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INRSScience in ACTION for a World in EVOLUTION
Université du Québec
Institut national de la recherche scientifique
1
‘Survival Skills For Scientists’
Disclaimer:
Unfortunately, I do not have any easy
recipe for success, and what I have to
say here cannot be a substitute for
good ideas, hard work and
dedication…!
UNISALENTO, Sept 19, 2013
Diego Mantovani & Federico Rosei,
Canada Research Chair in Biomaterials
and Bioengineering for the Innovation in Surgery
Canada Research Chair in Nanostructured
Organic and Inorganic Materials
Université Laval & INRS Energie, Matériaux et Télécommunications
Canada

Evolution of the Workshop
• 2003 – informal course
• 2005 – graduate course @ INRS
• 2008 – 3-day workshop UdeM
• 2009 – 2-day workshop UWA Perth
• 2010 – 2-day workshop UWA Perth
• 2011 – 2-day workshop McGill
• 2012 – 2-day workshop ETS
• 2013 – Brasil-Malaysia
• 18 Invited talks @ conferences
• >30 ‘Survival Skills’ lectures
Worldwide since 2005

Survival in Science
• Needs more than
skills for science
• Be your own manager!
– Know thyself
– Plan well ahead
– Find & use a mentor
– Play chess
– …some more nitty gritty
details
• Peer review (referees & the process)
• Conferences, Talks, Impact Judging
• Publishing, not perishing
• Ethics
• Jobs, how to get them
• Funding your Science

What is your Goal as a Scientist?
• Goals are personal
• Be very clear about
your goals
• Why do you want to
become a scientist?
• Do not continue
doing science,
unless you stated
your goals clearly!
My goal is to unravel the mysteries of nature.
(Greek Φύσις = Nature)

Challenges
• Science is about challenges
• Challenge...
– yourself → change perspective
– data&methods → verify, improve
– collaborators, colleagues, competitors
• Always constructively
Galileo Galilei

Ethics
• The presure is high – still, don’t ever
cut corners in reporting.
– Fraud, falsifying, misrepresentation of data
– Plasgiarism, multiple publication
– Abusive authorship …

Know thyself!
• What are you good at?
• What do you like
doing?
• What are your
goals?
• How do you best
achieve them?
• Choose your path

First things first:
• Tomorrow?
– Next week?
• Next month?
– Next year... Then in ten years?
What will you do… ? PLAN AHEAD
• Plan for short term,
medium term, long
term. Keep the plans
flexible, but plan.
• Planning ahead?
Why bother?
F. Rosei, T.W. Johnston, J.
Mater. Ed. 31, 293 (2009)

Institut national de la recherche scientifiqueScience: World of Opportunities
• Plan => you are ready …
… to capitalize
on opportunities
as they occur – seize that chance now!

• Getting …is easy
• Internet, Journals,
Conferences,
Networking, …
• Filtering …is not
• Avoid getting swamped
• Filter frequently, efficiently!
Opportunities = Information

Never be afraid of applying!
• Rejections are part
of life. Learn to
accept them
gracefully.
• You can’t win if you
don’t play …!
• Assume you will be
successful
• If you prepare your application well (for a job, a fellowship, a
grant, etc.), even if you don’t get it, you are investing time in
your career development
• It is a good way to hone your skills and there is almost no
application that cannot be recycled…!

Academia
• Students know it best
• ‘Scholarly’ activities,
publishing in peer–
reviewed scientific
journals
• Job description includes
research, teaching and
service
• Advantages:
– Academic freedom:
choose your projects
– Tenure, job security
– Flexible hours
– Long vacations
if you want
Government Labs
• Managed
environment
(hierarchical, top
down)
• Objectives come
from the top, from
the managers
• You work with
others towards
common goals
• Applied research,
e.g. support specific
industry sectors
• Specific mandate, or
goal
• No teaching
Industrial Labs
• Managed
environment
• Applied research
• Industrial
secrecy:
Publishing and
attending
conferences may be
discouraged
• Emphasis may be on
development (rather
than research)
• Objectives may
change rapidly
• The ultimate
objective (of the
company) is to make
money

