The Lonely Pipette : helping scientists do better science

TLP #34 : The "right" To-Do list - Ana Boskovic

• Jonathan Weitzman & Renaud Pourpre • Season 3 • Episode 8

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This month we talk with Ana Boskovic about her experience of setting up her own lab and hiring a new team

  • Ana began studying languages and literature… but found it too easy, so she switched
  • She questions whether you are ever ‘ready’ to set up your own lab
  • It’s important that you find the right ‘fit’ for the place you want to work and this should be a supportive environment
  • She learnt early that it is important to hire people with diverse personalities who each fill a gap in the skills the lab needs
  • Ana also says it’s important to always be yourself and not pretend to be something you are not
  • She remembers that hiring was the biggest challenge in setting up her own team
  • They need to be dedicated but also well-integrated into the team and the lab culture
  • She balances ambitions with pragmatic considerations to avoid biased approaches
  • Ana loves ‘to do’ lists as a source of satisfaction and to help planning
  • She says you need to be able to trust and respect your mentor because you know they want you to succeed
  • Mentors need to learn to have a conversation and be sensitive to mentees’ needs
  • Ana insists that mentors need to be able to apologize if they get it wrong
  • Ana uses her train ride to plan her day and write her To-Do list
  • She tells us about her favourite Roman emperor, Diocletian
  • She reminds us that “The plural of anecdote is not data”


She mentioned these labs, scientists and institutions

University of Zagreb https://www.unizg.hr/homepage/
EMBL Rome https://www.embl.org/research/faculty/rome/
Maria Elena Torres-Padilla (podcast episode from Season 1)
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1356877/episodes/6624301-tlp-6-just-go-for-it-following-your-curiosity-and-excitement-maria-elena-torres-padilla
Maria Elena Torres-Padilla (lab)
https://www.helmholtz-munich.de/en/ies/pi/maria-elena-torres-padilla
Oliver Rando
https://www.umassmed.edu/randolab/
Edith Heard (podcast episode from Season 2)
https://thelonelypipette.buzzsprout.com/1356877/episodes/11387623-tlp-12-science-without-frontiers-edith-heard
F Scott Fitzgerald
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald
Diocletian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian
Split, Croatia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split,_Croatia

To find out more about Ana visit these links 

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To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/