#48 – Do I regret going into academia? Financing a lab, and can a lab go bankrupt?

Molecular Podcasting with Darren Lipomi

Topics covered in this episode:

0:00 The life of a professor sounds really stressful. Knowing what you know now, would you still go into academia?

4:21 Professors spend a lot of time writing grants and doing administration. Do you ever want to go into the lab and do experiments on the bench?

9:30 Where does a public university get its money and how is it distributed?

13:35 How much money does it cost to hire a graduate student, and how does this investment affect who you hire?

20:04 How do you feel about productivity hacks, like batching similar tasks?

23:08 Are undergraduate researchers a negative cost to the lab since they pay tuition to get training?

24:17 What happens if a PI can’t get a grant? Does the lab go bankrupt?

26:48 What happens to the students and postdocs in a lab that loses its funding?