Two days in a row I’ve had someone stroll into my office assuming I’m an admin for the PI next door. No, I do not work for Dr Margolis. No, I don’t work for another PI. I am a PI. Adjust your expectations of what a faculty member looks like.
The beginning of grad school is an optimal chance to admit your ignorance and say “I don’t know about that... tell me more!” or “Can you point me to a good review on the subject?” Pretending to know things you don’t is a pretty sure way to fail.
A thought for those of you heading off to start grad school: You may feel the need to posture in front of your new colleagues to show how awesome you already are. Get over that impulse and find people with whom you can share feelings of how lost and overwhelmed you all will be.
Updated office sign. 🤩 Huge thanks to all who contributed to the lab over the years. Especially Liz, Kousik, PJ, Selam, Allison, Chris, Jordan, Erika, Wanda, Trung, Isaac, & Dezmond 🥰. Grateful to my colleagues & mentors here and beyond. And I wouldn’t be here w out
@ekreils
.
The gay straight alliance at my son’s middle school just put up a bulletin board of “LGBTQIA+ Scientists Then and Now” and included me. My initial reactions are 🥰, 🙌🏻, and I-have-no-right-being-up-there-next-to-Carolyn-“Nobel”-Bertozzi. But mostly 🥰 and 🙌🏻.
Too many bad mentors are allowed to continue recruiting (and often irreparably hurting) students/PDs without consequences. Mentee letters should be required for promotion, tenure, awards. Requires a culture change where we value mentoring, service, RCR as much as flashy pubs.
Some good news to share: we've been awarded a MIRA from the NIGMS to continue our work on bacterial cell division and growth regulation! Here's to 5 more years of discovery!! Huge thanks to my awesome trainees past and present for making the science happen!!🍾
Tried a new meeting format today. Each lab member had to give a short chalk talk proposing experimental follow ups to the lab meeting one lab member presented yesterday. It. Was. Awesome. We spent 2 hours digging deep and focusing on one person’s project.
#BmoMunchyFridays
14 years *legally* married as of yesterday, thanks to some nice SF City Hall employees who called us to recommend we move our wedding up to *before* Election Day, when voters indeed blocked same sex marriage in CA back in 2008.
10 years ago, this awesome human made me a mom, almost exactly 11 hours after I submitted my major postdoc paper. Don’t let anyone tell you having kids will make you a less productive scientist; if anything it’s made me more productive and brought so much joy. Happy bday Beck!!
Hey y’all, my phenomenal wife
@ekreils
left a sweet gig w the SF Giants when we moved to Bmore and stayed home w our kids, keeping our lives running while I did my thing at Hopkins for the last 10 years. Please help me wish her a FANTASTIC 1st day back to work in a decade!!!
What are the chances
#LGBTQSTEMDay
would fall on the 23rd anniversary of my being in love w
@ekreils
? Well, it’s happened. Happy 🏳️🌈🧬🔬🧪day all y’all!
Celebrated 10 years of the Goley and Margolis labs this evening. So lucky to have been hired with my buddy
@seth_margolis
and to have benefited from his friendship and support for the last 10 years. Here to the next 10! 🥂
Oh friends. I'm so excited for this: Save the date for a brand new GRC on Bacterial Cell Biology and Development. June 20-25, 2021. Huge thanks to co-chair Mark Buttner for getting this going. Excited to work with him,
@BrownlabMizzou
&
@fleshball
to make this happen! Pls RT!
The LGBTQ+ Keynote 🏳️🌈at
#cellbio2022
will be given by Erin Goley,
@goleylab
Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
@BCMB_JHMI
Congratulations!
🏆
NOA!! 🍾 Nice way to start the month... we're excited to be awarded an R21 from NIAID to support the work initiated by
@W_Melz
in the lab to understand morphogenesis of the obligate intracellular pathogen (and alphaproteobacterium) Rickettsia parkeri!!
I’ve been in the lab a lot this week and my students told me today it’s like having a new postdoc... I seem to know what I’m doing technically but I have no idea where anything is.
At the playground and my 5 yo just said “Mommy, do you want to go on the swings and talk about what we like about ourselves?” Why yes, yes I do. 😂
#DailyAffirmations
About a year ago my department starting having 15 minute chalk talks at the end of every faculty meeting. I gave one last week and am still riding the high of fantastic exchange of ideas and excitement for a new project in the lab. Highly recommend doing this in your department!
Reviewing grad apps it warms my microbiologist heart to see so many applicants (most not interested in micro for PhD) describe phage hunting in HS or undergrad as the moment that inspired them to pursue a life of scientific discovery. Keep it up phage hunters!
