Ben Garcia @GarciaLabMS Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Ben Garcia

@GarciaLabMS

16,664

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Professor and Head. Studying protein PTMs in chromatin biology. #TeamMassSpec cheerleader. Working towards changing academia. Views my own 🇺🇸🇲🇽

St. Louis, MO

https://t.co/WQO6DscKXz

Joined February 2020

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@GarciaLabMS

Ben Garcia

4 years

Thrilled to share that I will be moving in summer 2021 to become the next Head of the Dept of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. Excited to make an impact with this new leadership position!

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Garcia to head Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics | Washington University School...

Renowned biochemist known for contributions to field of epigenetics

medicine.wustl.edu

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@GarciaLabMS

Ben Garcia

6 months

To PIs. Your legacy won’t be your pubs or awards, people will forget those. Even many Nobel prize winners are forgotten eventually. Your legacy will be the people you trained. Mentor, support and treat them with respect, so they can continue to be good leaders to future trainees.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

It’s been nearly 15 year of having the privilege to lead my own research group. In this time I’ve had many wonderful scientists pass through. I’ve learned a lot about not just leading a group, but also being a good mentor to younger scientists. While I have not always made 1/

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Ben Garcia

1 year

Talking with a postdoc candidate last week. She was interested in the lab, but I was sensing maybe on the fence. The last thing she asked me was what my lab philosophy is? I didn’t hesitate to say “People over projects, always”. She emailed a signed offer letter an hour later.

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Ben Garcia

1 year

You can be a rigorous scientist and a good person. These don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

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Ben Garcia

11 months

You can absolutely love your research work, be great at it, and NOT work nights or weekends. Taking care of your mental wellness is crucial for being productive over a long period.

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Ben Garcia

2 months

To all PIs that will be accusing students of using AI for grad applications, I hope you have concrete evidence of this. The stakes are too high to go on suspicions.

@ValerioCapraro

Valerio Capraro

@ValerioCapraro

2 months

To all prospective PhD students of the world: If you generate your research statement using chatGPT, your grade will be 0, and you will not be invited to the interview. So, please save your and the committee's time.

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Ben Garcia

3 years

Our junior faculty search committee has decided on the top 6 candidates to invite for in person interviews. Here are the questions we asked in the Zoom interviews. These are similar to what most places ask from what I gather, but wanted to post these to help anyone about to 1/

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Ben Garcia

2 months

Being resilient should not have to be a major trait for having a career in academia.

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Ben Garcia

3 years

Chair of graduate admissions for a long time, and I've seen many great candidates not do well on grad school interviews, especially URMs. Here are some thoughts I have on this to hopefully help those interviewing this year. 1/

@ADiaz_PhD

Dr. Arnaldo Díaz

3 years

Grad School interviews are around the corner. Colleagues, let’s share some advice for all candidates interviewing this season. What’s your #1 piece of advice? @jenheemstra @phdgprotein86 @Shoba_Bio @NLundsteen @FromPhDtoLife

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Ben Garcia

10 months

Update on the @WUSM_BMB junior faculty search. We received 135 applications, and had an 11 member search committee go through them all. Each application was read by 3 faculty and scored. We then selected 14 for Zoom interviews and sent them the questions below ahead of time. 1/

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Gave the Annual "State of the Lab" presentation to my lab this week. We went over everything from finances (grants and expenditures), collaborations, future needs for the lab, and vision for the next years. It was really a fantastic discussion with everyone. Highly recommend!

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Ben Garcia

1 year

Pedro Pascal as a mass spectrometer. #TeamMassSpec

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Ben Garcia

2 years

My take on the decreasing postdoc crisis in academia. We need to: 1. pay postdocs much better. 2. provide a much better supportive environment and remove any abusers. 3. enhance support for all career paths. NIH, how about a K99 fellows transition to industry award program?

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Dear 1st year grad students. Ask your rotation PI if they think academia is a calling. If yes, keep rotating.

@NAChristakis

Nicholas A. Christakis

2 years

Graduate students are primarily students and trainees, not ordinary workers. Academia is a calling. I suspect unionization will tip the balance so faculty prefer, at the margin, to hire post-docs to do research in their labs rather than students.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Happy international Day of Women in Science!

