Big Picture

Welcome to the Weichman Lab in the Princeton University Department of Chemistry! We’re really glad you’re here, and we will do what we can to make your time in the group a great experience characterized by learning, personal growth, and cutting-edge chemical physics.

Our goal is to foster an environment that supports every lab member in reaching their full potential, and helps you do great science and enjoy the process. I want you to be productive and happy while you are here.

In the Weichman Lab, we want to make sure that everyone experiences a positive, engaging, challenging, and rewarding lab environment. To maintain that environment, we all have to do a few things:

• Work hard, be passionate about your work, and take pride in your work.
• Be careful. Don’t rush. Double- and triple-check your work. Build in sanity checks. Ask others to check your code or data if something looks off. Being a little obsessive is essential to good science!
• It is never ok to plagiarize, tamper with or make up data, fudge results, or lie by omission. This can’t be emphasized enough: no academic misconduct!
• Communicate openly and respectfully with other members of the lab, even when it’s difficult.
• Be patient, including with your PI, who is a human.
• Science is a marathon, not a sprint. Take vacation time when you need it, take care of your mental and physical health, and cultivate a fulfilling life outside of the lab.
• Be thoughtful about time management. There are always more things to do in the lab than hours to do them, so using your time effectively is essential to success. Many folks in academia brag about their long working hours, but this is not a helpful metric and can contribute to a toxic work culture! Focus instead on how to be the most productive and effective you can be during the time you are actually working. Focus on “achieve X” not “time spent to achieve X.”
• If you’re struggling, tell someone – and please don’t feel shy about telling Marissa. We’re here and you should feel empowered to let other lab members know what is going on and ask for help.
• Advocate for your own needs, including personal and career goals.
• Respect each other’s strengths, weaknesses, differences, and beliefs.
• If there is tension or hostility in the lab, something has to be done about it immediately. If you don’t feel comfortable handling an issue or confronting the person in question, talk to Marissa. Actually, in any case, talk to Marissa.
• If you have a problem with Marissa and are comfortable talking to her about it, please do! If you aren’t comfortable, then have a conversation with another member of the chemistry department that you trust.

This handbook was inspired by examples from several other groups and borrows heavily from them. Thanks in particular to the Aly Lab at UC Berkeley and the Crabtree Lab at UC Davis for making their group handbooks public or otherwise sharing them.

What you can expect from Marissa

Consistent support

• The success and workplace well-being of each member of my research group is one of my top priorities.
• I am committed to your research projects. I will help to plan and direct your projects, set reasonable and attainable goals, and establish a timeline for completion of projects. I am a resource to help you to solve conceptual, technical, and data analysis problems.
• I will give you feedback on a timely basis, including feedback on project ideas, conference posters, talks, manuscripts, figures, and proposals.
• I will strive to be supportive, equitable, accessible, encouraging, and respectful. I will try my best to understand your unique situation. I am mindful that each group member comes from a different background and has a different set of circumstances, strengths, and weaknesses. I view my role as fostering your professional development and encouraging your critical thinking, skepticism, and creativity. If my approach to this is not effective for you, I am always open to talking about other ways to achieve these goals.
• In general, I like to hear about where you think there’s room for improvement in any aspect of academic research life, including our advisor-advisee relationship.

Availability

• I will be available for weekly in-person meetings, informal conversations, and email/Slack exchanges.
• Email/Slack is the best way to communicate with me outside of meetings, and I strive to be responsive during business hours. I may not respond as quickly to emails on weekends or evenings.
• Feel free to stop by my office if you need to chat about something quickly! If you want to have a longer chat, you can set up a meeting at any time, for any reason, using my Calendly page.
• At our scheduled meetings, we can address your questions or concerns. It is my responsibility to help you succeed and I can do that best if I know what’s going on. Feel free to share materials or data with me ahead of time via email or Slack.
• I will do my best to listen. At each meeting, tell me what you want to discuss, what you’ve been thinking about, and what’s on your mind. I know how important it is for an advisor to listen. I will do my best to hear you out and have informed discussions about science, experiments, your experience, etc. I may push back on your ideas or decisions if I feel there’s validity to my perspective.

Help with professional milestones

• I will help guide you through program requirements, teaching experiences, and professional milestones and responsibilities. However, I will rely on your own monitoring of deadlines and requirements.
• You can count on me to do my very best to promote you as a scientist. My primary roles are to:
  • help you think clearly about the fundamental and technical issues driving your research
  • work with you on designing, analyzing, and writing up experiments
  • bring in grants and steward our resources so that you benefit to the maximum extent from our joint efforts. The success of these grant proposals is largely based on the work that you do, and in this way, every lab member contributes to our success.
• I will lead by example and facilitate your training in the skills necessary to be a successful scientist, such as oral and written communication skills, grant writing, lab management, and scientific professionalism.
• I will encourage you to attend conferences, and I will do what I can to provide funding for you to present on our work. You can expect me to send you to roughly one domestic conference per year — or more if you bring in your own funding! I am also open to sending each group member to one international conference sometime during their time in the group.
• I will help you meet people in our scientific community. I will give you my perspective on where the field and our lab are going, and tips about thriving in academia.
• I will do whatever I can to support you in your path towards an academic or non-academic career. It saddens me when students feel they can’t talk with advisors about a range of career options. You can count on me to cheer you on for positions in academia, teaching, industry, consulting, data science, government, etc.
• I am committed to mentoring you indefinitely after you leave my lab. I will provide honest and thorough letters of recommendation for you whenever you request them. I will gladly advise and guide your career development (to the degree you wish) after you leave the group.

A positive lab culture

• I am working to create a lab composed of motivated, supportive, and generous people. My hope is that you will both benefit from and contribute to this culture during your time at Princeton.
• I will do all I can to make sure you are treated fairly by people in the lab, department, university, and field.
• I will actively prevent and avoid unnecessary drama, because it makes for a worse workplace.
• I will try to help everyone (myself included!) learn from our mistakes.
• I will provide a work environment that is intellectually stimulating and emotionally supportive.
• I will provide a work environment that is safe and free of harassment.
• I will encourage incremental progress and small wins. I will also celebrate your big accomplishments.
• I will discuss authorship policies with you. I will acknowledge your scientific contributions to research in the lab, and I will help you publish your work in a timely manner.

Expectations for all group members

Be available and punctual

• Keep reasonable hours. You are expected to be available in the office or lab during normal business hours, so your schedule overlaps with those of your fellow group members.
  • If you need to work from home for any significant period of time please touch base with Marissa about it in advance.
  • Check in with Marissa before making ongoing commitments (e.g. classes beyond the program requirement, internships) that would take you out of lab regularly during the workday.
  • You are not expected to come into lab on weekends and holidays, and you are not expected to stay late at night. You are expected to get work done, whatever time of day you like to do it. I recognize that graduate students have other demands on your time like classes and teaching but I still expect to see you in lab, doing research, as often as you reasonably can.
• Show up. Show up to meetings, show up to your classes, show up to lab events. Be on time and prepared. Respect that others have packed days too and everyone’s time is valuable.
• Be prompt. Please respond promptly to emails from me, other professors, or anyone in our lab group. If you need time to gather information in response to an email, please acknowledge receipt of the message and indicate when you will be able to provide the requested information.
• Strive to meet deadlines. This is the only way to manage your progress. We will establish mutually agreed upon deadlines for each phase of your work. You should find a balance between time spent on research and time spent on classes, mentoring, or teaching. It is your responsibility to talk with me if you are having difficulty completing your work.
• Provide me with abstracts and talk, poster, manuscript, and proposal drafts well before deadlines. I ask everyone in the group to provide me with drafts of all materials that they submit externally. Allow a minimum of one week prior to submission deadlines for me to provide input on conference abstracts, posters, and talk slides, and two weeks for me to work on manuscripts or grant proposals. Please do not assume that I can read materials within a day or two, although I usually try to!
• Discuss policies on sick leave and vacation with Marissa directly. Notify me and fellow lab members if you will be out for an extended period. Please mark any time off (for a day or more) in the group Google calendar. I expect that lab members will abide by university policy and not exceed 4 weeks of personal travel away from the lab in any given year. Work/life balance and vacation time are essential for creative thinking and good health, and I encourage you to take regular vacations. But please plan your vacations smartly and strategically.
• If you are sick, stay home, take care of yourself, and don’t risk getting others sick.