I did my postdoc at Stanford, yet they solicit “Ms. Erin Goley” for money for the Med Fund. I’m not normally a stickler for titles, but I’d be willing to bet they address their MDs appropriately.
Yes! I am a very
#happyfemalePI
! I love my science and my lab, and I love my wife and two kids (and spend lots of time with them). Fortunate to be at an institution with role models like
@madamscientist
and where being a whole person with non-science interests too is valued!
A long time ago, I made a conscious decision to pack as many wonderful experiences into my one life. While my primary identity is as a scientist, I chose to be a mom, daughter and wife, a traveler, gardener, writer, cook and more. Passionate about it all.
#happyfemalePI
Y'all. The Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at Hopkins has just opened a cluster hire. Open to all areas of biological discovery science, with the opportunity to join one (or more) of the 9 IBBS departments. DM me if you have questions! Join us!! Please RT.
Cluster Hires
@JHUSOM
!
💠Four tenure-track Assistant Professor slots
💠Open area search in biological discovery sciences
💠Focus on faculty diversity
💠Applications invited from broad and diverse pool of early career researchers
🙏🏿 Please RT! 🙏🏿
More:
I'm pleased to join the editorial board of
@MBoCjournal
as an associate editor. Send us your latest work for fast, constructive, and fair peer review. That includes you, my bacterial and archaeal cell biologist friends.
I’m feeling Pride more keenly this year than I have since I first came out... Is it the light at the end of the long pandemic tunnel? The general feeling of relief that came w Biden’s election? Dunno. But I plan to rainbow the shit out of everything this month.
Annnnnnd we have amazing confirmed speakers and discussion leaders for the 2021 GRC on Bacterial Cell Biology and Development! I can't wait for this conference. 1/
Dr. Anthony Fauci lays out three ways future scientific communicators can build trust:
1) Always go by the data
2) Admit when you don't know something
3) The goal is not to show how smart you are. It's to get people to understand what you're talking about.
#FauciAtYale
Usual reaponse is “But you look too young to be a PI”. I’m 42, but thanks? I’m thinking I need to grow a beard. My neighbor is about my age and is never asked if he works for Dr Goley. But he has a beard so...
Y'ALL. The time has come. Registration is NOW OPEN for the 2023 Bacterial Cell Biology and Development
@GordonConf
. I'm thinking we're going to be oversubscribed, so get your applications in and register early. We've got amazing speakers and discussion leaders confirmed! 1/5
Such an honor to be highlighted! I’ve been impacted by the work WICB does to support the careers of women (and everyone really) in cell bio from my earliest days as a baby cell biologist attending my first
@ASCBiology
meeting. Thank you!!
#WICB50
This week's
#WICB50
highlight is Prof. Erin Goley
@goleylab
of
@HopkinsMedicine
. Erin is well recognized for her research on bacterial cell division and growth, and her contributions as a council member, mentor, and advocate for DEI efforts at ASCB.
I'm so honored to be among this group. Thanks to
@ASCBiology
for being my scientific home, inspiration, and community for almost 25 years. Congratulations to all the other Fellows, and special congrats to my
@JohnsHopkins
colleague Mike Matunis.
Time for a few days of rest and celebration with my kids and wife. Kicking it off with a fireside old fashioned (w Smitten Kitchen Winter Warmth syrup). Happy, healthy holidays all. And stay home.
I was super fortunate to have several openly gay faculty to look up to when I started grad school at
@berkeleyMCB
, including
@CarolynBertozzi
. Massive thanks to them for making my way easier.
Daily dose of 🌈 for the last day of
#Pride2023
. No actual rainbow in the pic but a lotta super gay love. With my best girl
@ekreils
(22 years and counting). Happy Pride y’all! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Let's try this again, shall we? Excited for the *2022* Plant and Microbial Cytoskeleton
@GordonConf
next August. We have an amazing set of speakers and discussion leaders and the GRC will be preceded by an inaugural GRS for trainees! Check it out! Montage image by
@KatrinaVelle
.
I never almost quit, but the must-be-in-lab-constantly mentality and imposter syndrome kept me at a fairly high basal stress level in GS. I credit my non-scientist wife w making sure I had a fairly normal lab schedule. And my supportive PI who valued productivity over hours.
I almost quit because of the culture of pathological overwork! Luckily I just decided to try to get through without working crazy hours (and had a PI who was okay with that), and I managed to do okay anyway. Trying really hard to fight this in my lab now....
Just sitting outside, enjoying our new yard lights, listening to the insects and other evening sounds, drinking a cocktail and pretending not to check election results every thirty seconds.