13
Examples of gov’t labs
• In Canada:
– the National Research Council;
CANMET (NRCan)
• In the U.S.:
– Jefferson Laboratories
– Brookhaven National Laboratories
– Sandia National Labs
– Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
– Oak Ridge National Labs
• In Singapore:
– IMRE, IBN, DSI, IHPC, SIMTEC
• In Germany:
– Max Planck Institutes, Leibnitz
Institutes, Fraunhofer Institutes
• In France: CNRS
• In Japan: NIMS, AIST, RIKEN
• In Switzerland: Paul Scherrer Institut
(PSI)
• In Australia: CSIRO, ANSTO
• In Denmark: Risø
• In Italy: CNR
• Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies) in
Murray Hill, NJ
• IBM (International Business
Machines): Almaden (CA),
Yorktown Heights (NY),
Rueshlikon (Switzerland)
• HP (Hewlett Packard): Palo Alto
• Xerox Research Center
• NTT (Nippon Telephone and
Telegraph), Japan
• Haldor Topsoe (Denmark)
• Philips (the Netherlands)
Examples of
Industrial Labs

14
Your role in Science: α vs. β
• In a soccer team: 11 players and 4 general ‘roles’ (goalkeeper,
defender, midfielder, attacker) – all are equally important
• In our description of science, there are two main roles, simply
α and β
• As students / post–docs, we all start off as β s. The next step
is critical. It’s when you have to decide whether you play better
one role or the other, and the one you prefer.
• β: the executor (e.g. a research associate). likes to do the
science, not manage it. Likes to spend time in the lab, turn the
knobs / get the work done first hand.
• α: the ‘leader’ (e.g. the professor). likes to generate ideas and
funding to pursue them. α s don’t have much time to spend in the
lab (often don’t like it too much either, though they argue
passionately that they miss it!)

15
α: Manager or Leader?
• Appreciate difference between managing a
research group and leading it
• Lead by example
• Strong drive and personal motivation
• Superior communication skills (oral and
written)
– enjoys presenting orally and likes to write
• People’s person: good at motivating,
patient, easy to talk to

16
β: Managing your boss
• Scientist  Manager; Student/post-doc  supervisor
• This is not necessary when bosses are… very
good.
• Manager/boss relationship: mutual dependence
between two fallible human beings
• Effective managers take time and effort to manage
relationships with their subordinates AND also
with bosses.
• Appreciate your boss’ goals and pressures
• The boss needs the manager’s help/cooperation to
do his/her job effectively; a manager’s immediate
boss plays a critical role in linking the manager to
the rest of the organization
J.J. Gabarro, J.P. Kotter, Managing Your Boss, Harvard Business Review 1980

17
Find a Mentor!
• Find a mentor early (ASAP) in your career.
• A good mentor is a wise person who takes interest
in your future, but one who does not have a ‘conflict of
interest’. (i.e. one who does not stand to gain or lose
depending on your choices)
• N.B. Your own supervisor is not necessarily
a good mentor (it’s possible, but not a given)
• A mentor is an advisor who gives you an
objective measure of reality when you have
to make a critical choice.

18
Know the other players!
Place yourself in the ‘shoes’ of the people who
are going to evaluate you; anticipate their moves
as if you were playing chess:
• Come up with the right questions => easier to find the right
answers.
• You => Them
• Interviewee => interviewer
• Author => referee
• Your Grant Application => Grant Selection Committee
• Judging your own work and abilities objectively is not easy.
It is vital to develop a critical sense about your own work.
In modern science, anything that matters is peer reviewed
F. Rosei, T.W. Johnston, J. Mater. Ed. 32, 163 (2010)

19
The peer review system
• It is like democracy: highly imperfect, yet it’s
hard to come up with a better system
• Can you protect yourself from ‘bad faith’ referees?
• Suggesting referees [Applied Surface Science]
• Real life example
• ‘Good’ refereeing vs. ‘bad’ refereeing: constructive reviewing
• Why is refereeing generally anonymous?
• What is peer review, where is it used? (scientific journals,
funding agencies, sometimes foundations, etc.)
Feng Shui Meditation Exercise

The most famous referee report
• This paper is both good and original.
• Unfortunately, the part that is good is not original;
and the part that is original, is not good.
20

