Oral Observations: Mentoring

I chose to work with Sarah Gaffen because our research interests coincided. It was very apparent that she is a very good scientist and is very interested in teaching students how to become scientists. That includes how to critically evaluate papers, other people’s research, how to write grants, how to think about experiments and how to design experiments and also to have a good foundation of knowledge regarding my field. She is very open to suggestions, proposals for experiments. She respects my opinions and suggestions, but at the same time she is very careful to keep me grounded and focused.