Couldnt cut it as a scientist. How lab managers and technicians are smashing outdated stereotypes
Elaine Fitzcharles, a senior lab manager at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), says the role is sometimes wrongly perceived as someone who \u201ccouldn\u2019t cut it as a scientist.\u201d
Fitzcharles and her team oversee five BAS research stations, its main facility in Cambridge, UK, and the research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough. Their responsibilities include advising on health and safety, import licenses, and chemicals and kit can be taken into the field.
Their skillsets are completely different to researcher colleagues\u2019, she argues in the fourth episode of a six-part Working Scientist podcast series about team science. \u201cRecognising that everybody brings different things to the table gives you a much stronger organization, and much better science output,\u201d Fitzcharles adds.
Terri Adams, a scientific glassblower at the University of Oxford, UK, says speaking up at work helps to promote the contributions of lab managers and technicians: \u201cIt pays to ask for investment, to tell people what you can do, and to be proactive in seeking things out and publicising yourself rather than sitting back,\u201d she says.
One obvious example of recognition for lab managers and technicians is to acknowledge their contributions in publications. But Devin Lake, a lab manager and PhD student at Michigan State University in East Lansing, has mixed feelings about this. \u201cSome lab managers don\u2019t intend on moving forward in academia, so it doesn\u2019t matter to them whether or not their name is added,\u201d he says.
Team Science showcases the roles of research managers, administrators and technicians, and their often hidden contributions to the scientific enterprise.
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