21
Publish… or perish
• There are many theories about why the dinosaurs
disappeared… the more accredited one states that they did not
publish, and therefore perished
• In the longer term, what is important is the
quality of your published record, rather than
the sheer quantity of papers published.
What matters to your peers is your
overall impact => establishing a reputation
• When you are a student, each new published article is perceived
as an important addition to your CV – this temptation is to be
avoided (as an added environmental benefit, you will spare
many trees…!)
• However, I urge you not to clog the literature with many
publications of little value

22
Publishing: A few tips
• Always write BOTH for expert (e.g. referee) AND for
interested reader from a neighboring area. This is also good
for Grant Applications and for the highest-impact journals
where appeal to non-specialist is emphasized.
• Most readers look at title, abstract, introduction and
conclusion (not in any order) before committing to look
at main text. Structure these elements so as to
draw the reader in. The paper is a store and these elements
the advertising in the store window.
The browser is thinking, “Why should I go on looking at this
paper?” – => provide suitably seductive answers.
F. Rosei and T. Johnston, J. Mater. Edu., 33, 161 (2011)

23
How is your scientific impact judged?
Common indicators of impact:
– Citations by others, impact factor (applied and basic
research); the H index [CAVEAT!!!!]
(Hence the need to publish well.)
– Invited talks at conferences, seminars
– Review committee service (grant selection, editorial etc.)
– Refereed Publications list in CV.
– Patents, inventions, devices (applied research)
– High levels of funding … ? (output vs. input)
– If your work becomes sufficiently interesting to a broad
audience that you are asked to give popular talks, this is a
good evidence of impact

24
Scientific meetings and conferences
• The 3(+1) reasons to attend a conference
1. To present your work
2. To learn from your peers’ work
3. To network with your peers
+1. the conference is in a nice location, e.g. Hawaii, Florida,
Australia, Paris, Rome, etc. (not uncommon)

25
1. Cover too much material
2. Include too many details
3. Start with too much small talk
4. Run over the allotted speaking time
5. Avoid telling the audience why your research has been done
6. Overestimate, or at least fail to assess, the audience’s level of knowledge
7. Fail to make contact with the audience
8. Ignore the inherent difference that exists between written and oral
communication
9. Waste time searching for a specific overhead file somewhere in your pile
10. Use unexplained terminology, abbreviations and acronyms
11. Use unexplained symbols in text or equations
12. Use unexplained graphics
13. Present overhead transparencies that are unreadable
14. Read in extenso from projected transparencies
15. If the moderator has just introduced you to the audience, alienate both
parties by opening your presentation with such details as your name, your
affiliation and the title of your talk
Peter Sigmund, Odense University (Denmark), Physics Today, August 1998
15 ways…

26
Networking is important!
• Networking can help you to:
– Find a job
– Develop collaborations
– Recruit good people
(students, post–docs,
professors, etc.)
Some scientists you meet at conferences are the ones who
referee your manuscripts and grant applications. (Likewise,
you will be asked to comment on their work at some point
in your career).
Having them know you personally helps!

27
Alternative ‘scientific’ careers
• Scientific journalism
• Editor of a professional /
scientific journal
• Program officer at a funding
agency
• Financial analyst ($$$)
• Patent attorney
• Patent officer
(remember Einstein?)
• Consultant
• Science Advisor to the Prime
Minister (…)
• College teacher
Clown ?

Institut national de la recherche scientifiqueLessons to be learned:
Lessons in leadership and mentoringBe patient
Be enthusiastic and positive
Celebrate successes
Be supportive, especially during difficult times
Treat your collaborators, students and peers with respect
(Those under you… those above you…)
Don’t be afraid to take risks, and to innovate
Find a supportive partner
Help younger scientists find their place; create opportunities for them
Invest time and energy in Outreach: explain your work to others
(The Two Graduate Students and the Bike)
Be fit, practice sports
Continue to learn and do new things
Maintain absolute integrity
Do what you enjoy, work hard, have fun
Inspire others

Nelson Mandela: How do you inspire your team to do their
best.
Francois Pienaar: By example. I’ve always thought to lead by
example, sir.
Nelson Mandela: Well, that is right. That is exactly right. But
how to get them to be better than they think they *can* be?
That is very difficult, I find.
Invictus
Leonardo da Vinci: Tristo è quel discepolo che non
avanza il maestro suo