Take ownership of your academic experience

• Maintain a high level of professionalism, self-motivation, engagement, scientific curiosity, and ethical standards.
• Make the most of your meetings with me. Come to meetings prepared and keep me updated on the progress and results of your activities and experiments. Make sure to also use this time to communicate new ideas about your work and challenges that you are facing. I cannot address or advise you on issues that you do not bring to my attention.
• Read all of the lab documentation: this lab manual, the lab website, etc. You are responsible for knowing what is in each of these places, following the rules and guidelines we have set up, and notifying someone if you find incorrect information (or if you have questions).
• Understand that there will be highs and lows in this line of work, as there are in any part of life. Academia can be hard on your self-esteem. You won’t always be happy with me as an advisor. Both of these are inevitable. When lows hit, know that things will get better with time. Sleep on it before reacting, and take time to think things through.

Be generous and a team player

• Attend and actively participate in all lab meetings, seminars, and talks. Participation in lab meetings does not mean only presenting your own work, but providing support to others in the lab through shared insight. Asking good questions is just as valuable as giving good presentations.
• Strive to be the very best lab citizen. Take part in shared lab responsibilities and use lab resources carefully and frugally. Be a resource to newer lab members. Maintain a safe and clean lab. Respect individual differences in values, personalities, work styles, and perspectives.
• Keep the lab and any shared space clean and organized. Return shared equipment and tools to where you found them. If you make a mess, clean it up, and if you use the last of some shared consumable item or equipment, please replenish the stock.
• Try to spend your time in the lab. There is no better way to contribute to the lab and to maximize learning than actually being there. Casual conversations can be extremely helpful; helping others troubleshoot can help you build technical skills.
• Help others learn whatever precious knowledge you possess. Embrace mentorship of junior lab members. This is a crucial part of your professional development and essential to a functional lab group.
• Be supportive of your labmates. We’re in this together. Help people out if they need help. Listen to them vent. Lean on others when you need to.

Develop strong research skills

• Take advantage of your opportunity to work at a world-class university by developing and refining stellar research skills. There is high-quality science happening all around you.
• Read furiously. Be deeply familiar with the literature related to your research. Stay up to date on the latest research by using RSS feeds and/or getting journal tables of contents.
• Present your work at meetings and seminars as early as you can, and by preparing materials that effectively convey your work to others in the field. I will push you to publish your research as you progress. At first, I will heavily rewrite and revise your manuscripts, but I will expect more senior lab members to take a lead role in authoring scientific papers.
• Maintain detailed, organized, and accurate lab records. Be aware that your notes, records and all tangible research data are group property. When you leave the lab, the data are yours to take, but a full set of all data must stay on the lab server, with appropriate and accessible documentation.
• Be responsive to advice and constructive criticism. The feedback you get from me, your colleagues, your committee members, your course instructors, and peer reviewers is intended to improve your scientific work. If you sense unfair treatment from anybody, tell me.
• Become an independent researcher. To me, independence is marked by being able to do the following things without much help:
  • generate new ideas
  • set goals for yourself
  • state objectives for the week/month
  • identify and read relevant literature
  • develop effective communication skills
  • seek out resources and literature for new ideas
  • see experiments to the bitter end
  • refine lab methods
  • analyze data
  • supervise junior lab members
  • think of follow-up experiments
  • predict what peer reviewers might say
  • ask questions confidently
  • develop a compelling ability to present scientific findings at conferences
  • withstand intense Q&A from colleagues
  • be able to spontaneously reference relevant literature
  • organize ideas coherently in writing
  • write solid first drafts of manuscripts and proposals

Communicate clearly

• Let me know the style of communication that you prefer. If there is something about my mentoring style that is proving difficult for you, please tell me so that you give me an opportunity to find an approach that works for you. No single style works for everyone; no one style is expected to work all the time.
• Write things down and remind me what we’ve talked about. I would love to remember everything we decided when we met last week, but this doesn’t always happen. Don’t hesitate to bring me up to speed when we meet.
• Discuss any new research directions with me before you start to ensure that we are in agreement.
• Barring unusual circumstances, it is my policy that group members are first author on all work for which they took the lead on experiment design, data collection, and preparation of the initial draft of the manuscript.
• Talk openly with me about my effectiveness as an advisor. I will also let you know whether I am satisfied with the progress you’re making. Throughout the year, if you feel uncertain, overwhelmed, or want additional support, please let me know. I welcome open communication and I view it as essential to success in graduate school.

Graduate Students

In addition to everything outlined on the Expectations for all group members page, below are some additional expectations for graduate students specifically.

Big picture

• The transition from your undergrad studies to graduate school can be a big leap. Your goal is no longer to ace your classes, but to grow into a full-blown independent scientific researcher and technical badass. My chief duty as your PhD advisor is to help you complete this transformation!
• Acknowledge that you have the primary responsibility for the successful completion of your PhD. This includes commitment to your work in both the classroom and the laboratory (but mostly the laboratory).
• Be knowledgeable of the policies, deadlines, and requirements of the graduate program, the graduate school, and the university. Comply with all institutional policies, including academic program milestones and laboratory practices. Be intimately familiar with the Chemistry Department Graduate Handbook.
• Keep me up-to-date on any deadlines you need to meet to fulfill departmental requirements.
• Seek out and apply for external fellowships and awards (e.g. NSF GRFP, DOD NDSEG, travel awards). Writing research proposals is an extremely valuable experience, and securing your own funding frees up our dedicated research funds for other purposes. Your teaching duties will also be reduced if you have secured external funding by your second year of studies.
• Do some soul searching as to what type of career you want to pursue. I can help you brainstorm ways of making sure that you get the training you need throughout your graduate years.

Year 1

During your first year, your two main goals are to complete your coursework, and to learn the ropes of your research project in the Weichman Lab.

Coursework

You must take 6 classes that meet the Princeton chemistry PhD program’s breadth requirements during your first year. You should discuss your course load with me each semester. You can also consult with senior members of the group to hear about what courses they found most useful. Some courses I recommend generally are:

Fall:

Core physical chemistry courses:

• CHM 501: Basic Principles of Quantum Mechanics
  • or ECE 511: Quantum Mechanics with Applications
  • or PHY 505: Quantum Mechanics
  • [taking a grad level quantum course first semester is required, unless you have had prior graduate level quantum mechanics]
• CHM 503: Introduction to Statistical Mechanics

Good breadth courses:

• CHM 522: Advanced Inorganic Chemistry
• CHM 532: Mechanistic and Physical Organic Chemistry

Possibly interesting special topics courses, depending on your research focus:

• MAE 555: Non-Equilibrium Gas Dynamics and Reaction Kinetics
  • Good for gas phase folks
• ECE 554 / MSE 553: Nonlinear Optics
  • Good for ultrafast & comb folks
• ECE 560: Fundamentals of Nanophotonics
  • May be good for polariton folks
• AOS 527: Atmospheric Radiative Transfer
  • For folks doing aerosol/atmospheric work
• AOS 593: Aerosol Chemistry and Physics
  • For folks doing aerosol/atmospheric work
• ECE 568: Implementations of Quantum Information

Not currently offered as of fall 2025, but keep an eye out:

• PHY 557: Electronic Methods in Experimental Physics
• ECE 550: Laser Spectroscopy: New Technologies and Applications
• ECE 541: Quantum Material Spectroscopy

Spring:

• CHM 502: Advanced Quantum Chemistry
• CHM 504: Molecular Spectroscopy
• CHM 510: Topics in Physical Chemistry: Computational Quantum Chemistry
• CHM 512: Molecular Reaction Dynamics
  • New course Marissa is developing with Alice Kunin as of spring ’26, recommended!
• MSE 505: Characterization of Materials
• PHY 551: Atomic Physics

There is some flexibility for you to take other classes that interest you, but you should confirm your course schedule with me before registration. A split of fall/spring courses of either 3/3 or 4/2 is acceptable. It’s wise to start with a plan for 4/2 which gives you the flexibility to drop a fall course.

