Yesterday Vanderbilt had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Stephen Korn, NINDS Director of Workforce Development. I’ve met Stephen on several occasions and he is quick, witty and a true believer in the value of a PhD. On several occasions he has told me (without reservation, so let’s hope he doesn’t mind me putting it here) that we can’t have enough PhDs. This always causes a bit of a stir for those looking at dwindling prospects in academia and a far from sure-fire career choice even under the best of circumstances in the last decade.

Much to the chagrin of colleagues I respect, I agree. We are better as an educated country. Scientists and scientific training are things we need to value. I absolutely disagree that our training programs provide a solid platform of critical thinking for many. With that being said, Here’s the fantastic storified version of Dr Korn’s talk put together by one of our twitter buddies (thanks Nammit!).

The content was reshuffled but there was also lots of banter on some of Korn’s more controversial statements. We’d love to continue to hear your thoughts!

There’s lots of solid advice in here…and some statements on funding that got folks fired up. Share your opinions with us and you can be an Edgy winner of Amazon Gift Cards!

About the Author

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Fighty Squirrel, PhD, Awe.Some.

About Me

The Fighty Squirrel is very thin pseud for a molecular and cellular neurobiology type who runs a lab studying neurodegeneration. She is mother to a 14yo half child/half honey badger and 16yo half child/half border collie and a Reviewing Editor at Journal of Neuroscience. She also sort of a badass at air hockey. She speaks for herself unless her employer likes it, in which case it's patented.