Mentoring and sponsorship

Dark Arts Course

Kenny Baillie

University of Edinburgh

Disclosure

Multiscale labs

• predict the biological consequences of molecular change

Mentorship

Guidance on:

• Strategy
• Impact
• Welfare

Sponsorship

Provision of:

• Resources
• Advocacy
• Protection

Patronage

• not discussed further here

Choosing mentors

Find the person at your institution who publishes most in Nature, and go work for them.

Choosing mentors

Bad advice

Drop the computational stuff and go work on stem cells and put them into lungs

anon

Duration

Never underestimate the ongoing need for mentorship, up to retirement

Steve Webb

Number

• limitation is only practical
• doesn’t even matter if they hate each other

Intensity

Intense mentorship (e.g. PhD supervisor)

• weekly/daily/hourly
• often focus on tactics
• convergence of interests

Sparse mentorship

• focus on strategy
• sparse relationships don’t have time for tactics

Choosing sponsors

Power

• Need to have the power to give you what you need
• Must have resources and influence
• You need to get them interested in you

Choose the most powerful sponsor you can get to give you the time of day.

Institutional sponsorship

What is the business model of a university?

Institutional sponsorship

Never expect loyalty from an institution

“Understanding academic medical centers” J V Simone [PMID: 10499593]

Simone’s Maxims - Cancer History Project

The loyalty watershed

	Great Group leader	Great Institute lead
Definition of success	Good science, papers, grants	Financial security for institution
Goals	Impact (adulation)	Internal promotion
Primary loyalty	People	The Institution?

Wisdom is everywhere

Seek it, recognise it, remember it.

When I ask you to do something, sometimes you’ll be doing it for you, and sometimes for me. But I’ll always tell you which is which.

Primary determinant of success is knowing when something is finished

Timing is everything