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Ben Garcia

1 year

“RNA-Seq is the way to go for measuring protein expression, much better than using mass spec based proteomics…”

@memechaotic

chaotic memes

1 year

What is he saying?

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Still can’t believe this is real life. It’s been a long way from that kid that failed HS chemistry and went through a community college. Thank you to all the people along the way who supported and mentored me.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

I really wish the NIH would vastly increase their postdoc salary levels. Reason is that many institutions look to NIH and set their policies for postdoc salaries according to that yearly scale. Even though the NIH scale is a "minimum" scale, it tends to be looked at as the 1/2

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Ben Garcia

3 months

Finding a stable position in the US is a dream for many scientists. I'm happy to assist outstanding international scientists by providing support for Green Card applications. Glad to write positive letters as long as I either know you, or know any of your previous supervisors.

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Ben Garcia

10 months

Several people have reached out about my slides for my annual "State of the Lab" talk I give to my lab that I mentioned. This can help everyone understand more about running a lab, esp good for those that aspire to be a PI. If interested, see this link:

@GarciaLabMS

Ben Garcia

10 months

Everyone on the OP arguing about the numbers, but the point is that the cost of students, PDs and staff are things that everyone wanting to be a PI should know. Towards this, I give a yearly State of the Lab talk to my group that goes over the costs of running our research lab.

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Ben Garcia

1 year

One question I often get from people wanting to join my lab, is about the what the work-life balance for those in my lab looks like? I tell them that I feel this is important so that people don't burn out or get stressed, so I leave it up to everyone to determine what that 1/

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Students, scientists, take the weekend off from experiments. Take a break and enjoy the weekend. It will all be waiting for you on Monday!

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Ben Garcia

3 years

So we are about to have our 6 junior faculty candidates begin to come in for in person interviews. I sent them this email below to give them an idea of what to expect, and some info/tips for the interview. One of the most important parts of the interview is the chalk talk 1/

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Ben Garcia

1 year

When I started as a PI, I was advised to hire postdocs from smaller vs larger labs. Smaller lab grads have to do everything for themselves and don't have lab technicians, bioinformaticians, and all the resources in the world to perform and outsource exps. What do you think?

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Ben Garcia

2 years

I failed Chemistry my junior year in HS. ~10 years later I would earn a PhD in Chemistry. No single low point in your life should completely define who you are.

@gauravsabnis

Gaurav Sabnis

2 years

Flex your lowest academic low score. To remind us that almost everyone fails at some point in life but it isn't the end of the road. Just a memory in the end. Mine was 27/100 in Engineering Math 2, just a year after I'd scored 99 in 12th boards. Much needed kick in my butt.

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Ben Garcia

1 year

Congrats to all the NSF GFRP awardees! But I also want to say to all the students that were not awarded this fellowship, it will not define you or your career to not get this fellowship. I was not awarded this NSF GRFP, an NIH K99, my first R01 application, and many other 1/

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Just a cautionary reminder to those applying to grad school soon. When asking your references for letters of support, please ask them if they can write you a "strong" letter. You'd be surprised how many weak letters are included, or even letters where it is clear the writer 1/

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Ben Garcia

3 years

To all those students interviewing for grad school and soon getting rejections, it will hurt, but its not the end of the world. I went 0/6 my first year applying, and 2/5 my second year. Fast forward, I am currently the Chair of the historic @WUSM_BMB dept. Life surprises! 1/

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Recently received some unrestricted funds back from an incentive program here. While I could have it go towards research related expenses, etc., I decided to use it to give end of the year salary bonuses to my lab members. They deserve it, as they drive all the discoveries 1/

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Ben Garcia

2 years

She’s a 10, but she keeps calling it “Mass spectroscopy”. 😝

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Ben Garcia

1 year

A student just emailed me about our histone MS protocols and wanting to know which of our pubs to start off with. I replied and had my lab manager just send her our internal SOP. If anyone asks you for help or old data, don't ignore or just say read our pubs. Go the extra mile.

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Ben Garcia

5 months

This isn’t terrible news. Until we can pay and treat our postdocs better, they should go find the other great opportunities out there.

