Our values

last updated: Feb 04, 2018

These are the values we share as a lab. We like to articulate them very first, to help us to remember and know what is most important to us.

Happiness

We value having lab members who are happy, healthy, and well-rounded people. Having a job you enjoy is important and fulfilling, but your health and wellbeing matter more. With that in mind, we try to create an environment that is supportive of you and your loved-ones. For example, we think 35 hours per week is plenty of time to get your work done (for full-time staff, post-docs, and graduate students), and we love to hear about and celebrate our lab members’ accomplishments outside of work.

Good Science

It is very important to us that we do good, rigorous empirical research that makes a meaningful contribution to our scientific community. To ensure we do so, we evaluate what we are doing every semester, checking that what we are doing is in keeping with our values.

Mentorship

We want our lab members to become good scientists and citizens of the scientific community. We feel strongly that all members of the lab have a responsibility to serve as good examples and mentors for the younger and newer students in the lab. More senior members of the lab should ensure that more junior members feel comfortable asking them for help and advice.

Generosity

Along these same lines, we value being generous with our time and resources. We feel it is important to help other members of our lab when they need it and to pass on the knowledge we have acquired to those who are just starting to learn. This generosity also extends to other labs in our department and scientific community. We are happy to help others learn and grow as scientists and are sure to express our gratitude when others have graciously helped us.

Simplicity

In our lab, we value simplicity, which means we aim to for our decisions, research, and communications with each other and the outside world to be uncomplicated (not pretentious or obtuse) and easy to understand without unnecessary embellishments.

Independence

We think it is important for members of our lab to feel respected as intelligent and hard-working people, capable of working independently and creatively. We aim to give all lab members plenty of opportunities to work independently and make big contributions to projects going on in the lab.