Biophysical Society Bulletin | March 2024

Cereer Deveopment

How Do I Find a Good Research Project? A colleague once remarked, “Most advice columns state the obvious; what I really

• Sparks excitement and dedication. The “can’t wait to get back to the lab” feeling, followed eventually by a “ureka!” party. • Offers an often simple/ingenious solution that can be rec ognized as a clear milestone. • Utilizes new but already reliable technology, which is acces sible to you and plays to your strengths. • Facilitates a breakthrough that can be attributed to you/ your team through publications for career advancement. • Provides offshoots, which may be even more fruitful. • Lastly, lets you know when to give up, keeping in mind that there are always valuable lessons learned. Projects are more likely to succeed when they align with the key principles outlined above. However, research projects operate within real-world constraints such as team dynamics, funding availability, and personal skills. Navigating practical limitations like graduation deadlines, the need to find a longer-term posi tion after a postdoc or skill development, etc. are also important, but success often helps to overcome these. While planning helps, intuition and confidence in forward progress are crucial in the unpredictable realm of scientific research. *Even seemingly incremental projects can lead to unexpected breakthroughs. This column emphasizes the role of serendipity in discovery but discourages a roulette-like approach trying many pilot projects in an attempt to land on one. Scientific prog ress often emerges from focused, diligent work rather than ran dom experimentation. Microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur famously stated in an 1854 lecture, “In the fields of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.” — Molly Cule

want to understand is how to find a good research project”… and by “good,” she is dreaming about having a breakthrough dis covery—a stepping or foundation stone of a new (sub-)field on which lofty constructions will be built, prizes will be won, etc. So here is that column, where I draw in large part on insights from renowned scientists, who mostly report that while they were driven by intense curiosity, they were often “instinctively stum bling” in a particular direction before they had a breakthrough: finding their “stepping stone.” In an ideal universe, a good research project: • Solves an important problem that interests many, provid ing insights for future discoveries or applications. • Presents a groundbreaking insight, rather than incremen tal progress.* • Sets you apart from the crowd. In some instances, there are “stampedes” of researchers into new territory, other fields are already overcrowded, and other pastures seem already well grazed and are becoming lonely. • Fosters collaboration with supportive colleagues. Sci entific research is a communal effort, blending collab oration, competition, and cross-fertilization with more distant fields.

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March 2024

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