About Me:
- Professor
- Duke University
- Department of Biology and Evolutionary Anthropology
- https://sites.duke.edu/albertslab/
Getting to Know Her:
If you are sitting on a plane with a stranger and a conversation starts up, how do you describe what you do for your job?
I usually say that I study animal behavior and I try to understand how social relationships affect health, reproduction, and survival.
Tell us about your path to academia.
In college, I majored in philosophy. I had to take an introductory biology course, and during the evolution and ecology section I would sit there with my mouth open thinking “this is amazing!” The clincher was one day we learned about coevolution between figs and fig wasps. After this, I knew I had to become a biologist. I didn’t go to grad school right away. I spent a year working with Jeanne Altmann at the Amboseli Baboon Research Project, funded by a Watson Foundation Fellowship. After that I went to UCLA for graduate school. I discovered this was a bad fit and I left with my master’s. All through it, I didn’t know if I could be a professional biologist. You know there are hurdles, but they are invisible, and you don’t really know if you are clearing them. Graduate school is about inventing your creative self. You don’t know whether the pieces are all going to come together for you. The first postdoc I got I thought was a fluke and the second I thought was a mistake. When I told my primary mentor, Jeanne, that I felt I’d been given the postdoc by mistake she said “You know what? It doesn’t matter, your only job is to take advantage of the opportunity and not let your insecurity immobilize you.” You have to internalize that if you’re an academic, there’s a lot of chance involved and you have to grab the chance every time you get it. Although, in spite of the importance of chance, it’s also true that being able to write is extremely important. The people who are able to take greatest advantage of the chances and also get more chances are the ones who can write.
What do you think is the piece of your work that you are most well known for?
I would guess either the 2003 Science paper with Joan Silk on social bonds and infant survival, the 2003 Nature paper on paternal care, or my 1995 American Naturalist dispersal paper from my Ph.D.
What is one piece of your work that you are most proud of?
I’m proud of a number of papers, I can’t choose just one. What makes me most proud is the collaborative effort that has led to a series of really strong papers on behavior and life history outcomes in the baboons.
Is there is a piece of your work that you think doesn’t get enough attention?
Courtney Fitzpatrick did a wonderful, detailed, and careful study of variation in sexual swelling size in female baboons. That study resulted in two papers, in 2014 and 2015, in BEAS and Animal Behaviour. I think these are outstanding and under-cited papers.
How would you like to see your research field 10-20 years down the line?
More people doing it and more money for it.
Questions with a focus on student and postdoc issues
What are the biggest changes you have noticed in academia since you were a graduate student?
The biggest thing that’s changed in the last 2.5 decades is the ability to produce a lot of work rapidly. This is due partly to computing power and partly to digital productivity tools, which have increased productivity as well as the level of collaboration that people can now maintain. These things mean that people can produce many papers a year. I think this
makes it more challenging for emerging scientists to break into the professional world, because variance in productivity plays a bigger role, I think, than pure scientific ability.
How do you evaluate students that apply to your lab for graduate or postdoc positions? What types of characteristics do you look for in applicants?
Graduate students: It’s great if they have published previously but it is not required, this is neither necessary nor sufficient. I prefer them to email me and tell me what they are interested in and why they think it’s important to study. A good description of the research they’ve done (not just what they did but what they discovered) is also important.
I think the best indicator that they will be a good scientist, is if they can articulate an
important problem that they want to solve, and explain why it matters to solve it. It’s also
important that we communicate with each other well. But in general, as long as they are
curious and excited, they will get along with my lab.
Postdocs: I prefer they have to have strong publication record and analytical skills. I want to
have confidence that if I give them a problem they can solve it without a lot of input from me. They should also be independent and available to help grad students.
How do you evaluate applicants that are applying for a faculty position at your university?
I like to see a concise (not overly long) research statement that explains really clearly what
scientific problems they are interested in. They should have a big picture, and be able to articulate why the question is important to a field or multiple fields. A strong publication record is also important, of course. I also like to see evidence that they can obtain grants. By the time a candidate makes the medium list, that means they’re in a strong position and from there it’s about how well they fit in the department.
Do you think there is an optimal size for your lab group, or optimal postdoc: grad student ratio?
A lot of people like to have more postdocs than grad students but I don’t feel that way. I’ve had up to 5 grad students, but most of the time I have 3 grad students and 1-2 postdocs, and I think that is optimal for me. If it’s more than this, I might not giving them enough time. I think most people handle more than that, but I prefer to stay on the low side.