@NewsfromScience

News from Science

@NewsfromScience

5 months

New data released by the U.S. National Science Foundation underscore concerns that the academic community is facing a postdoc shortage and that early-career scientists are increasingly favoring higher paid positions outside academia. @ScienceCareers

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Ben Garcia

8 months

Personally for me, the best part of this job is getting an email from a younger scientist asking for advice or help. While we are all busy, this is why I do what I do, to help those coming up after me. Let's not pull the ladder up behind us.

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Ben Garcia

1 year

If you are leading a lab, I would highly recommend that you have your lab members fill out a yearly individual development plan. This can help your lab members plan goals for the year, not only in research, but especially for their career development. 1/2

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Ben Garcia

1 year

IMO a postdoc should not last longer than 4 years. If a PD still wants to stays after that for any reason, a promotion to a permanent position or Instructor position should be on the table to allow for career progression.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Check out our newest publication on how our microbiome affects histone acetylation!

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Ben Garcia

11 months

Postdocs sacrifice a lot in their lives. This article lays out some of the issues. PIs out there, please do all you can to treat them with respect, pay them well and help them in their career journeys.

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Falling behind: postdocs in their thirties tire of putting life on hold

Nature - Temporary contracts, low salaries and cost-of-living hikes force many researchers to put off parenthood and other big decisions.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

1st round junior faculty virtual interviews will be starting soon (or have started). Some institutions may give their candidates questions ahead of time, but some don't. Here are some questions we used in the past. Please pass these around to anyone who you think can benefit 1/2

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Ben Garcia

10 months

Glad that I will be able to again give end of the year bonuses to my lab members this year. I know not all faculty have the ability to do this, so thankful I can. One tip, plan early so $$ makes it to their last paycheck of the year. My lab is full of the most incredible people!

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Ben Garcia

3 months

I've had a few requests lately, so putting it out here again. Over the last few years, I have started giving a yearly "State of the Presentation" to my lab group. This allows them to see what it takes to run a research lab, in many aspects from financial to also management 1/

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Ben Garcia

2 years

One thing I wished I did different as a grad student was work on a better work-life balance. Its so much harder now to do this as you progress through your career stages, esp as a PI. Young scientists out there, prioritize your health/happiness and set work-life balances now.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

I just received the US HUPO Lightning Talk Award for today, maybe I should be rapping my science talks more often. I honestly think this is the first honor I have ever been awarded for a scientific presentation in my life. This is going on my CV! @us_hupo

@JoBBurt

Jordan B. Burton (@jobburt.bsky.social)

2 years

@GarciaLabMS just killed it with his histone rap

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Ben Garcia

2 years

To the PIs out there (and beginning and aspiring PIs), please, please don't be like this 🫤

@chem_christian

Christian Seitz

@chem_christian

2 years

Wow Erik it really sounds like you don't realize that students need to publish a thesis and pass departmental exams to graduate. If they don't do this they will be fired. Oh wait - you already told your new students to compete and that you'd fire the losers. nvm @UCSDChemBiochem

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Ben Garcia

11 months

A Nobel prize winner to her former institution, tenure committees, journal editors, study sections and funding agencies.

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Ben Garcia

3 years

Hey #TeamMassSpec , sneak peak at the newly completed WashU Mass Spectrometry Technology Access Center. Space and funds to house 20+ MS instruments, and you can see all the ion benches we have ready for them. #MidwestMS bulking up!

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Ben Garcia

3 years

To all those graduate students, medical students, postdocs and residents trying to balance their careers and family life, just know you are all incredible and doing the best for your families. I had two kids in graduate school, added a third during my postdoc, and a 4th as an 1/

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Ben Garcia

1 year

Back to the bench! It’s nice to get back in the trenches again.

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Ben Garcia

5 months

Congrats to all those students out there accepting their admissions offers to graduate school today. To those that didn't get any offers, hang in there. I was not accepted to any of the grad schools I applied to the first time around, and only accepted to 2 out of 6 the second 1/

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Ben Garcia

1 year

#postdoc is trending. Just wanted to come to say that postdocs are such an important part of any lab. They are making so many personal sacrifices to do what they do. Please treat them well, make them feel appreciated, and pay them well to live without any worries.

