Professors are passionate about their research topic and the trainees who do the experiments are key, but supervision must compete with all their other responsibilities. These “Principal Investigators” need to write grants for research money, budget for spending their funds on research, write up the results of their research, teach large classes, and help run the University.
Ben Tsang is an experienced lab manager and now a first year CSB grad student in Prof Robert Gerlai‘s lab at University of Toronto Mississauga. In the Careers section of Nature Magazine, he shared his advice on efficient communication with your busy supervisor. You can read more through this link.
Congratulations on this article, Ben!