30
• I do not have easy recipes for success, sorry! My advice is not about
pursuing your career ‘the easy way’. There is *no* replacement for good
ideas, hard work and sound approach. You should already have all that.
However, it is not necessarily enough to progress in your career.
• ‘Audaces fortuna iuvat’ (good luck favors the bold)
• Find a mentor – someone more experienced who is willing to give you
advice and act as a sounding board
Summary of basic advice
• 1. Know Thyself.
• 2. Plan ahead.
• 3. Know the Others and ‘Play Chess’
Finally… Don’t forget to have fun, otherwise it’s not worth it…!
• Thank you! And good luck. I wish you every success!
• If you wish to contact me:
rosei@emt.inrs.ca

Institut national de la recherche scientifiqueA few words about INRS:
the graduate school of the University of Quebec
Location: the south shore of Montreal
Approx. 25 km from the city centre

32
The Survival Skills Course/Workshop
• 1st edition, fall 2003. Informal course, 10-20 students/post-docs.
• 2nd edition, fall 2005. Official graduate course, 15 full time
students.
• 3rd edition, spring (May) 2008. Change of format: 3-day
workshop. 80 participants from all over Quebec (15 students
from INRS).
• 4th edition, autumn (May) 2009. Change of location: UWA in
Perth, Australia. 75 participants from ‘all over’ WA [UWA, CUT,
ECU, MU]
• 5th edition in spring (October) 2010 again at UWA in Perth.
• 6th edition in spring (May) 2011 at McGill in Montreal.
• 7th edition in summer (June) 2012 at ETS in Montreal.
In addition, 10 Invited talks and 30 ‘Survival Skills’
lectures worldwide since 2005
F. Rosei, A. Pignolet, T.W. Johnston, J. Mater. Ed. 31, 65 (2009)

33
• Survival and success in science requires skills beyond
those needed for science.
• You are your own manager/agent.
=> Learn the skills for that role.
• Know Thyself!
• Plan well ahead (Know the game!)
• Find and use a mentor
• ‘Play Chess’ (anticipate the other players!)
• Peer review (referees and the process)
• Conferences, Talks, Impact Judging
• Publishing, not perishing
• Ethics
• Jobs, how to get them
• Getting money for your Science
Theme
Overview:

34
The goals of a scientist
• Don’t continue doing science
unless you have a goal…!!
• My goal is to unravel the
mysteries of nature.
• “Physics” comes from the
Greek Φύσις = Nature
• Have you ever asked yourself this basic question:
• Why do you want to be a scientist?
• What are your goals?
• Goals are personal and subjective.
• Be very clear what your goals are.

35
Challenges
• Doing science is about facing challenges,
learning new things almost on a daily basis,
stretching your mind and your creativity
• Challenge yourself – change perspective
• Challenge your data and your methodologies
• Challenge your collaborators, colleagues and
competitors, but always constructively …!
Galileo Galilei

Opportunities = Information

37
Ethics
• What is meant by scientific ethics?
• The pressure of scientific publishing can tempt
people to cut corners in reporting. See below.
• Two examples from 2002 in the physics community:
Schön and Ninov; 2005-2006: cloning fraud in Korea
• Some types of behavior are considered unethical.
Examples include scientific fraud, falsifying data,
plagiarism, misrepresentation of data, multiple
publications of the same set of results, abuses in
authorship, etc.

38
Know thyself !
• What are your goals?
• What is the best way to achieve them?
• What are you good at?
• What do you like doing?
• To be successful and happy, optimize what you
are good at with what you like doing, and apply
this towards your goals (sounds easy, but it
isn’t!)
• There is often more than one pathway to
success. Choose the path that is best for you.

39
Where do you find job opportunities?
• On the internet
• In broader scientific journals (Science, Nature…)
• Through personal contacts (networking)
• At Conferences
• Career fairs
Information = opportunities
Getting information from the internet is easy,
filtering is the tough part. To avoid being swamped,
filter efficiently and often!

40
First things first: plan ahead
• Scientific research: a world of opportunities
• What are you going to be doing tomorrow?
Next week? Next month? Next year? In ten years?
• The most ‘successful’ scientists are those who are able to
capitalize on opportunities as they occur.
• If you are always planning, this helps you to tune in on
opportunities, to ‘zoom in’ on them as they present
themselves and to seize them.
• Plan for short term, medium term, long term. Keep the
plans flexible, but plan.
• Planning ahead? Why bother?