Research

When you first join the group, I will likely assign you to a particular project or subgroup of the lab. Your goal is to learn about as much of what we do as possible, and start gaining the skills that will let you achieve independence in the lab in the coming years. Learn the ins and outs of your experiment. Keep a running list of questions or points of confusion and proactively talk to senior group members or Marissa about them. Start reading the relevant literature and curating a reference list.

By the spring of your first year, you should be devoting time in lab each weekday to make progress on our research goals.

The summer after your first year in the lab is critical. Summer is typically the most productive time for research because we are generally free from teaching and coursework obligations. This is the time you should be gaining the most experience in the lab and getting the results that will form the basis of your general exams during year 2. Often once the academic year starts, research productivity wanes as people start teaching. Failing to make good progress in your first summer will make your qualifying exam much more challenging.

Finally, if you have not already done so in your first year and are eligible (must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident), you should apply for the NSF GRFP fellowship. This fellowship is prestigious and provides 3 full years of support. The deadline for this application is usually in October, so the summer is a good time to start preparing your application. I am always available to discuss and help revise fellowship proposals.

Year 2

The main programmatic goals in your second year are fulfilling your teaching requirements and passing your general exams, while continuing your research progress in the group.

General Exams

The details about the General Exams format are given in the Princeton Chemistry Graduate Handbook.

The General Exam is offered in both January and April/May of your second year. Please consult with Marissa to determine the best time window in which to schedule your exam.

You will prepare a written proposal based on your area of thesis research, as well as a written independent research proposal in your general area of research, but not directly related to your thesis. You will prepare presentations on both proposals and give an oral defense of each in front of your Generals Committee.

In the fall of your second year, you should begin outlining your General Exams proposals and presentation. We will schedule a one-on-one advising meeting to discuss these plans mid-way through the fall semester. You should come prepared to discuss a detailed outline on this topic so we can refine it before you actually start writing. I should receive a complete first draft from you by the end of the fall semester.

Near the end of the fall semester, we will hold a group meeting dedicated for you to practice your General Exams. This meeting will simulate the experience as much as possible, but will primarily focus on the first half of the exam in which you explain your research progress and plan while fielding questions. Your objectives in the presentation are to establish the context of your research, explain why your particular project is important, show your progress, and discuss your future plans. You will need to demonstrate your competence in the fundamental knowledge relevant to your project by answering questions that arise along the way. If you like, we can also schedule a review of your outside proposal.

We will throw a group party for you following your successful exam!

Teaching

As part of the Chemistry Ph.D. degree requirements, you must teach at least one semester full time (20 hours/week) or two semesters part-time (10 hours/week). Unless you have an external graduate fellowship like the NSF GRFP, you will teach two semesters full time during your second year so your tuition and stipend can be supported via the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.

Provided that the Weichman Lab has sufficient research funding, you will not be asked to teach beyond your second year. However, if you are interested in additional teaching assignments later on in your graduate career, particularly if you are interested in a career path involving teaching, you should discuss this with Marissa.

Research Progress

During your second year you should continue making significant progress on your research.

It is natural to slow down on research due to your teaching responsibilities or in the weeks leading up to your General Exams as you turn more of your attention to studying and preparing. However, it is still important to do as much as you can to push your research progress ahead. Often it is through the research process itself that you will gain the knowledge needed to answer questions during your General Exams!

During this year you will likely still work closely with a more senior graduate student or postdoc who will provide day-to-day guidance.

Year 3

In Year 3, you will be partly supported by the Chemistry Department Taylor Fellowship, and should be prepared to work on research full-time.

By this point in your Ph.D. you should be gaining day-to-day independence in the laboratory. You should understand your project well enough to be able to work without a more senior student or postdoc looking over your shoulder, and you should be able to plan out your own experiments. Ideally, you will be writing a first-author paper about your project during Year 3, and you should be making contributions that merit your co-authorship on other papers in the group.

You will be expected to present your Third Year Seminar to the department. This is a 25-minute formal talk on your research progress, and should be treated as a big opportunity to hone your presentation and public speaking skills. Your talk should be aimed at a group of chemists who are not experts in your field. You will give a practice seminar to the group at least a couple of weeks in advance of your scheduled presentation date, where we will provide constructive criticism.

We will take you out for a group dinner after your 3rd year seminar!

Finally, in Year 3 you should begin giving thought to your post-graduation plans. Do you want to pursue a postdoc position or go straight into the workforce? Do you want to teach? What kinds of experience or skills would it be useful to obtain to prepare you for this career? You should expect Marissa to ask you these questions in an individual meeting during Year 3.

Year 4+

At this stage, you should be taking on a leadership role in the group and especially on your project. Ideally, you will be mentoring and training younger grad students who are joining the group, and you will be writing papers and giving talks about your research. You should be able to contribute new research ideas to the group and start setting the overall direction of your project, in consultation with Marissa.

In these years you should also be building a professional network and making contacts who can help you with the next stages of your career. Ideally some of your work involves collaboration with other scientists who will be able to write you letters of recommendation for future positions.

Ultimately there are no objective standards that will determine exactly when you are ready to finish your PhD. I expect that most students, barring major leaves of absence or other significant obstacles, will be able to complete their thesis after 5 to 5.5 years in the group.

There are three formal program requirements to complete before graduation – the Out of Field Proposal, the dissertation, and the Final Public Oral – all of which are described in more detail in the Graduate Handbook.

Out of Field Proposal (OFP)

At least one month prior to your Final Public Oral, you will prepare a second original research proposal, not directly related to your thesis research, and defend it before your Thesis Advisory Committee. The proposal must be written and distributed to your Thesis Advisory Committee at least two weeks before the OFP date.

People often complete their OFP close to the end of their degree and defend a proposal written for their planned postdoctoral work. This is a very efficient way to proceed if it works for you!

You should discuss your ideas for the OFP proposal with Marissa in advance of writing it, and send Marissa a draft of your proposal at least a week before it must be sent to the committee.

Dissertation

If you have published first-author papers, those papers can serve as thesis chapters, decreasing the amount of actual new writing that you need to do. Regardless, you must also prepare an initial thesis chapter that introduces and reviews the field, providing general context for your work. I also expect you to write an experimental chapter that includes details and designs relevant to future group members (but that may have been too specific to include in peer-reviewed publications).

You must complete your written thesis and submit it to your readers (Marissa and one other relevant reader) well in advance (~7 weeks) of your scheduled FPO. You must give Marissa at least 2 weeks to review your thesis draft and give you feedback. Marissa is also more than happy to read individual thesis chapters as you write them.

Final Public Oral (FPO), i.e. Thesis Defense

The FPO is the last formal requirement for your PhD. You will give a full ~hour-long public lecture, followed by questions from both the audience and your thesis committee. The thesis committee will then meet to evaluate your performance. If you pass, your PhD is awarded.

I will not approve you to schedule your FPO unless I am confident that your research progress and preparation are sufficient and that you will succeed! We will throw a group party for you following your FPO.