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Ben Garcia

3 years

So saddened to see all this tragedy unfold before our very eyes. If there is any grad student or postdoc from a Ukrainian institution that could benefit from doing an internship in my lab at the Washington University School of Medicine, please reach out (DM or by email at 1/

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Ben Garcia

4 months

Was told last year that I wouldn’t be included on a multi-PI grant renewal because there wouldn’t be as much proteomics needed anymore. Now getting all sorts of requests from PI and her group to run all sorts of samples. 🫠

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Ben Garcia

10 months

PIs should shrink your lab size so you can pay your lab personnel higher salaries.

@ScientistsLift

Scientists Who Lift

@ScientistsLift

10 months

What unpopular academia opinion would get you in this situation?

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Ben Garcia

4 years

Latest in summer fashion. Garcia Lab masks. We stylin' in Philly.

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Ben Garcia

2 months

Some confusion on this OP, I get that, my post was short. However, if the first or only thing that you think of when you see “resilient” is failed experiments or rejected grants/pubs, then you’ve probably not experienced the type of resilience in academia I am talking about.

@GarciaLabMS

Ben Garcia

2 months

Being resilient should not have to be a major trait for having a career in academia.

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Ben Garcia

1 year

So one of the things I am really happy with here that I never had before in my career, is that I am allowed to have an institutional credit card (Procard). I was able to pay up front for all travel and hotel charges for all of my lab members for a recent conference. Those are 1/2

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Ben Garcia

9 months

For those bringing in junior faculty candidates for in person visits, I hope you can offer childcare assistance. The last thing they need is to stress about things at home, while they interview with your institution. @WUSM_BMB will be offering this for all our faculty candidates.

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Ben Garcia

8 months

Had a really good interaction with an editor. Submitted a manuscript, got two reviews back. Reviewer 1 was reasonable in request for clarifications and few new minor experiments. Reviewer 2 asked for a ton of new major experiments that would take at least 6-9 months to 1/

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Excited to announce that I have just started as an Associate Editor for the @an_chem journal! Looking forward to getting #TeamMassSpec manuscripts sent my way. Will do my best to make sure you have a fair shake and give you a good experience submitting your best work to us!

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Ben Garcia

3 years

It’s not mass spectroscopy! It’s mass spectrometry!!

@AmymAisme

Amyish

3 years

Caption this

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Ben Garcia

3 years

Hoping this is a joke. Postdocs are amazing scientists that drive lab creativity and productivity. Even if they are learning new skills, or learning to be independent, they are not trainees. They deserve at the minimum a good living wage for where they live, and a ton of respect.

@sebatlab

Jonathan Sebat

3 years

Anyone who has been a young PI starting a new lab with postdoc hires that are coming from a wide variety of backgrounds with limited experience in YOUR field knows EXACTLY why they are called “trainees” and why they are not payed six figure salaries.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Such great news, I'm so excited! Jen and Ben at the same institution!! Looking forward to working with the amazing @jenheemstra to change academia, and train and support the next generation of scientists!

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@jenheemstra

Jen Heemstra

2 years

We’re moving! @HeemstraLab will be joining @WUSTL this summer, and I’m honored to serve as the next Dept Chair for @WashUChem . Beyond excited to lead and partner with amazing people to support and empower the next generation of science leaders!

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Ben Garcia

5 months

One of the best things about being an Editor is overruling aggressive reviewers who ask for too many things. Its one thing to ask for several clarifications to the manuscript to improve it, but asking for multiple new absolutely not needed experiments that will cost >10K, no way.

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Ben Garcia

1 year

I’m one of about 7 in my family’s entire lineage to have a bachelors degree, the only one with a PhD and the only scientist. Who else is a #FirstGen academic?

@ADiaz_PhD

Dr. Arnaldo Díaz

1 year

The journey is tough, but paving the way for others makes it worth it. Proud of all the #FirstGen college working tirelessly towards achieving their goals. Say 👋🏼 if you are First-Gen: Tag others. Follow each other. @MansaBarrie @GarciaLabMS @SunnyShinLab @KAlicea_PhD

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Ben Garcia

2 years

😬

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Ben Garcia

2 years

13. Above all, remember that you are here to mentor and guide them. They are not here to just work for you. Treat them with respect and be ready to help them in any way. PIs can be so influential and life changing for younger scientists, be that type of mentor. Let's go!! fin/

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Ben Garcia

1 year

Remembering the King of Chromatin today at Rockefeller University.

