Life after OIST:
Postdoctoral Fellow at Max Planck Society, Germany
What kind of student is suited for OIST？ Are the lab rotations useful?
I think the kind of student that already knows clearly what they want to research in would be a good fit. And for students who are uncertain, I think that being able experience different areas through lab rotations is a huge plus. You can see the difference in styles of research management, lab meetings, and communication between professor and students from 3 labs, and not just from a research point of view. It was very fun being able to see many things and thinking “Oh, I’d like to integrate that” or “This isn’t really fitting for me” if I get to be in such a position in the future. Even now, there are students that are working on coalition projects from two labs after finishing their labs rotations.
Do you have any words of advice for OIST PhD students?
What you “really want to do” may be one thing, but there are probably many ways to approach or dissect it. Looking back, I probably should have put more thought into planning my project to make most of the strengths of my research unit and OIST facilities. However, I think I only did what I really wanted to do and didn’t really utilize the university’s resources very well.
