Compensation, employer loyalty, and career satisfaction remain steady

This month’s issue looks at a number of technology developments having an ever greater impact on scientific research. 

Having discussed “green” laboratory initiatives in every April issue of Lab Manager for the past four years, one might think there would be nothing new to say on the subject. But think again.

Government regulations, like death and taxes, are an inescapable part of today’s laboratories

Welcome to Lab Manager’s first issue of 2016, in which we look at a number of challenges and changes facing today’s lab managers.

With the holidays upon us, most are looking forward to enjoying time away from the lab or office with friends and family.

Is there any other side of business? We say no.

Traditional laboratories—small, separate rooms with not much light and few amenities—began their  transformation more than a decade ago. The consensus was that researchers working in isolation or within a single, narrow discipline fostered neither creativity nor innovation.

Last month I took a mini vacation to Northern New Mexico, a place I fell in love with years ago when I drove from my home state of California to New York after college. Taos and the surrounding area offer some of the most enchanting landscapes I’ve ever seen.

Every April for the past five years, Lab Manager’s cover story has highlighted developments in green laboratory practices.

This month’s cover story takes an in depth look at the impact of the first-inventor-to-file system that kicked in on March 16, 2013 under the America Invents Act.

It’s late January here in northern New Jersey. From Boston to Cape May, everyone is bracing for “the monster storm of 2015.” I’m having flashbacks to the winter of 2010 and 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, weather events similarly filled with drama, uncertainty, and hype—some real, some overblown. But we survived that and we will, I’m fairly certain, survive this. Which brings me to this month’s note.

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
– Phil Jackson

This morning Queen Elizabeth made her first foray into the world of social media when she sent the first royal tweet under her own name to declare the opening of a new Science Museum gallery.

You went through college, studied hard, perhaps got an advanced degree, and later landed the perfect research job. Years passed. One day you found yourself wondering if there wasn’t something else you could be doing, something more challenging, more rewarding—emotionally and financially.