Postdocs

In addition to everything outlined on the Expectations for all group members page, I expect postdocs in the Weichman Lab to:

• Develop a high level of independence in your research project and build your own scientific vision
• Mentor undergraduate and graduate students on their research projects
• Be a representative for the Weichman Lab, and present your work to the broader scientific community, in our department and at conferences
• Apply for external funding when possible. I will hire postdocs when there is funding available for at least a year. However, applying for external funding is a valuable experience and, if awarded, may allow you a more flexible stay in the group, and will release those dedicated funds for other purposes
• Start to apply for jobs when you are ready, typically by the beginning of the 3rd year of your postdoc. Talk to me about timing and how best to prepare for positions inside or outside academia
• Treat the rest of the lab to your unique expertise

Undergraduates

Big Picture

Undergraduate researchers in the Weichman Lab are expected to:

• Assist other lab members with running experiments and analysis
• Ask questions tirelessly and with conviction!
• Show up, be reliable, and be willing to help
• Work with your grad student or postdoc mentor to determine your weekly schedule. If you are not able to come in during your normal scheduled time, you must let your mentor know.
• If receiving course credit for your research, you must attend our weekly all-hands group meetings as well as your specific subgroup project meeting.

Getting Started

Once you have joined the lab, you will typically partner with a graduate student or postdoc mentor who will be your day-to-day contact. You are expected to work out a schedule with your mentor so that they can find things for you to do and know when you will be available. Over your first several months in the group, I expect that you’ll work closely to support the project that your mentor is working on and learn your way around the lab.

It often works best for undergrads to start working with us full-time during the summer before continuing on for semester-time work.

Expectations

You should arrange times with your mentor to contribute in the lab, and I expect you to attend our group meetings and subgroup project meetings unless the time conflicts with your class schedule. Your main priority should be succeeding in your academic coursework, and occasionally that may mean that you do not have much time to contribute to undergraduate research. If you are becoming overwhelmed with your courses, please let your mentor and me know so that we can modify our plans accordingly. The idea is to make sure that we’re not expecting you to show up when you need time to study. At minimum, please continue attending group meeting.

That said, what you will get out of undergraduate research is what you put in. If you feel that you are unable to commit enough time to make the experience worthwhile, please do discuss this with me.

As you become more comfortable in the lab and gain experience, you may have the opportunity to pursue your own semi-independent project. The project could be something we have already planned that you will take the lead on, or it could be your own idea that you develop with me and a mentor.

Support for Applying to Graduate School

Unlike many professional programs (like medical school), chemistry PhD programs pay you to complete your degree. Graduate students receive tuition waivers and a stipend of $30k+ during their studies. If you are interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry, please talk to me and group members for more information about what it is like so you can decide if it’s the right path for you.

Most students apply to graduate programs in the fall of their senior year. Priority deadlines tend to start in mid-November, but dates in December are most common. To apply, you will need unofficial copies of your transcript, three letters of recommendation (preferably from professors), a statement of research interests, and a personal statement. Many programs also require the general GRE (though it is increasingly being phased out).

If you are interested in applying, start early: you need relationships with professors to get good letters. The best people to ask are those you’ve done research with. But you can also get letters from your course professors. The best way to make sure a course professor can write you a good letter is to not only do well in their class, but attend office hours, ask questions, and talk to them! They need to remember you personally and have specific memories. When emailing a course professor for a reference letter, it usually helps to remind them what class of theirs you were in, what you enjoyed about it, and attach your CV and research statement. Ask them if they’re willing to write you a letter, and tell them the approximate number of schools you plan to apply to and the earliest deadline.

I will of course write you a letter, and I can also work with you on your research and personal statements and tell you whatever I know about the schools you are interested in. I may also be able to suggest schools based on your interests. The best time to talk about specific schools/programs is in the summer before you apply, but we can always talk earlier!

Weichman Lab Policies

As a team who needs to work together to solve challenging problems, it is important that we establish some ground rules about communication and teamwork to foster a healthy working environment.

See the pages in this section for more information about our group’s policies.

Safety

Maintaining a safe working environment is the most important day-to-day obligation that we have, and it is a responsibility shared by everyone working in the laboratory. We will be handling compressed gases, some of them toxic, and will be working with high voltage power supplies, cryogens, high power lasers, vacuum equipment, and chemicals. Any of these things if used in an unsafe manner can cause severe injury. In this laboratory, we will maintain high standards for safety, following guidelines set forth in the resources and training materials provided for us by EH&S and in our Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

You are required to complete all training activities deemed necessary for the hazards you will encounter, and you are encouraged to seek additional training as well. Training is done through the Princeton EH&S website. At minimum, lab members are required to remain current on:

• Fundamentals of Laboratory Safety
• Fundamentals of Laser Safety

In addition to online training, we maintain SOPs for our research activities that involve potential safety risks. Upon joining the group, we will introduce you to the SOPs. As you begin working in the lab, you will need to receive SOP-specific training for the activities they cover before you are authorized to proceed. Up-to-date versions of all SOPs will be available in a shared group Dropbox folder.

In the laboratory, you are expected to conduct your work in a manner that preserves your safety and that of your labmates. As we design new experiments, we will do so with safety in mind, developing new SOPs and revising them as needed to ensure we are always following best practices. If you ever feel that you are not adequately trained to perform a task, please get someone who is trained to assist you.

Finally, you are expected to be prepared to respond appropriately in the event of an emergency. An emergency response card will be located just inside the door to lab space, which provides brief resources that are expanded upon in the department’s Emergency Action Plan.

Use of AI

Big Picture

• As scientists, we have to think critically about hard problems, stand up in front of audiences of our peers, defend our ideas, and argue over subtle points in talks, at poster sessions, in generals exams, and in job interviews. There is no substitute for your own reasoning in these situations! If you take one thing away from our group AI policy, it is that any use of AI should be in pursuit of enhancing your capacity and critical thinking skills to perform well in the situations mentioned above, rather than turning your brain off and potentially compromising these skills.
• AI is a tool, just like a calculator, a search engine, or spell check. It is fine to use AI tools in your research, but you must be vigilant not to lean on them too much. It is much better used to speed up technical tasks like coding than to take shortcuts for more nuanced tasks like scientific writing.
• Active research areas are messy, nuanced, and always evolving. AI might be great at introductory chemistry or physics, but it is imperfect and often does not get the facts correct when it comes to active research topics. It also has a tendency to hallucinate. Default to being skeptical, double check your work, and look at primary sources when using AI for anything research related!

Some basic guiding principles

• Think first. Before turning to AI, develop your own understanding of the problem. You may use AI to refine, accelerate, or check your work; avoid using it to generate anything from scratch.
• Go read the primary source. If you use AI as a search engine, be wary of what it shows you, as it can pull incomplete or incorrect information from other sources.
• Own your work. Everything you present or publish under your name must represent your own genuine understanding and conclusions. If you cannot explain, defend, or reconstruct your findings independently, that is a big problem!
• Use your own words. In general, do not copy AI-generated text directly into any piece of writing. Instead, write a first draft, then, if you must, use AI to edit, polish, fix grammar, or refine the final piece.
• Use your own sober scientific voice. AI has a habit of using a hyped-up, flashy style in scientific writing, particularly in proposal writing. This is not appropriate in most academic contexts. Do not use any stylistic choices suggested by AI that you would not have naturally used in writing something yourself in your own voice!
• Double check formatting. AI often does weird things in formatting technical text, including incorrectly formatted super/subscripts, that can cause problems down the line in publications, etc. Clean up all text you run through AI.
• When in doubt, disclose. If AI played a significant role in producing something, disclose that to your PI, co-authors, or collaborators.
• Take responsibility. You are accountable for any errors introduced by AI tools that you use. Verify your results critically. AI often hallucinates and produces plausible-sounding nonsense. Treat any AI output with skepticism.

