Margaret Kosmala

Author's details

Date registered: October 2, 2015
URL: http://margaretkosmala.com

Latest posts

First steps — February 16, 2017
A missing voice — February 8, 2017
On requesting letters of recommendation — January 11, 2017
First year retrospective — January 4, 2017
How NOT to get a postdoc position — December 14, 2016

Author's posts listings

Advice for new postdocs

September 28, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

September 28, 2016

In case you missed it, last week was National Postdoc Appreciation Week. I almost missed it, but Harvard conveniently put up a huge banner and offered us a bit of free food (Super yummy Mexican food this year!) Good food = appreciation? Sure, why not. September seems to be a common time for new postdocs …

3 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/09/28/advice-for-new-postdocs/

Avoid using the words “student” and “school” outside of academia

September 21, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

September 21, 2016

Many, if not most, ecology PhD graduates will go on to jobs outside of academia. One particular area needing improvement in most (all?) graduate departments is on teaching trainees how to market themselves outside of academia. CVs are non-starters outside of academia and resumes are very different beasts. In crafting a resume, you need to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/09/21/avoid-using-the-words-student-and-school-outside-of-academia/

The thing that pushed me to post a preprint

September 14, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

September 14, 2016

I have mixed feelings about preprints. On one hand, I like the fact that they allow for the exchange of ideas on pace with the rate that science happens. On the other hand, in ecology, the concept is preprints is all muddled. In the fields where preprints originated and are now standard practice (physics, math, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/09/14/the-thing-that-pushed-me-to-post-a-preprint/

The Modern Grad Student Paradox

September 7, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

September 7, 2016

I was sitting in the audience during the discussion of the Hacking Ecology 2.0 Ignite session at ESA this year and Josie Simonis, who was on the panel, said something that really resonated with the grad students in the audience and on Twitter. They said that graduate students face a real paradox: grad students need to …

8 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/09/07/the-modern-grad-student-paradox/

Online book club forming for “The Theory of Ecological Communities”

August 30, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

August 30, 2016

If you follow me on Twitter or obsessively read the comments of the Dynamic Ecology blog, you’ll know that I’ve been excited about the publication of Mark Vellend’s new book, The Theory of Ecological Communities, for many months. The book happened to come out just around the time of the ESA meeting, so the publishers …

10 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/08/30/online-book-club-forming-for-the-theory-of-ecological-communities/

Seasons of the Scientific Conference

August 2, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

August 2, 2016

Maybe one or more of these sound familiar? Newbie. You’re an undergrad or a brand new grad student or something in between. There’s a big regional or national conference nearby and it costs relatively little for you to go. So you go! You spend hours poring over the program, looking for the talks that seem awesome. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/08/02/seasons-of-the-scientific-conference/

The postdoc pay cut

July 20, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

July 20, 2016

One beneficial thing about working out in the “real world” before starting a PhD is that you have the perspective of academia within the larger world, rather than academia as the only thing you’ve ever known. If you’ve gone from grade school to college directly on to grad school, you may not realize what a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/07/20/the-postdoc-pay-cut/

Most ESA Early Career Fellows are almost mid-career

July 13, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

July 13, 2016

The Ecological Society of America recently announced its call for nominations for awards for 2017. I encourage you to get out there and nominate people. In particular, consider nominating folks that are historically underrepresented. [1] For the Early Career Fellows, consider nominating someone at a comprehensive university, primarily undergraduate university, or in the private sector. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/07/13/esa-early-career-fellows-are-mostly-almost-mid-career/

Beware this scary thing Excel can do to your data!

July 6, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

July 6, 2016

[1] Heh, heh. I’ve always wanted to write a clickbait title. That was fun. Excel. Love it. Hate it. Most ecologists I know use it at least a little, including me. Now I know there are plenty of people who abhor the idea of using Excel for science. But Excel is a tool, just like any …

11 comments

Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/07/06/beware-this-scary-thing-excel-can-do-to-your-data/

ESA Early Career Fellows are well balanced by gender

June 29, 2016

by Margaret Kosmala

June 29, 2016

ESA announced its 2016 Early Career Fellows a few weeks ago. The program is fairly new – only in its fourth year – and its aim is to recognize the achievements and potential of excellent ecologists, broadly construed. The announcement of the 2016 cohort brings the total number of Early Career Fellows to 27. And …

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Permanent link to this article: https://ecologybits.com/index.php/2016/06/29/esa-early-career-fellows-are-well-balanced-by-gender/