TRAINING

Leadership statement

Working in academia includes not only research but also education. I recognized that the field of cancer research was in its infancy with respect to understanding how membrane trafficking is dysregulated in cancer and that an improved understanding of these mechanisms will provide a foundation for novel therapeutic strategies designed to prevent metastasis in cancer patients. Understanding the basis of science is equally important to practically applying it. Nevertheless, none of this can be continued without well-trained budding scientists. I will focus on developing students’/trainees’ creativity, abilities of active learning and logical thinking, and independence. Consequently, they can learn continuously and solve problems either in academia or industry in the cancer biology field.

The style of my lab will be essentially free. Students/trainees who are interested in our research topics, willing to do experiments, willing to collaborate, and share ideas are more than welcome to join my lab. My plans for the students/trainees working in my lab are as follows:

  1. Developing hands-on experience: Experimental skills are not learned in class but are gained practically by the researchers. Students/trainees will learn to master and develop assays to test hypotheses for their own projects.

  2. The capability of proposing a project: Students/trainees are free to propose new projects related to the main focus in the lab. I will encourage students/trainees to prepare grant applications and work together with them because I believe this is great training for their career development.

  3. The ability to conduct a project: Students/trainees will learn to tackle the problem of their projects and solve it on their own. I will encourage them to communicate and discuss their projects more with other group members than with me. I will always follow up on their work with minimum interference.

  4. Documentation and presentation: Skills in the documentation must be well-trained. All details of lab work should be well documented and shared in the lab. The experimental log is necessary. Lab meetings and departmental WIPS/seminars would be great opportunities for students/trainees to develop their presentation skills. I will always check their presentations and articles before submitting them to a conference or a journal, in a one-to-one manner.

  5. Collaboration ability: Our research projects will need to collaborate with experts from different fields. I have many experiences in building collaborations and I will help students/trainees to do it. I will also encourage students/trainees to work as a team in the lab.

  6. Attending scientific conferences: I will be more than happy to support students/trainees attending (international) conferences. It is very beneficial to the students/trainees to establish their own connections.

  7. Persistence and perseverance: The often overlooked truth is that the majority of research has no known answers. I have seen students/trainees never understand this point and they lose the motivation of doing research. This is also the reason I emphatically would like to help students/trainees to develop creativity and abilities of active learning, independent and logical thinking. Because those skills really motivate students/trainees to find the answers. I will emphasize this philosophy and hopefully stimulate students/trainees and myself to work together as a team to drive our research projects.

In summary, I believe that good education makes good scientific research and good industrial development. My previous experiences have built my confidence and have supported my interest in teaching and mentoring.