This policy does not enumerate every scenario and AI tools are evolving quickly. When in doubt, ask yourself two questions:

• would I be comfortable explaining exactly how I used AI here to my PI, a labmate, a co-author, or a reviewer?
• have I done the intellectual work myself, or have I outsourced it?

If you are uncertain whether a particular use is appropriate, just ask! The goal here is not to police AI use but to ensure that it enhances your research and communication skills rather than undermining them. Use your best judgment and maintain your scientific integrity!

Some more detailed usage suggestions follow below.

Writing

Being able to produce clear, nicely-articulated, technically-correct scientific writing is a core skill that you are expected to develop during your PhD. AI is not a replacement for honing your own writing skills and voice.

ok uses

• proofreading and grammar checking
• polishing writing for non-native English speakers
• asking for feedback on clarity, structure, or flow of your own writing
• rephrasing a sentence you have already written to improve readability
• if running your writing through AI to polish or refine, do so at most on the level of a sentence or two, or else it can get loosey-goosey with technical details and meaning can get lost

best practices

• all writing submitted in any public forum (manuscript, conference abstract, text on slides and posters, dissertations, proposals) must ultimately be in your own words
• independently verify any facts, figures, or citations suggested by AI! AI tools frequently fabricate citations; never cite a reference you have not personally read
• disclose significant AI assistance in any piece of writing to your co-authors
• follow the AI disclosure policies of any journal or conference you submit to

Coding

AI coding assistants can be useful and productive for generating research code. In some ways, using AI to figure out the best way to code something is not unlike lifting code snippets from, e.g., Stack Exchange. However, AI coding requires active oversight!

ok uses

• generating code snippets
• generating/formatting data plots
• debugging code, or explaining what a piece of code does
• converting code between programming languages (e.g., MATLAB to Python)

best practices

• read and understand every line of AI-generated code before using it
• test AI-generated code thoroughly! Do not assume it is correct
• be able to explain any code line-by-line that underpins data processing that ultimately goes in a paper or presentation
• as with any piece of code: do not blindly trust numerical outputs! Always validate your code with known test-cases

Learning and thinking

It is completely fine to use AI as a search engine or an alternative to Google Scholar. But be wary of what it shows you: AI often pulls incomplete or incorrect information from other sources. AI can also be a great tutor for learning new concepts, but tends to be better the simpler the concept is — it has tons of data on introductory chemistry or physics topics, but much less accurate information and nuance about active research areas.

Ultimately, if you are really trying to understand something, go read the primary source. There is no substitute or shortcut to doing a bit of grinding to internalize material and develop your own working intuition.

ok uses

• using AI the way you use a search engine or Google Scholar to find the right article or textbook to read… but then go read that article or book!
• asking AI to quiz you on material you are trying to learn or generate new practice problems — use caution the more advanced the topic
• getting explanations of unfamiliar mathematical derivations or methods — use caution the more advanced the topic
• explaining a concept in multiple ways until it clicks — use caution the more advanced the topic
• exploring adjacent topics or getting recommendations for further reading

best practices

• when using AI to learn material for a course, always adhere to course policy!!! Many courses (including Marissa’s) forbid the use of AI when working directly on problem sets and exams.
• if using AI as a tutor, always attempt practice problems independently first; at most ask AI to check your work
• after using AI to understand something, close the app and make sure you can articulate your own understanding. Be honest with yourself about whether you have actually learned something or just found the answer.
• use AI as a learning aid, not a shortcut.

Vacation and Leave

Big Picture

Taking time for vacation is an important part of keeping yourself fresh and productive. The Weichman Lab abides by the official Princeton University policies for graduate student and postdoc vacation time. That said, I do not formally count vacation days, so as long as you are taking fewer than 4 weeks of personal vacation time per year, I will not object.

You do not need to formally request a vacation, but you do need to give me and the lab advance notice of when you’ll be away. You also do not need to ask me for permission for doctor’s appointments, errands you need to run, etc. If you’ll be gone at a time you’re normally around, just let your labmates know so they can plan around the absence if needed.

Princeton University vacation policy for graduate students

Graduate study is understood to be a full-time commitment on the part of students. During an academic year, (September 1 – August 31), graduate student degree candidates may take up to four weeks of vacation, including days taken off during regular University holidays and fall, winter, and spring breaks. The specific periods taken as vacation must not conflict with your academic responsibilities, coursework, research, or teaching.

More information can be found here.

If a graduate student is an Assistant in Instruction (AI), they must also secure leave approval from their teaching supervisor. As a general rule, AIs are not allowed to take vacation during weeks that classes are in session or during reading period and exam time. AIs who take vacation without receiving leave approval from their teaching supervisor may be considered no longer in good academic standing.

International students who plan to travel abroad must contact the University’s Davis International Center to ensure that they comply with their visa regulations and do not experience any difficulty returning to the United States.

Princeton University vacation policy for postdoctoral researchers

Like other Princeton University employees, postdoctoral research associates earn vacation at a rate of two work days for each month of service, resulting in 24 vacation days during each year of service.

Scheduling of vacation time is managed through the Human Resources self-service website. More information can be found here.

Presentations, Conferences, and Travel

I strongly encourage you to seek out opportunities to present your research to the department, research community, or general public. Attending conferences is also a major part of your scientific and professional development. There you will not only present your work, but you will learn about work being done in other groups, meet other graduate students and postdocs working in your field (potential friends and collaborators!), and other senior scientists who may become future mentors and colleagues.

In general, please talk to me well in advance of a conference you’d like to attend so that we can discuss your abstract and our current funding situation.

Travel funding

Resources permitting, I will pay for all students and postdocs to attend roughly one domestic conference of their choice per year provided you apply for or are invited to give a talk or poster. I am also open to sending each group member to one international conference sometime during their time in the group. If you procure your own funding, you are free to attend additional conferences relevant to your research.

I am unfortunately not able to spend our group’s funds to send people to conferences to talk about work carried out in other groups; e.g. if you are a new postdoc in the lab, our grants cannot be used to cover your conference expenses to present on your prior graduate work.

Abstracts

Anyone submitting an abstract for a conference, symposium, etc. should clear this with Marissa first, and circulate a draft abstract to Marissa and all other authors at least one week before the submission deadline.

Posters

Anyone presenting a poster should circulate an initial version to Marissa and all other authors at least one week before the printing deadline.

Practice presentations

Practice presentations are important because (a) presenting your work is a huge part of being successful in science and it’s important that you practice those skills as often as possible, and (b) you are going to be representing not only yourself but also the rest of the lab.

Anyone giving a talk to an external audience for the first time should plan to go over your talk with Marissa at least one week before the real talk. Schedule one or more meetings with Marissa well ahead of time to plan or go over your slides, especially if you haven’t given many talks before.

Everyone is also strongly encouraged to schedule practice talks with the group. Practice talks should be mostly finished (final slides, practiced, and the right length) so that our comments will be as helpful as possible. Not only will this help you feel comfortable with the presentation, it will give you time to implement any feedback.

Some sources of travel funding

• Department Travel Grant: The chemistry department provides each post-generals graduate student a travel grant of up to $1,000 to support domestic or international travel to a scientific conference. Funds can be used for conference registration, travel and lodging. Make sure you use these funds!
• The Dean’s Fund for Scholarly Travel: This fund supports Ph.D. students invited to present their work at a conference or meeting, maximum grant amount within a year is $800. There are three application deadlines per year, September 1, December 1 and March 1. More information here.
• Most conferences have funding reserved to support student registration fees or travel for those who apply – you should never leave this money on the table!

