One problem is also that many of those awesome PIs are too busy for training and mentoring. Postdocs and grad students are trained by postdocs and grad students. Sometimes that works OK, many times it doesn't.
bert
________________________________
From: CCP4 bulletin board <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Roger Rowlett <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 03 September 2016 17:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Another pifall of MR
Paying serious attention to curricula, mentoring and training is the only way out. Plus strong peer review and editors with cohones to back up serious reviewers when things aren't defensible. Don't get me started there.
We've worked hard at the curricular thing and mentoring at the undergraduate level but it's not enough.
I worked on a couple of occasions at a well known national Lab. The breadth of knowledge of a large fraction of postdocs there was shockingly small. For this cohort, they would try several kits and if it didn't work they didn't know how to proceed. Shocking. I wasn't trained that way. On the plus side almost all the PIs were awesome.
__________________
Roger Rowlett
Gordon & Dorothy Kline Professor
Department of Chemistry
Colgate University
On Sep 3, 2016 12:42 PM, "Bernhard Rupp (Hofkristallrat a.D.)" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> And in this way we can disguise a failure in proper training as a pitfall
of the automated MR computer programs
Not to appear overly cynical -we have lost that training battle a long time
ago. Just look at some of the very basic
questions asked on the board and wonder - is there no supervisor providing
any guidance? Some of it may
originate from that in certain environments it is not customary to ask too
many questions (particularly not those that
might challenge a superior).
Then compare this with the postdoc job ads, which are best described as
looking for Jesus Christ - where are these
geniuses supposed to come from? This discrepancy between poor training,
particularly affecting structural biologist
due to deficiencies ingrained already early in the academic curricula, is
quite striking.
> re-program them to return a 'sorry, try again, no convincing solution
found' instead of returning the best solution
I think this is a good idea. Require to sit through a lecture on YouTube and
pass a test to obtain a
password for access to any expert mode - at one's own risk. That way you
instill some training even in a
hopeless case - any maybe it still works. Nothing to lose.
Cheers, BR
Nicholas M. Glykos, Department of Molecular Biology
and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, University Campus,
Dragana, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece, Tel/Fax (office) +302551030620<tel:%2B302551030620>,
Ext.77620, Tel (lab) +302551030615<tel:%2B302551030615>, http://utopia.duth.gr/glykos/