Parents, can we just agree our kids don’t need smartphones til they’re 13? This recurring debate w my 6th grader is getting really tiresome. The social argument is breaking my heart.
Paper acceptance bubbles!! Congrats to
@esmit191
on acceptance of her first first-author paper! Erika’s persistence and rigor on this project were 🌟! Congrats Erika!!!
#proudPI
I remember hearing
@CarolynBertozzi
give a seminar when I was a 1st year PhD student at Berkeley and having my mind completely blown. So fantastic to hear this! (And another ✅ for LGBTQ+ Nobel laureates! 🏳️🌈)
BREAKING NEWS:
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2022
#NobelPrize
in Chemistry to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.”
Celebrating my last “acceptance day” as BCMB admissions director. Very, very excited for the awesome cohort coming to
@BCMB_JHMI
this August. And very, very excited to pass the baton on running this show. Cheers!
🚨🚨🚨Calling all
#BacterialCellBiology
enthusiasts. The inaugural Bacterial Cell Biology and Development GRC
@GordonConf
is ON for June 4-9, 2023. Stay tuned for more details! 🎉🎉🎉
Are you or someone you know applying to biomedical PhD programs this fall? Join me and others from
@BCMB_JHMI
at
@JohnsHopkins
@HopkinsMedicine
for our virtual info sessions on the BCMB program, Hopkins, Baltimore, and admissions. Register here: . Pls RT.
Of course we had to make a bacterial version of
@SammyKatta
's fantastic poster. Check out her posters, take the pledge, download your own, and walk the walk: .
4.5 years ago Mark Buttner emailed me asking if I'd be interested in co-chairing a new GRC on Bacterial Cell Biology and Development. In 19 days we FINALLY get to actually do it. I can't overstate how excited I am to see this thing happen! 🥳🥳🥳 1/
🚨🚨🚨Calling all
#BacterialCellBiology
enthusiasts. The inaugural Bacterial Cell Biology and Development GRC
@GordonConf
is ON for June 4-9, 2023. Stay tuned for more details! 🎉🎉🎉
Most inappropriate: after mentioning my wife and toddler son at dinner on an interview visit, a faculty member (apparently baffled by how two women could have a child) asked “Huh? Were you married to a man before?” 🤦♀️
Today is my mom’s 70th birthday. She’s the hardest working, most generous person I know. Oldest of 8 siblings, mom to 6 kids, always taking care of everyone but herself. I am who I am because of her. Happy birthday Mom!
Great advice 👇🏻on interviews for (bio) PhD programs and close to how I interview. I’d add that I will tell you a bit about my research. I don’t expect you to have read papers from my lab or to ask questions at the level of a peer in my field. I’m looking for... 1/
It’s the season for grad school interviews. I’ve been doing these a couple years now (for a few different programs), and in the interest of dismantling the hidden curriculum, here’s how I’d interview you and what I’d look for: 1/
Bright moment in science today: postdoc
@W_Melz
received news her first fellowship app was recommended for funding!!! So excited to see where her project goes!!!
#proudPI
🍾🎉
Proud to be on Team
#LGBTscience
. I’m a bacterial cell biologist, a wife, and a mom. Lucky to have
@ekreils
by my side through my whole journey in academic science.
#twoerins
TFW you’ve married your wife so many times you don’t remember all your anniversaries (same sex couples who went thru domestic partnership, state recognized marriage, and federally recognized marriage know what I’m talking about). Happy CA-legal anniversary
@ekreils
! Maybe?
My family and I happened to be pulling into the parking lot at Ft McHenry (site of the battle that inspired the Star Spangled Banner) when we heard the election was called for Biden. Feeling pretty patriotic. 🇺🇸
Pretty sure every time
@MattWelchLab
has seen me give a talk since I left his lab he’s asked a question and started with some variation of “I’m proud of you.” It’s a little thing that means a whole lot.
Interested in a multidisciplinary biomedical PhD program? Register to attend a Virtual Info Session to learn about the
@BCMB_JHMI
program at
@JohnsHopkins
@HopkinsMedicine
. Chat with me, our Program Coordinator Ericka Diaz, and current students! Please RT.
The
@BCMB_JHMI
program at Johns Hopkins will not require the GRE for application to the program beginning this year. BCMB joins Hopkins Neuro, CMM, and PMB in making the GRE optional.
#GRExit
Officially on vacation for two weeks plus a couple days. Haven’t taken this much consecutive time off since starting my lab in 2011 and I am SO EXCITED.
Feeling very grateful for another year around the sun with my beautiful family and fantastic friends, amazing lab, stellar colleagues, and wonderful scientific community. 🥰🥰🥰