Revision as of 19:12, 22 December 2016

General lab rules and practices Related to the experimental labs • Handle equipment with care! There is about $1M worth of equipment in the lab! • Experiments are only to be carried out after explicit approval of your supervisor! • After experiments, the lab should be left the way you would like to find it, i.e. clean and in order. Even if you are the only one running experiments! Also, please lock all windows / doors! • Make sure there are no cables, electronics, computers or power bars on the floor! We have had floods in the past and we should always minimize all tripping, electrocution, and other hazards! • Please make sure that there are always enough lab supplies available (e.g. disposable electrodes, bite bar cement, etc). Orders can take a while to arrive. Notify your supervisor when you can anticipate running out. • Do not handle food / beverages around lab equipment other than the computers. Related to research • Write an abstract BEFORE even starting a project! • Always adhere to the highest ethical and research standards in the field. You are responsible for your research! • Back up your data frequently! Always imagine you could lose all of your data / work today! • Communicate with your peers: if you have a question, it’s likely someone else in the lab has already solved it • Communicate often with your supervisor! Related to paper writing • (Re-) write the abstract first! • Make use of the resources on the wiki! (e.g. CCC, Konrad’s writing advice) • Make figures and an outline with the logic and chain of arguments first and get feedback from your supervisor! • NEW: once the first draft is written, we will finalize it together! I.e. we will sit together in front of a computer and work on it together to maximize learning! Conferences • Conferences are a reward of good work! • The goal is for everyone to attend at least 1 conference / year. • The condition to attend a conference is that you must have NEW material to present! • Conference abstracts are NOT written in the 11th hour! Your supervisor will pull the plug if that happens and you don’t get to go! • Keep conference costs at a minimum! The less it costs, the more money is available for research / other conferences. Your supervisor will give you a budget for each conference that is not to be exceeded. • Conferences are an amazing learning experience! Take fully advantage of them!