Some conferences relevant to our field of work

• Pacific Conference on Spectroscopy and Dynamics (annually in January)
• Dynamics of Molecular Collisions conference (odd years in July)
• Cold and Controlled Molecules and Ions (even years)
• Various Gordon Research Conferences and Gordon Research Seminars
  • Molecular Interactions & Dynamics (even years in the summer)
  • Vibrational Spectroscopy
  • Electron Donor-Acceptor
• Cavity Enhanced Spectroscopy Meeting (odd summers)
• International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy (annually in the summer)
• International Symposium on Molecular Beams (odd years in the summer)
• Some special symposia at ACS regional or national meetings
• Some special symposia at APS regional or national meetings

Lab Notebooks

Anyone conducting research in the Weichman Lab must maintain a lab notebook for keeping track of discussions, experiments, and taking notes. Your lab notebook is the primary record of your research in the group, and these records must be made available to federal funding agencies and the university in case any questions arise about your work. As a result, it is absolutely essential that you keep a current, complete, and organized lab notebook.

You may also want to use an electronic notebook (e.g. OneNote or Evernote) as your primary lab notebook, or to supplement a paper copy. The important thing is that you are keeping notes, they are organized, and that they are in one place.

Lab Computer Backups

Always assume that as soon as you turn your back the computer on which you have been working will explode. Thinking such dire thoughts will make it easier to follow these guidelines:

• If you save files to a shared lab drive, backup will automatically happen. When working on a lab computer save all of your files to the shared drive. If you are working on lab projects on your own computer, transfer these files to the shared lab drive regularly to make sure they are in one place, and backed up.
• Lab members should back up their personal computers to the cloud or using an external hard drive, preferably through an automated backup program that runs at least daily

Make sure your work is always backed up.

Purchasing

In general: our research funding is a precious, limited resource. Everything that we purchase should be a justifiable expense towards our research goals. This is particularly true when charging a federal grant. Please be reasonable and conservative with lab funds. That said, the funds exist to make our research possible, so if you need something in order to proceed, absolutely check with Marissa and move forward with purchasing.

Marissa will typically let you know a grant chartstring that you can use for expenses for your project; you can expect that the best chartstring to use might change on an annual basis. Marissa will let you know if and when your specific project is moved to another funding source. If you aren’t sure where to charge something, just shoot Marissa a Slack message or email!

When in doubt about whether or not to purchase a specific item, please consult me or a senior group member.

Authorship

The Weichman Lab follows these guidelines with respect to authorship. An author is anyone who:

• Contributes to the intellectual scientific content of the manuscript in a meaningful way
• Contributes to the research design, data collection or analysis in a meaningful way
• Contributes to the writing of the manuscript in a meaningful way

Being an author means understanding the content and being willing to take public responsibility for the work: a large part of this concerns the conceptual motivation and implications of the research. In practice, conceptual contributions are most often made through helping with the study design, data interpretation, and discussion about a topic.

In the Weichman Lab, we will discuss authorship throughout project development. The first author will be the one who does the majority of the work on the project and who also writes the paper. At times, joint first authorship is appropriate. At times, there will need to be negotiation about who will take on this role, and occasionally this role may change throughout the project.

It is worth pointing out that there are many views regarding authorship, and within any view there are always borderline cases. It’s important that within our own lab we are transparent about authorship discussions and decisions. Please discuss any potential concerns with Marissa as soon as they arise.

Scientific Writing

Becoming a crystal-clear scientific communicator is one of the most important skills you can hone during your PhD and postdoc years. Writing clearly is thinking clearly.

Here are a few resources to help improve your technical writing. The better you familiarize yourself with these resources, the smoother, easier, and faster it will be to work with Marissa on manuscripts, proposals, and other pieces!

• The Weichman Lab style guide can be found here.
• The Science of Scientific Writing, an essay published by George Gopen and Judith Swan in American Scientist, is one of the best resources available on how to improve the clarity of your writing. It can be found here.
• Some helpful ideas: “Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge: Roles and the Writing Process”

available here.

Some Additional Scientific Writing Resources

• ACS, Preparing a Research Report
• The ACS Style guide

See also: Manuscript Preparation and Submission.

Manuscript Preparation and Submission

First Steps

• At some stage in the completion of a project, we will start discussing that it is time to write it up for a journal. Marissa will ask you to outline the article and make a first pass on the figures.
• Once we have consensus on these elements and a general sense of the story, Marissa will ask you to start writing up a first draft of the manuscript. She will probably give you a deadline for when she expects to have the first draft delivered.
• The first draft need not be perfect or even complete. The point is to get the shape of the story down to the point where Marissa can give you actionable feedback.
• Expect to go through many (typically between 5 and 10, sometimes more) rounds of editing with Marissa. Early rounds of editing will focus more on restructuring the document so the story is told in the right order; later rounds of editing will get increasingly specific with language and formatting. This is part of the normal process of shaping the paper into its final, beautiful form!

Manuscript Preparation

• When sending Marissa a draft of a manuscript, please use the following software and formatting:
  • Use Microsoft Word, so Marissa can easily track changes and comments
  • Use Zotero for reference management
  • Include page numbers
  • Include the full author list starting from the first draft, which helps clarify any authorship issues or concerns early on
  • Include headers for all sections (i.e., Introduction, Experimental methods, Results, Discussion, etc.)
• If you have a strong opinion about using different word processing or reference management software, talk to Marissa first. I am willing to work in Overleaf if you strongly prefer it!
• Before sending writing to Marissa, you should proofread it yourself against the group style guide, which can be found here. You can also ask another group member to proofread the manuscript before sending it to Marissa. By taking time to clarify your writing early on, you will become a better writer, and also give Marissa more time to help you with the higher-level manuscript organization and scientific content.
• If we have a journal in mind for submission, read the Author’s Guidelines of that journal early on in manuscript preparation to make sure you are abiding by the correct word limits, section headings, formatting, etc. There is often a specific manuscript template you should use as well.
• Journal submissions are almost always accompanied by an author cover letter. Marissa will usually ask you to put together a first draft of this letter; you can ask her or other group members for an example to reference.

Proofreading

• Abbreviations should be defined the first time they are used in a document. If you don’t use the term more than once, no need to provide an abbreviation.
• Be consistent with hyphenation usage throughout a document.
• Make sure all references/citations are formatted correctly and consistently
• Run spellcheck and grammar check in Word.
• Print your document out and proofread on paper!
• Always show a manuscript (or revision) to all authors before submitting it anywhere, giving them the opportunity and sufficient time to comment

Preprints

• We use the arXiv preprint server to host our manuscripts before they are published
• When submitting to arXiv:
  • Always select the “arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license”
• The primary classification of our work should almost always be Physics > Chemical Physics
• Marissa may want to handle arXiv submission, so always check with her to get the go-ahead before posting your manuscript

Journal Submission

• Throughout the writing process we will discuss which journal is best suited for the manuscript at hand
• We will usually use Marissa’s login credentials to handle manuscript submission; contact her for those credentials for the relevant journal
• Marissa may want to handle final manuscript submission, so always check with her to get the go-ahead before submitting any manuscript or revisions to the publisher.

Revisions

• Manuscript revisions usually need to be turned around on a fairly tight deadline. Marissa will ask you to make the first pass of revisions and the response to reviewers. Please get the first drafts of these items back to Marissa with at least a week to go before the submission deadline to ensure that we have enough time to iterate on the edits.

Proofs

• Go over page proofs carefully, including the references. There is almost always a mistake to catch (ours, or introduced by the publisher)
• Always give all authors the opportunity to weigh in on page proofs before submission

Letters of Recommendation

It is part of Marissa’s job to write letters of recommendation for group members.

You can use this form to request a letter from Marissa, and give her as much information as you can about the deadline, format, official name of the organization, what you are applying for, and so on. Please make sure to upload a current CV as well so that she can boast about your accomplishments. Please give Marissa as much advance notice as possible when requesting letters.

