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developmental and stem cell biologists

Gary McDowell

Posts by Gary McDowell

“People in this country have had enough of experts”

Posted by , on 2 July 2016

I woke up this morning to a Facebook reminder of where I was 5 years ago. I was in Lille, France, on a 2 month sabbatical at Université Lille 1 ...

Livers in development: YEN USA June Meeting

Posted by , on 28 June 2015

Frontal section image of mouse embryo with liver marker showing two different liver precursor populations invading and migrating into two different liver lobes (Siyeon Rhee). Continuing the effort to bring young ...

Young Embryologist Network USA: Mouse livers and stem cell fate conversion

Posted by , on 4 June 2015

The next Boston Young Embryologist Network talks event will be held in the Warren Alpert Building at Harvard Medical School Thursday June 18th, 6-8pm. Food and drink will be provided for ...

Young Embryologists Meet in Boston

Posted by , on 16 May 2015

Work from Vaibhav Pai showing how manipulation of bioelectrical effects can rescue brain deficiencies caused by the introduction of Notch ICD Trying to meet other young researchers in the Boston ...

Young Embryologist Network USA: Frog brains and mouse hearts

Posted by , on 8 May 2015

The first Boston Young Embryologist Network talks event will be held in the Warren Alpert Building at Harvard Medical School Thursday May 14th, 6-8pm. Food and drink will be provided ...

Recent comments by Gary McDowell

Already we see the effects on funding and collaboration in just a few short weeks: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jul/12/uk-scientists-dropped-from-eu-projects-because-of-post-brexit-funding-fears?
by Gary McDowell in “People in this country have had enough of experts” on July 12, 2016
I've written a post on The Node with some of my thoughts more generally here: https://thenode.biologists.com/people-country-enough-experts/discussion/ In response to your questions: For me, this makes it almost certain I will not return to the UK. My husband is American and undertaking a medical residency in paediatrics for the next 3 years, and we both very much miss the UK and had planned, at some point, to return. I have been coming to terms with the near certainty that that now won't happen. I am also Northern Irish, and Scottish, and lived in England for all my university education. The breakup of the UK that seems inevitable and everything I am currently seeing are, frankly, heartbreaking. In terms of what can be done for science: as I've alluded to in my post, the uncertainty that exists right now is going to be terribly damaging for the UK scientifically because people have strong incentives to leave, be they EU or UK or frankly simply foreign. The UK has been a strong scientific leader and attracted great talent; I would predict that is going to be less likely to be the case. Frankly, it's hard enough getting a permanent academic position; why on earth would you make it harder going into this mess, if you could possibly avoid it. Maintaining collaborations in the face of this, and particularly as a community of developmental biologists, is key. Junior people are going to need more support than ever.
by Gary McDowell in Questions of the Month – After the Referendum on July 2, 2016
This sounds like a wonderful initiative - keep up the good work!
by Gary McDowell in Developing Future Biologists 2016: Discovering the new generation of scientists! on June 28, 2016
So sad that the "too many postdocs and PhDs" dates from 2010 and we're still talking about it! Happy Birthday!
by Gary McDowell in 5 years, 5 posts- celebrating the Node’s 5th anniversary! on July 3, 2015
One thing they can do is to provide resources for members for things such as career development - ASBMB is actually running a survey on this right now: http://futureofresearch.org/2015/06/27/asbmb-survey/ But also they can provide a platform for engaging a community and encouraging them to advocate for funding, provide outreach, support members and provide a networking platform. I'm quite heavily involved with ASCB's postdoc and student committee, COMPASS (http://ascb.org/committee-for-postdocs-and-students-compass/) - with representation on ASCB Council, and opportunities to write for blogs, the newsletter, provide outreach, get involved with organization of the annual meeting and provide resources for career development, policy work, outreach, etc., it makes you feel really involved with the community, but also provides a framework for your field to try to work together on common goals, which I think a society can do more easily than an institution or department.
by Gary McDowell in Question of the month- societies on July 1, 2015