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Ben Garcia

1 year

A reminder to all PIs. If you give a "moving allowance" to your lab members when they join your lab, it is considered taxable income. Please if you are able, consider "grossing up" the amount, so that if you give say $1500, they actually get $1500 net. It will mean a lot to them

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Ben Garcia

2 years

A little over a month left before the deadlines for most graduate programs arrive, so I just wanted to reach out to all those undergrads who are currently applying (or will apply in the future) to lend some support and encouragement, and also provide some insight on the 1/

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Ben Garcia

30 days

Amazing. Imagine if academia was more like this.

@Olympics

The Olympic Games

1 month

This is everything.

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Ben Garcia

10 months

Everyone on the OP arguing about the numbers, but the point is that the cost of students, PDs and staff are things that everyone wanting to be a PI should know. Towards this, I give a yearly State of the Lab talk to my group that goes over the costs of running our research lab.

@pauldauenhauer

Paul J. Dauenhauer

@pauldauenhauer

10 months

How much does a graduate student cost per year? Salary: $35,793 Benefits + Tuition: $26,463 Supplies: $12,000 Travel: $3,000 Overhead: $42,491 Total: $119,747

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Update on our junior faculty search which this year is joint with the Siteman Cancer Center and the Dept of Cell Biology and Physiology. There were about 115 applications submitted, and each was read by a panel of six faculty and scored. The top 30 were then discussed in an in 1/

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Ben Garcia

9 months

Happy to announce that I have been selected to receive the 2024 Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS) Award for Outstanding Achievements in Mass Spectrometry. Such an honor for myself and really for my lab! @EASorg

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Ben Garcia

3 years

Holy double takes Batman! New R01 looks like it will get funded on this second submission (went from 26 to 6 percentile)!! Can't wait to really get going on this new line of research in the lab, neurodevelopment! @WUSM_BMB

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Ben Garcia

2 years

To all women, and especially our amazing women scientists: just know that you are respected, supported, and have many people that will fight for your rights and equality.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Can't believe I was named to the Elsevier/Stanford “World’s Top 2% Scientist List” that ranks 200,000 influential researchers worldwide in all fields along with #TeamMassSpec members @mjmaccoss @JohnRYatesIII @1jvaneyk @NLKProteomics @Coon_Labs and others

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Ben Garcia

8 months

Me after every NIH review cycle.

@spudbball

Spud 🏀

8 months

Cade Cunningham following 28 straight losses: "I've come to embrace a zen-like detachment. Victory and defeat, success and failure, these are transient states. What remains is the profound understanding of struggle, the beauty in persistence, and the subtle art of finding

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Ben Garcia

2 years

Thank you HUPO for the Discovery in Proteomic Science Award! @hupo_org

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Ben Garcia

1 year

Many students came up to me afterwards and told me that I must be so confident, as they never could do something like this. I told them that I am actually an introverted person. However, I decided to do this to not just have some fun, but also because I wanted to show 1/2

@JoBBurt

Jordan B. Burton (@jobburt.bsky.social)

2 years

@GarciaLabMS just killed it with his histone rap

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Ben Garcia

4 years

Delighted to announce that I have just been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). A wonderful honor. Looking forward to many new interactions. @RoySocChem

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Ben Garcia

2 years

If Twitter implodes, I'm just going back to actually getting work done.

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Ben Garcia

1 year

as someone who developed new mass spec approaches for analysis of protein/histone PTMs? That’s great, but I would rather want to be remembered as someone who worked hard to change academia for everyone, especially women, URMs and those marginalized in science. Make impact. fin/

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Ben Garcia

1 year

Pic of Dave Allis's Lab trainees and extended lab family from last week's celebration of Dave at Rockefeller Univ. Beyond the science, Dave was an outstanding mentor, not only to his own trainees, but the model that you don't have to be someone's direct PI to be a mentor. 1/

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Ben Garcia

7 days

No offense, but this is exactly the kind of mindset we need to change in academia for hiring, tenure, award, etc. reviews. There is great science outside CNS. Additionally, those journals favor the very well funded labs that can do all the exps reviewers request to get into them.