If you are an undergraduate, Marissa will write your letters on her own. For more senior lab members, Marissa will also write your letters on her own, but may ask you to send her a draft of the letter, which she will extensively modify. The first few times you do this it will probably feel awkward. Keep in mind that your goal is to make it as easy as possible for a letter writer to complete the task by the deadline and without error. The draft should have the name of the opportunity you are applying for and details regarding how long Marissa has known you, the projects you have worked on, and so on. This is extremely helpful in jogging her memory and will give her more time to focus on saying good things about you.

Funding

A big part of Marissa’s job is securing research funding for the group.

At some point, you will likely be asked to provide a figure or two for a grant Marissa is writing, provide feedback on the grant, and maybe provide a paragraph or two.

You are entitled to read any grant Marissa has submitted, whether it is ultimately funded or not. Aside from being a good opportunity to learn how grants are written, this will also allow you to see her vision for the lab in the years ahead. Marissa regularly uploads submitted grant proposals to the group Dropbox; feel free to peruse them!

Weichman Lab Values

Science cannot be separated from its social context. Our roles as scientists extend beyond the laboratory; we recognize and value that we are all multi-faceted individuals with unique interests and talents that deserve to be cultivated along with our scientific development. We believe that science benefits from diverse perspectives, and so we seek to foster an inclusive and equitable environment in our research group as well as in the scientific community. We value the health and wellbeing of each group member, and so we strive to maintain a safe and supportive work environment.

As scientists whose research is supported by public funds, we also have an obligation to act as responsible stewards of that support. It is important that we hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards in our data collection, analysis, and presentation, and that we attribute our work properly.

See the pages in this section for more information about our group’s values.

Ethics and Scientific Integrity

All Weichman Lab members have a responsibility to the group, the institutions that support our work, and the broader scientific community to uphold the highest standards of scientific accuracy and integrity. Ethical conduct is essential for maintaining our credibility as scientists. By being in the lab you agree to adhere to professional ethical standards. There is never an excuse for fabricating or misrepresenting data. If you have any questions, or in the unlikely event that you have concerns about a research practice you have seen in the lab, please talk to me immediately.

While many situations arise that require detailed ethical analysis and have no clear-cut right answers, here are a few ethical points that we will strictly adhere to:

• Recordkeeping – We will document the work that we do accurately, striving to keep our desires and other biases from influencing how we record our work. Our records will be kept in such a way as to allow others to repeat our work to verify what we have done.
• Caretaking – It is also important that we prioritize the accuracy of our work while in the lab. Unintentional errors due to inattentiveness or rushing can be extremely damaging and produce results that turn out to be incorrect. It is critical that everything we do is of the highest quality. Double-check your work frequently, and ask other lab members to confirm your work with fresh pairs of eyes.
• Data integrity – Data that we present will be data that we have acquired or generated through the research process. Under no circumstances can one present data entries or figures that depict a desired or anticipated result as if they are results that have been truly measured. When presenting data, we must be prepared to explain in detail its origin, including raw data files, lab notebook entries, processing methods, and source code. If any of these items is missing or incomplete, then the data are invalid and must be independently regenerated or remeasured!
• Honesty – In our dealings with one another, with other scientists, and with the public, we will describe our research methods and results in an honest and complete manner. This means that we do not hide measurements that contradict our hypothesis or “story,” and we do not mislead others with regard to how we generate our data.
• Attribution – Whenever we make use of work that is not our own, we provide attribution to the original source. When a labmate or collaborator assists us, or a discussion with another person leads to an insight, or someone generates a figure for us, or if we make use of data from another group or from the literature, we will prominently acknowledge their contribution.

Group members are expected to be knowledgeable about scientific and professional ethics. To learn more, please read the ACS Ethical and Professional Guidelines.

If you come across an ethical concern or witness potentially unethical behavior, please feel free to discuss it with me confidentially, or if you are not comfortable discussing it with me, you may seek out other faculty or the campus Ombuds Office.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We’d like to imagine that science is for everyone who has the skills needed to succeed regardless of their background or identity. We do not live in that world. Huge groups of people are underrepresented in science, especially in the US: including women, Black people, indigenous people, transgender people, people with disabilities. Particularly underrepresented are those who fall at the intersection of more than one of those areas.

In the Weichman Lab, we view the diversity that group members bring to the lab as a resource, strength, and benefit. We strive to make our group welcoming, supportive, and inclusive and are committed to building a community that serves, respects, values, and supports all researchers, regardless of their race, nationality, ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, or disability status.

We also recognize that people who are underrepresented due to systemic racism and/or sexism face additional barriers that we aim to lower in our group. To do this, we as group members have a responsibility to educate ourselves about the social and cultural factors that perpetuate inequity, as well as the everyday interactions that make underrepresented people feel unwelcome, including microaggressions, implicit bias, and stereotype threat.

To reflect these values, we have the following policies:

• We will treat others with respect and open-mindedness, engaging with one another in good faith. Discussions of politics, religion, social justice, etc., are appropriate within the context of the group, however:
  • Be sensitive and respectful while having these discussions. Understand that some topics can be upsetting, so use discretion. Allow people space to exit a discussion or be willing to move the discussion to another place.
  • Keep an open mind and treat your colleagues with compassion. To have conversations on difficult topics requires active listening. Give people space to discuss their experiences without judgment.
  • Some topics can provoke strong emotional responses, and expressing those emotions is ok. However, verbal/physical attacks, insults, and provocation are unacceptable.
• We will not engage in disrespectful, abusive, or degrading behavior. Overt acts of racism or sexism, and other types of discrimination will not be tolerated. Violation of this policy is grounds for dismissal from the group, and egregious violations will be immediately met with formal reporting to the university which may result in dismissal from the program.

More resources for DEI at Princeton

• Commitments and resources for diversity and inclusion from the Princeton Chemistry Department
• Diversity resources and programs from the Princeton Graduate School
• Commitments and resources for diversity and inclusion from the Princeton University Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity

Reporting

If you experience or witness discrimination, please know that it is not your fault and that you do not deserve to be treated that way. You may report instances of discrimination to Marissa, to the department chair, and/or to the university: Reporting Resources.

If you wish to report an issue anonymously, there are many confidential resources available at Princeton. You can also file an anonymous report through EthicsPoint online, or by calling 1-866-478-9804.

Policy on Sexual Harassment and Misconduct

Sexual violence and harassment are completely unacceptable in any context. Everyone is expected to understand and comply with the Title IX Sexual Harassment policy and University Sexual Misconduct policy.

• The Title IX Sexual Harassment policy encompasses physical sexual assault, domestic and dating violence, stalking, and quid pro quo interactions. Group members are responsible for understanding what constitutes sexual violence, as well as the importance of consent. More information is available here.
• The University Sexual Misconduct policy additionally covers all verbal and physical behavior directed at an individual based on sex that has the effect of interfering with that individual’s educational experience, working conditions, or living conditions by creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment. More information is available here.

Everyone deserves to work in an environment free from sexual violence and harassment. Some unacceptable conduct that is based on a person’s gender or sexuality may not strictly meet the definition of sexual harassment, but is nevertheless covered by our group’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policy.

If you want to report sexual harassment or sexual violence that you have experienced or witnessed, you may report it to Marissa, the department chair, or one of Princeton University’s reporting resources, where confidential and anonymous options are available. Please be advised that Marissa, like all faculty, is a “responsible employee” and is obligated to make a report to the university if made aware of sexual harassment or misconduct. Aside from that obligation, Marissa will do anything she can to provide support and resources.

If you experience sexual harassment or assault, it is important for you to know that it is not your fault. Our society often causes victims to internalize feelings of guilt and self-doubt, leading them to question their own behavior and make them less likely to report the offense. This can also result in anxiety and depression, furthering the damage of the event. Please reach out for support. Marissa is more than willing to provide support and help with reporting. If you are not comfortable discussing with her, are unsure about making a report, or are experiencing a crisis, contact a confidential advocate.

