Description
The paradox of being an independent principal investigator is that you are not hired based on the needs of this role but based on your postdoctoral accomplishments. While it makes sense to put science first, our training often does not reflect the challenges we face in an independent role. Personnel management, budgeting, time management, the myriad service requests, and the ever-important writing of grants and acquisition of external money: these are all critical parts of being an independent leader of a laboratory and member of an academic faculty. Moreover, the starting itself has many challenges, and advice is often easy to get by but tinted with hindsight and ascertainment biases. The goal of this panel is to bring together junior faculty that are currently or have recently undergone this challenge and mentors of such faculty to provide perspective, insights into challenges that might not be obvious when one starts this process, and highlight strategies to tackle this exciting challenge.