@ItaiYanai

Itai Yanai

8 days

Controversial opinion: while it’s popular to say we don’t need the glam journals, scientists aspire for recognition, like an actor aspires for an Oscar and a musician aspires for a Grammy. If Nature/Science/Cell is taken away, we would need some other way to recognise good work.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

I'm sorry #TeamMassSpec , but all this talk of leaving is BS. We built this community here and I'm staying. We need scientists on here to fight against the garbage that's coming. There are also still a lot of trainees on Twitter, and what kind of examples are we if we leave them?

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Ben Garcia

3 years

Makes me sick and sad that this type of thinking is still around academia. But at least everyone can see in a public forum what women and URMs have been facing in academia behind closed doors. Academia is long overdue for change. #WomenInSTEM

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Ben Garcia

1 year

Also to add that this is not only aimed solely at PIs. Any scientist can choose to be a good role model in the lab. You can discuss what make rigorous science, debate results, even argue about things, but no one should be belittling anyone to get their point across.

@GarciaLabMS

Ben Garcia

1 year

You can be a rigorous scientist and a good person. These don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

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Ben Garcia

4 months

IMO, mentoring is the most important aspect of being a PI. The impact will be felt long after people stop reading your pubs, and you may impact people you may never even meet. Happy to present @alexholehouse with the Dean’s Impact Award for mentoring last night.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

1. Encourage risk taking and making mistakes. I know this is hard, especially when you need data for pubs and grants, but its crucial for building independent scientists. You learn way more when you fail, so don't be afraid to encourage your students to try difficult things. 3/

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Ben Garcia

3 years

Our new lab space in @WUSM_BMB is almost complete and its looking incredible! The space was gut renovated, so we were able to design every little thing from the mass spec room to even having a break room in our lab space. So excited, we move in next month. Who wants to join us?!

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Ben Garcia

2 years

2. Regularly schedule individual and group meetings. Students need consistency, need frequent discussions and encouragement. The group needs to come together as well frequently to hear about research in the lab and see how everyone is working for the overall lab goal. 4/

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Ben Garcia

2 years

One of my postdocs has received his first two junior faculty offers! So proud and excited for him. Difficult decision for him coming up, and takes me back to those early years in my career. Its been a rough last 2 years with Covid and my lab move, so I am just thrilled.

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Ben Garcia

3 years

One more thing to mention is that we are allowing postdocs to sit in on the candidate chalk talk, and then they will have to follow up with a dept faculty member to discuss how they think the candidate did. I hope other institutions can think about doing this for their postdocs!

@GarciaLabMS

Ben Garcia

3 years

So we are about to have our 6 junior faculty candidates begin to come in for in person interviews. I sent them this email below to give them an idea of what to expect, and some info/tips for the interview. One of the most important parts of the interview is the chalk talk 1/

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Ben Garcia

1 year

Over the last 2 years, many people have asked me why did I want to become a Dept Head. They’ve said that my research is going so well, so why would I ever want to take on something like that at this point in my career? They even asked did I want to become a leader that bad? 1/

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Ben Garcia

11 months

Nice milestone today, publishing the 400 paper of my career. I’ve been so lucky to have had so many great lab members and collaborators over the years. Even more special as my daughter is one of the co-authors.

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Ben Garcia

1 year

From Dave Allis’s office, the Histone Code board. This should be in the Smithsonian.

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Ben Garcia

2 years

4. Let trainees take off the time they need to recharge and mentally reset when needed. Research is hard, life is harder. Everyone needs to rest and clear this minds, and de-stress. This is so much more important now as the pandemic has wrecked havoc on everyone's lives. 6/

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Ben Garcia

3 years

First day on the job as Head of the @WUSM_BMB Dept. New chapter for the Garcia Lab as the move to WashU has started!

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Ben Garcia

1 year

New besties in the Garcia Lab. 🤝 #TeamMassSpec

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Ben Garcia

3 years

@timgill924 I was going to "like" your post, but then noticed your H-index was much lower than mine. Please publish more and raise it, and then I will come back and like your post.😝BTW, your tweets are awesome, pure gold!

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