Resources

• Princeton University Reporting Resources
• SHARE (Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources and Education) offers 24/7 crisis support and confidential advocates, and can be reached at (609) 258-3310

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Academia can be a stressful environment. Undergraduates are navigating multiple classes, each with different sets of expectations, while also undergoing major personal change and thinking about their future. Graduate students are under pressure to succeed at research, pass generals exams, publish papers, produce a thesis, and figure out what to do after graduate school. Postdocs are expected to show a high level of scientific performance in a very compact timeline. At the faculty level, there is immense pressure to get tenure, publish, and secure grants. To be successful in this kind of high-pressure environment, it is important to take care of your mental health.

Experiencing adverse symptoms related to mental health is common, and they should be talked about openly. These conditions can be treated, but many of them make a person suffering less willing to reach out for help on their own.

The Princeton UHS has several types of mental health and wellbeing resources available. They offer urgent consultations, individual counseling, referrals to local providers, and online health services.

Just like your physical health, there are regular steps you can take to help ensure your mental health:

• Exercise regularly
• Maintain a healthy diet
• Get a sufficient amount of sleep
• Reduce alcohol and caffeine intake
• Learn what triggers anxiety for you
• Work reasonable hours and give yourself breaks
• Talk to a trusted friend, counselor, or therapist

Conflict Resolution

While we strive to maintain an environment that is collaborative and supportive, there may be times when conflict arises. A central value of our group is to maintain a culture of respect, and this is especially important when there is conflict. If you find yourself in a conflict with a labmate, please adhere to these guidelines:

• Talk directly and privately with the person – The first step in resolving conflict is to try and handle it directly with the person involved, and to do so in private. Calling out someone in front of the rest of the group should generally not be your first course of action, as it is more likely to heighten the conflict than solve it.
• Give the benefit of the doubt – Often conflict arises when someone makes a careless remark, or when something they have said had unintended connotations. Many times gently making them aware of the situation can lead to change.
• Avoid “you” language – When discussing a conflict, avoid accusatory language and instead focus on expressing your own perspective. Instead of saying something like “You always leave the workspace messy and expect me to clean up after you,” try saying “I’ve found myself having to clean up our shared workspace before I’m able to get anything done.”
• Separate the person from the problem – Similar to the previous point, keep the focus on the problem you want to solve rather than the person you’re having a conflict with.
• Give each other space – When conflict emerges, it can provoke emotional responses that can lead to unproductive or harmful conversations. If you feel yourself getting upset or heated, or you notice the other person doing so, take a step back and continue the discussion at another time.
• Be open-minded and use good faith – Consider that the person you’re talking to may have valid points, and before dismissing them or being defensive, think about ways you can acknowledge their concerns. Instead of “You know I didn’t mean it that way, you’re exaggerating”, perhaps “I’m sorry I made you feel that way. Would it help if I [propose alternative]?”
• Avoid venting to other group members – When there is conflict, it’s tempting to want to vent about it to other labmates. This is rarely productive; it’s best to handle the problem directly with the person. If you need to vent, do so with a friend or someone outside the lab who doesn’t need to interact with the person that you’re venting about.

If there is conflict between lab members and you either cannot work it out or need advice on how to handle it, please bring it to Marissa. She can act as a sounding board for your concerns and offer possible solutions, or can act as a mediator in the conflict. If a conflict reaches an impasse, she can, as a last resort, come up with a fair solution. As your advisor, Marissa is also available to talk about other problems that affect your life as a member of the lab and as a scientist, whether personal, social, or professional. She can also try to help navigate conflicts within the department or with other faculty.

You may also have conflict with me (Marissa) at some point. I know that I am not perfect and make mistakes just like anyone else, and when I do so, I want you to feel comfortable discussing the issue with me. I want to have the opportunity to address your concerns, and make every effort to actively listen, to avoid being defensive, and to look for solutions.

If, however, you do not feel comfortable discussing a conflict with me, there are other resources available for you. You can talk to:

• The graduate program manager (currently Sarah Mullins, smullins@princeton.edu)
• The Director of Graduate Studies (currently Erik Sorensen, ejs@princeton.edu)
• The department chair (currently Paul Chirik, pchirik@princeton.edu)
• Other professors in the department that you feel comfortable speaking with
• The university Ombuds Office, which is confidential and offers individual consultations and group mediation services.

Career Resources

This is a collection of useful resources for professional development and job searching. See the pages in this section for more information.

Note that the Princeton Center for Career Development and Princeton gradFUTURES host numerous events aimed at career development for PhD students. You are encouraged to attend relevant events!

Graduate fellowship programs

Federal Fellowships for US Citizens / Permanent Residents

• NSF GRFP
  • Here is a collection of some very helpful advice for applying
• DoD NDSEG

Private Foundation Fellowships

• Hertz Fellowship
• Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships
  • for new Americans (first and second generation immigrants)

Examples of successful applications:

• alexhunterlang.com/nsf-fellowship

Postdoctoral fellowship programs & resources

Various institutions maintain lists of postdoctoral fellowship opportunities that are worth perusing

• https://postdocs.yale.edu/professional-career-development/postdoctoral-appointment/funding-opportunities
• academicpositions.com/career-advice/major-postdoc-fellowships

Princeton University postdoc fellowships

• Princeton Quantum Institute
• Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowships
• Princeton Center for Complex Materials Fellowships
• Andlinger Center Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow Program

Private foundation fellowships

• Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Schmidt Science Fellowships

International fellowships for postdocs coming to the US

• Lindemann (UK citizens coming to US)
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowships (EU citizens coming to US)

International fellowships for postdocs outside the US

• Humboldt Research Fellowships (non-Germans going to Germany)
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Postdoctoral Fellowships

National Labs postdoc positions

• Hruby postdoctoral fellowships are a potential entrypoint for women in science into leadership positions at Sandia National Labs
• National Research Council postdoctoral fellowships are an entrypoint into positions at many national labs, including NIST, NOAA, AFRL, NRL, etc.

Other possibly useful resources

• Getting the most out of your postdoc — sciencemag.org/careers/2016/09/getting-most-out-your-postdoc

Job hunt resources

Job listings

• Chemjobber is a really great resource that aggregates all kinds of chemistry-adjacent job positions. A very good place to poke around in to get some ideas about what trajectories might be possible!
• The ACS maintains a listing site for chemistry-related jobs
• Inside Higher Ed aggregates job postings, career advice, and useful information like data on salaries, with a focus on academic jobs
• Chronicle of Higher Education also aggregates academic job postings

Science Policy Fellowships

• AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships
• ACS Public Policy Fellowships
• APS Congressional Science Fellowships
• IEEE Congressional Fellowships

National Labs

• Hruby postdoctoral fellowships are a potential entrypoint for women in science into leadership positions at Sandia National Labs
• National Research Council postdoctoral fellowships are an entrypoint into positions at many national labs, including NIST, NOAA, AFRL, NRL, etc.

Academic job resources

• Chemjobber aggregates academic job postings in chemistry departments each year
• UC Berkeley’s career center maintains a useful webpage about what it takes to go on the academic job market, and gives some guidance for things you can start doing to prepare, even as a graduate student
• The ACS maintains a book called “And Gladly Teach”, available online here for folks considering academic careers, conducting academic job searches, and starting academic jobs
• ACS Tips for Securing a Faculty Position and C&EN 10 Tips to Help you Get a Faculty Job
• HHMI’s “Making the Right Moves” book has some handy advice on the academic job search
• Radhika Nagpal’s The Awesomest 7-Year Postdoc or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tenure-Track Faculty Life
• Daniel Gonzales’s On the Job Market
• Arjun Raj’s Thoughts on applying for faculty positions