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Academics have long understood the benefits of collaboration.
Posted On: September 23, 2016
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Source: tvdsb.libguides.com
By Michael Freeman, ORT Science Writer and UHN Research Trainee
Throughout their academic lives, students and researchers are pushed to work together. They are driven to stir the pot and come up with something fresh, something greater than the sum of their parts. For this, academics must learn the art of collaboration.
Students are brought together as laboratory partners, thrust into group projects, and placed alongside cohorts with diverse backgrounds to develop solutions to real problems. To maximize exposure to different collaborative environments, students frequently shift from their undergraduate alma mater to pursue a master’s at a different institution, a PhD at another, and perhaps a postdoctoral fellowship at yet another. The encouragement to move and share is strong, and the rewards are real. Expressing support for this practice, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman wrote, “Go learn what the rest of the world is like. The variety is worthwhile.” Removed from a realm of familiarity, researchers that move between groups and institutions are exposed to fresh perspectives, instilling a broadened view of their field, and, perhaps, their world.
In this spirit, researchers often team up to execute robust interdisciplinary projects. Recent UofT Pharmaceutical Sciences PhD graduate Dr. Sandra Ekdawi, whose thesis on cancer nanomedicine comprised several large, co-operative projects, says that the experimental phases of such endeavours tend to be “easy”, as all parties work within their fields of expertise. Coordinating that experimental work and synthesizing its results, however, is more complicated. To mitigate confusion and improve productivity, Ekdawi urges frequent communication and clear, up-front expectations.
Summing up the price worth paying for the benefits of collaboration, Ekdawi explains, "You may end up doing more than you signed up for, but that's OK. In one instance you may carry the most weight, but next time, it may be your collaborator who carries you both. Successful collaboration is a long-term plan."
Click here to see UHN’s featured international partnerships.
Throughout their academic lives, students and researchers are pushed to work together. They are driven to stir the pot and come up with something fresh, something greater than the sum of their parts. For this, academics must learn the art of collaboration.
Students are brought together as laboratory partners, thrust into group projects, and placed alongside cohorts with diverse backgrounds to develop solutions to real problems. To maximize exposure to different collaborative environments, students frequently shift from their undergraduate alma mater to pursue a master’s at a different institution, a PhD at another, and perhaps a postdoctoral fellowship at yet another. The encouragement to move and share is strong, and the rewards are real. Expressing support for this practice, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman wrote, “Go learn what the rest of the world is like. The variety is worthwhile.” Removed from a realm of familiarity, researchers that move between groups and institutions are exposed to fresh perspectives, instilling a broadened view of their field, and, perhaps, their world.
In this spirit, researchers often team up to execute robust interdisciplinary projects. Recent UofT Pharmaceutical Sciences PhD graduate Dr. Sandra Ekdawi, whose thesis on cancer nanomedicine comprised several large, co-operative projects, says that the experimental phases of such endeavours tend to be “easy”, as all parties work within their fields of expertise. Coordinating that experimental work and synthesizing its results, however, is more complicated. To mitigate confusion and improve productivity, Ekdawi urges frequent communication and clear, up-front expectations.
Summing up the price worth paying for the benefits of collaboration, Ekdawi explains, "You may end up doing more than you signed up for, but that's OK. In one instance you may carry the most weight, but next time, it may be your collaborator who carries you both. Successful collaboration is a long-term plan."
Click here to see UHN’s featured international partnerships.