How do you get a new student started on a project? How do you incorporate both of your interests and balance your interests with each student’s individual interest?
One of the things I really like to do is give a first-year graduate student a problem that is a really concrete and can be solved in 1-2 years, and that draws on the long-term data that results in a publication. The first few years of graduate school can be really hard, so having something that is very concrete is helpful.
Honestly, it would be difficult for me to take a student whose interests were not really well aligned with mine. I think that’s a personal limitation of mine.
General work issues that academics/scientists face
How do you work? What’s your daily schedule?
I don’t work early in the morning. I take my daughter to school, get to work around 8:15-8:30, and spend a lot of time early on taming the email beast. I spend a lot of time in meetings with students and colleagues. I’m the chair, so I have to allocate a lot of time to chair duties. I have to schedule around my daughter’s schedule and family duties. I work from home in afternoons sometimes. Or I will make dinner, go back to work and exercise using my treadmill desk. I use weekend mornings for writing and I love that. To some, it sounds depressing but I’m happy and I feel so lucky to be able to do this!
How much time do you spend on research, teaching, mentoring, writing, and administrative duties? What would you like that breakdown to be?
Before I became chair, I taught 1 or sometimes 2 classes each semester. Since I’ve become chair I’ve tried to cut down on that, so that I’m teaching just 1 class each year. That was difficult at first, to get out of the habit of teaching. Before I was chair, about 1⁄3 of my time was teaching but now it’s much less. I spend about 1⁄3 on admin and 1⁄3 on research- mentoring of students is included very much included in research.
I wish it was just research, but that’s a complicated question. Given the constraints of the real world, I would do less on teaching (15%), admin (30%), and would spend the rest of my time doing research.
Do you have any specific habits that have helped you become a prolific writer?
Yes! I am addicted to closure and I think this is an important addiction to cultivate. You just need to finish a paper. It’s a painful trait to have, but it’s really good and motivating to want to get the paper finished and overpower your procrastination. It gets harder because when you finish a paper it’s always anticlimactic, there’s no final “moment” that’s really
rewarding.
How do you keep multiple research projects organized at the same time?
Well, at the most basic level I just tackle one task at a time. Make a to do list and do the most important things first. I make separate lists for research-related versus admin-related versus teaching-related tasks, etc, and I try to make sure to spend sufficient time on the research-related things, which are often less ‘urgent’ than the other things. The leaders of the Amboseli baboon project meet every week for project management, and we meet every 2 months to give updates on our projects. I keep a list of all the research projects in my lab and what stage they’re at.
What do you think about the mantra of being most productive by only working 40 hrs per week?
It wouldn’t work for me. You definitely need to schedule some leisure but 40 hours isn’t the right number for me. On average I probably work about 50-55 hours per week. Sometimes 40 hours is good and sometimes 60-70 hours is better. And everybody is different. I need leisure and I have to schedule some time for myself outside of work. I’ve become efficient at finding ways to give myself breaks. I also like to do multiple leisure-related things at a time, for instance I like to do yoga while watching tv, listen to books on tape while driving.
How do you take time off and what are your passions outside science?
My family, my kids, being out in nature, and exercise
What device or piece of technology could you not live without?
My computer.
What’s your best shortcut or “life hack” that you use in academia?
My treadmill desk!
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received and what advice would you give to young scientists?
My Ph.D. advisor’s advice about not getting immobilized, which I mentioned above. I also recommend getting addicted to closure. Don’t question yourself too much or doubt your abilities. Make sure you write. Always remember that anyone who has made it to grad school is already smart enough.
What is the biggest problem you think your field or academics face?
Funding.
Just for fun
What’s in your carry on bag while you are traveling for research or to give a seminar?
My computer and chargers, travel yoga mat, and a pillow.
Who would you like to see answer this list of questions?
It would be really interesting to compare someone’s answer when they’re in their 4th year of grad school and then later as a senior academic. Hearing the answers from any of my heroes would be fun. When I was a grad student, my advisor talked about going off to the family farm with her husband and she said it was wonderful because she could work all day and I thought that will never be me, I’m not cut out for academia, but now I do that.
This interview was conducted by Mena Davidson and Sarah Westrick on November 8th, 2018, and edited for clarity by Victoria Underhill on January 10th, 2020.