for Me
- Establish a positive and inclusive lab culture.
- Do high-quality independent research. Collaborate with students, post-docs, and others in the lab.
- Recruit a high-quality and diverse group of students, post-docs, and collaborators for the lab. Help Stanford achieve its broader efforts in recruiting and retaining a diverse community of top scholars.
- Involve students and other people in the lab when it's appropriate. There is an unusual diversity of interests typically held by people in my lab and not every collaborative project is right for every student (the wrong project can be distracting for your progress).
- Expect to be reminded of important deadlines, events, etc. Redundancy is the secret to effective communication.
- Network furiously and advocate for people in my group and my broader network.
- Learn from the other people who comprise the lab.
What you can expect of me
I will…
- Support you (scientifically, emotionally, financially)
- Give you feedback on a timely basis, including feedback on project ideas, conference, posters, talks, manuscripts, figures, grants
- Be available in person, and via e-mail or Slack on a regular basis, including regular meetings to discuss your research (and anything else you’d like to discuss)
- Give my perspective on where the lab is going, where the field is going, and tips about surviving and thriving in science and academia
- Support your career development by introducing you to other researchers in the field, promoting your work at talks, writing recommendation letters for you, and letting you attend conferences as often as finances permit
- Help you prepare for the next step of your career, whether it’s a job, a post-doc, or a faculty position
- Care for your emotional and physical well-being, and prioritize that above all else