Thesis Lab Decision

As I am coming to the end of my third and final rotation in Jianxin's lab, I have come to the point where I have to decide which lab I would like to formally join as a full-time grad student.

Initially I thought this decision would be pretty easy; at the conclusion of my rotation with Una last semester, I was 99.999% sure I would join that lab, and I came into Jian's lab with the feeling that I would just enjoy myself and learn as much as I could.

As time progressed in Jian's lab, however, I became really fascinated by the HPV field and some of the unanswered questions, especially mechanisms underlying integration, a critical (and necessary) step for the onset of cervical cancer caused by the virus. And although my rotation project had nothing to do with this, I took time to read more and more and become even more excited about the possibilities. I also found that I was much more actively engaged during lab meetings, offering critical observations about the data and offering my ideas. In short, I have been much more engaged scientifically in Jian's lab than I ever was in Una's lab.

This past week I met with both PI's individually to seriously discuss potential thesis projects, expectations for me as a grad student, things I was interested in or would like to see happen in the lab if I were to join. I finished the week by meeting with Bob Doms, the chair of the microbiology department, and talking to him about my decision and listening to his advice, concerns, and suggestions. It was definitely helpful, and validated my own feelings about my choices and where I thought I wanted to be.

In the end, I decided to join Jian's lab. It feels like the best decision in pretty much every parameter I can think of - funding, research interests, support, etc - but that has not made coming to this decision or moving forward with it easier. My time with Una was fantastic, and it was, by the far, the best environment of people I could ever have hoped for - I hope I will be half as lucky finding labs that felt so much like a family to me and that worked so well together. But in the end, I am here to do research, to investigate and learn, and I think the Jian's lab offers me the best opportunities for all of that.

There are still risks and unknowns in joining Jian's lab: I will be her first graduate student (largely because she is so new here), and that brings with it some uncharted territory for both of us. But this is also an incredible opportunity for me to have a huge impact in the development of the lab, in attracting new students to the lab, in directing where the research goes, etc. There is also the risk in joining a lab with a faculty who hasn't formally received tenure yet. Normally I would stay far, far away from such a lab, because there is the risk the faculty member won't receive tenure while you are in the middle of your graduate work, and generally there is a stronger push to produce papers and get work done in the process of securing tenure. However, in this case, Jian is very well on her way towards receiving tenure and she has had a great team of post-docs who have been helping to establish the lab. Bob (the chair of Microbiology I mentioned above) has no doubt that she will receive tenure, and he probably has the largest voice in that decision out of anyone, so I trust his judgment. I think in this case, the risks involved in joining a junior faculty's lab are much less than other labs I see here at Penn.

I am extremely excited to count myself as Jian's first graduate student, and will be taking the next month or so to really develop my ideas for the questions I am interested in pursuing. Fortunately, a large component of my interest will greatly benefit from Una's expertise in HIV integration, and I have already talked to her about this collaboration. She was extremely excited about it, and I am glad to say that I foresee continuing working with her and her talented crew well into the future.