41
Never be afraid of applying!
• Rejections are part of life. Learn to accept them gracefully.
• You can’t win if you don’t play …!
• Assume you will be successful
• If you prepare your application well (for a job, a fellowship, a
grant, etc.), even if you don’t get it, you are investing time in
your career development
• It is a good way to hone your skills and there is almost no
application that cannot be recycled…!
• Academia (university professor, research professor,
research associate)
• Government Laboratories (staff scientist, technical staff,
research director, manager)
• Industrial Laboratories (staff scientist, technical staff,
manager)
What types of jobs are there?

42
The peer review system
• Like democracy: highly imperfect, yet it’s hard
to come up with a better system
• Can you protect yourself from ‘bad faith’ referees?
• Real life example
• ‘Good’ refereeing vs. ‘bad’ refereeing: constructive reviewing
• Why is refereeing generally anonymous?
• What is peer review, where is it used? (scientific journals,
funding agencies, sometimes foundations, etc.)
Feng Shui Meditation Exercise

43
the job market
• Academia:
• The setting students know
best, since they ‘grow up’ in
it
• Emphasis on ‘scholarly’
activities, e.g. publishing in
peer–reviewed scientific
journals
• Job description includes
research, teaching and
service
• Advantages:
– Academic freedom:
the right to choose your
projects (as long as you
get them funded…!)
– Tenure: the best form
of job security
– Flexible hours
– Long vacations if you
want (some take the
whole summer off…!)
• Government
Laboratories:
• The job description is
simple
• A government lab is a
managed environment
(hierarchical, top down)
• Managed environment:
the objectives come from
the top, from the
managers
• You work with others
towards common goals
• Often the focus is on
applied research, e.g. to
support industry in specific
sectors
• Each lab has a specific
mandate, or goal
• There is *no* teaching
• Industrial
Laboratories:
• An industrial lab is a
managed environment
(top down)
• The emphasis is
usually on applied
research
• Publishing and
attending conferences
may be rare, even
discouraged (industrial
secrecy)
• In an R&D setting, the
emphasis may be on
development (rather
than research)
• Objectives may change
rapidly, with little time
to adjust
• The ultimate objective
(of the company) is to
*make money*

44
A few tips on presenting to an audience
• Don’t try their patience!
• Don’t go over time (never ever…!)
• Rehearse in front of a ‘friendly’ audience, and use
their (hopefully constructive) criticism to improve
your presentation (both content and form)
• Prepare backup slides for questions that come
repeatedly
• (15 ways…)

45
Publishing: A few tips
• Quality rather than quantity, in the best journals that your
work deserves. (Best means high-impact, i.e., highly cited
journals, e.g., Nature, Science, Phys. Rev. Lett., J. Am.
Chem. Soc. etc.)
• Read your MS as if you were a referee and thus try to
forestall objections before the referee can make them.
• Work hard on the clarity, using colleagues not too familiar
with the work as ‘friendly’ referees. Use quite a few simple
summary sentences to keep the reader on track.
• Avoid publishing in conference proceedings. Put the
material into refereed journals and refer to the conference
stuff in your un-refereed proceedings etc., so as not to
double-publish. (With conferences often on CDs who
knows what accessibility will be).

46
Other career paths (phase II, after tenure)
• Becoming an administrator (turning to the dark side)
– [someone once said, you become an administrator when
you run out of ideas]
– Three reasons for becoming an administrator:
• Change of career
• Anyone else who takes the position will do a much worse job
and it will backfire
• You have a vision you want to push forward, and taking control
is the only way to implement your vision
• Starting your own company/commercializing your
work
– Entrepreneurial spirit
– After having transformed money into knowledge, wants
to transform knowledge into money
– Capable of developing and protecting IP

47
Examples of Industrial Labs
• Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies) in Murray Hill, NJ
• IBM (International Business Machines): Almaden
(CA), Yorktown Heights (NY), Rueshlikon
(Switzerland)
• HP (Hewlett Packard): Palo Alto
• Xerox Research Center
• NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph), Japan
• Haldor Topsoe (Denmark)
• Philips (the Netherlands)

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