Finding research articles

1. How to find a mentor?
2. How to contact a prospective mentor

How to find a candidate mentor?
A previous missive discussed why a research proposal is the most important thing you'll do in this course. Your mentor is the single most helpful element (besides yourself) that will guide you to a successful proposal. Time devoted to finding the right person will be well spent.

You are looking for a faculty member at VCU who has research interests (related to molecular biology) so insanely fascinating that your life would be incomplete if you could not join in. Fortunately, there are many dozen faculty members from which to choose. You'll probably be able to find something that excites you.

Here are some possible strategies:

• Scan departmental and program web sites
  Probably every department and program at VCU maintains a web site that contains somewhere a list of its faculty members. Their lab web pages are generally no more than a click or two away, and once there, you'll probably be greeted with a description of the research questions of interest to the lab plus a list of people and publications. Here are some departments and programs whose faculty (at least some) have molecular interests:
   
  • Molecular Biology and Genetics program
    Unfortunately, the faculty list gives you links but no research interests unless you visit individual pages.
  • Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
    Go to the Research tab and pick a topic. It will show you a list of faculty and links to find out more of their interests.
  • Center for the Study of Biological Complexity
    Clicking People (Learn more), then faculty, gets you to a list of faculty but no research interests. People (Learn more), then fellows, gets you to a longer list -- again no research interests.
     
• Literature search
  Search Pubmed or Web of Science for someone at VCU (remember the first exam?) who has published on a topic you're particularly interested in.
   
• Search VCU's web site
  Try searching VCU's web site for your favorite topics.
   
• Ask me
  If you've done your searches and haven't quite found what you were looking for, give me a call.

How to contact a prospective mentor
First, how not to do it:

Dear Dr. Frostbite,
        Hello. My name is Snively Hornswoggle. I'm a student in a class where I'm required to find a mentor for a research project. I was wondering if you had time to mentor me.

Dear Innocent Victim,
        Hello. My name is Deadly Timetrap. I'm required to find a sucker willing to spend hours, days, weeks, trying vainly to push insights through my vacant eyes. Doesn't matter what the insights are. So long as I get my grade. Wanna do it?

Try the following instead:

• Do your homework
  Don't attempt contact until you have digested the candidate's web site and read an article that has come from the candidate's lab. Don't feel obliged to understand all you've read, but do keep at it until you have comprehended the nature of the scientific question addressed.
   
• Talk science
  The candidate entered into a life of science not as an excuse to pontificate to sniveling students but because s/he loves doing science and talking science. Make your e-mail message a possibly rare moment of joy in a day of bureaucratic chores. Use what you learned from the candidate's article(s) to stuff your e-mail with specific scientific issues of interest to the candidate.
   
• Talk candidate-specific science
  What could you possibly contribute in a conversation with this titan of science? You'd be surprised. It's possible that there is no one outside the candidate's lab within a thousand miles who shares his/her specific scientific interests. It is possible that your e-mail gives the candidate an opportunity to think about issues that are not likely to arise in the normal course of a day. Your e-mail may help the candidate return to the favorite place... if your message is scientifically specific enough to conjure up the image. Raise questions about specific issues you encountered in the article(s) you read.
   
• Provide context
  Briefly relate the course of events that brought you to the e-mailbox of the candidate. Set forth the nature of the course and the nature of the research proposal. Feel free to include the URL for the course and/or the page that describes the research proposal.
   
• Describe where you are in your journey (Talk Science, part III)
  Tell the candidate what you've done to learn about his/her work. Describe some ideas that have occurred to you concerning your research proposal. These can (and probably will be) crazy ideas. That's OK, so long as the ideas arise naturally from what you read and are not merely plucked from thin air. Don't write vacuously "I have familiarized myself with your research". If you have, it should be apparent from the content of your message, which should be filled with specific questions and insights concerning the candidate's research.
   
• Don't be an undergraduate
  Faculty members are bombarded with messages from undergraduates: "Do you have a position in your renowned lab?", "I need a one-credit upper division class...", "I need research to go on my transcript...", "May I suck your blood?". How can you distance yourself from this odious breed? Talk science (of course), but also avoid emphasizing separation. "Dear Esteemed Dr. X"... you may think this shows respect. Actually it shows leech-hood. There is no requirement for a salutation. Similarly, there's no need for "My name is...". This opening formula marks you as a child. Your name is not important. Get right to the science.
   
• Make clear what it is you're requesting
  What do you want of this person? Faculty members are constantly bombarded with requests to work in their labs. Lab space is often scarce. Money is often absent. Faculty members are used to saying no. Make clear that you are not asking to work in the lab (and if you are, it might be best to hold off on that desire for a bit). Rather you hope to meet every now and then to help you sort through the work you do independently on the topic, culminating in a written research proposal.

By the end of your message, the candidate should recall (fondly) this general impression of your message:

Dear scientific colleague,
        I am fascinated by the same things that fascinate you. I am naive and near the beginning of my journey, but I have my own thoughts and I'm fun to talk with. It would be a joy to spend time now and then discussing my project with me.