Our Team & Lab Culture

The success of everyone in our lab is your own success. You should support and assist others in publishing high-impact papers, and they will do the same. We should ask thoughtful, probing, and even critical questions of each other’s research, but never be critical of those who are presenting it. Science does not progress in isolation. While our team is part of our lab, our team also includes all those in labs with whom we may collaborate. These collaborations give you the chance to work with colleagues in other fields and better appreciate a diversity of viewpoints; however, it is expected that our lab culture carries over to these interactions. We will foster a culture in which lab members feel comfortable approaching each other for assistance, support, collaboration, and the exchange of ideas. In our lab, collaboration is the rule, not the exception.

We as a team must remember that the goal is to further the pursuit of knowledge. Relative to all of human history, we are poised on the precipice of a unique time when we can devote our efforts to reveal newly understood or not-yet-understood biological phenomena. We should be enthusiastic about learning what we don’t know. Whereas each person in this lab may have unique or separate goals, we share the common pursuit of knowledge, which we must express through our research.

We should be humble and respectful with each other, for we can never truly understand what it is like to be in someone else’s shoes. Everyone should be actively included, and we must foster a lab culture in which all members, especially new members, are made to feel welcome. This lab is an inclusive training environment that values and supports our peers who are women, immigrants, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, and those of religious, ethnic, racial, and historically underrepresented minorities. We strive to offer support, intentional mentorship, peer mentorship, experience, and inspiration that will allow for students to succeed in science or any other field of their choosing. We must hold each other accountable when something harmful has been said. We must recognize that the impact of a statement is more important than the intent, and all must take responsibility and understand why certain actions may be problematic. We as a lab will engage in formal and informal discourse surrounding important social and human rights issues that impact scholars both inside and outside of academia to ultimately build the cultural humility of everyone in the lab to foster an inclusive and welcoming lab culture.