【学术科研】2001年蒲慕明教授写给他实验室学生的信

lab members:

Over the past several months, it has become clear to me that if there is no drastic change in the lab, Poo lab will soon cease to be a productive, first-rate lab that you chose to join in the first place. Lab progress reports over the past six months have clearly shown the lack of progress in most projects. One year ago, when we first moved to Berkeley, I expressed clearly to everyone my expectation from each one in the lab. The most important thing is what I consider to be sufficient amount of time and effort in the lab work. I mentioned that about 60 hr working time per week is what I consider the minimal time an average successful young scientist in these days has to put into the lab work. There may be a few rare lucky fellows like Florian, who had two Nature papers in his sleeve already, can enjoy life for a while and still get a job offer from Harvard. no one else in the lab has Florian’s luxury to play around.Thus I am imposing strict rules in the lab from now on:

1. Every one works at least 50 hr a week in the lab （e.g., 8+ hr a day, six days a week）. This is by far lower than what I am doing every day and throughout most of my career. You may be smarter or do not want to be ssuccessful, but I am not asking you to match my time in the lab.

2. By working, I mean real bench work. This does not include surfing on the computer and sending and receiving e-mails for non-scientific matters unrelated to your work （you can do this after work in the lab or at home, and excessive chatting on nonscientific matters. No long lunch break except special occasions. I suggest that everyone puts in at least 6 hr concentrated bench work and 2+ hr reading and other research-related activity each day. Reading papers and books should be done mostly after work. More time can be spent on reading, literature search and writing during working hours when you are ready for writing a paper.

3. I must be informed in person by e-mail (even in my absence from the lab) when you are absent from the lab for a whole day or more. Inform me early your vacation plan. Taking more than 20 working days out of one year is the maximum to me. In fact, none of you are reporting any vacation and sick leave on your time sheet (against the university rule, although I have been signing the sheets) , but you know roughly how many days you were not here.

On the whole, I understand and accept the fact that you may not fulfill the above requirements all the time, due to health reasons, occasional personal business. But if you do not like to follow the rules because it is simply a matter of choice of life style, I respect your choice but suggest you start making plans immediately and leave the lab by the end of January 31. I will do my best to help you to locate a lab to transfer or to find a job.

If you do accept the conditions I describe above, I am happy to continue to provide my best support to your work, hopefully more than I have done in the past.I will review the progress of everyone in the lab by the end of June of 2002. I expect everyone to have made sufficient progress in the research so that a good paper is in sight （at least to the level of J.Neuroscience. If you cannot meet this goal at that time, I will have to ask you to prepare to leave my lab by the end of August.

Mu-ming

给实验室所有的成员：

在过去几个月中，有一个趋势变的很明显：如果我们实验室再没有一些巨大的改变的话，POO实验室将不再是那个你们加入时的那个一个高效的，一流的实验室。实验室进展报告清晰的表明，在过去的6个月中，绝大部分的项目缺少进展。一年之前，当我们搬到伯克利的时候，我想我已经明确的表达了我对各位的期望了，其中最重要的就是我关于在实验室工作时长的问题。我曾说过，如果你想成为一个成功的青年科学家，那么你每周至少工作60个小时。这个世界上可能有少数像Florian幸运儿那样，在发表了两篇nature的同时还很享受的他业余生活，同时还拿到了哈佛的教职。但我们实验室里没有哪个人，有资格像Florian那样四处玩耍。

所以，从现在开始，我给实验室设立了一些规矩：

1 每个人每周必须花50个小时在实验室，(比如每天8小时，每周6天）。我现在以及我职业生涯的绝大部分时候，都不止这个数。当然了，你可能比我更聪明，或者你压根不想成为一个成功的科学家。但是，我并没有要求你工作时长和我一样。

2 当我说“工作”的时候，我的意思是真正的在试验台上的工作，而不是上网闲逛或者收发和科学工作不相干的邮件（你可以在下班时间干这些），以及过多的和科研无关的闲聊。除了特殊情况，午餐时间请不要太长。我强烈建议，每个人每天用6个小时做实验，2个小时在阅读相关文献。论文和课本的研读都应该放在8小时外，当然了，当你开始写论文的时候，你可以多花一些时间来搜索并阅读文献。

3 我想我已经给每个人都发过邮件了，当你不在实验室的时候，请向我报告，请提早通知我你的休假计划。每年最多20天是我能接受的最大极限。实际上，到目前为止，没有一个人报告过他的休假或者病假（这是违反学校规定的），但是你们自己清楚，今年你们已经用了多少假期了。

总体上来言，由于身体原因，个人的特殊情况等等，我理解你们不可能总是遵守以上的规则。但是，如果你因为个人生活习惯而不能认同这些规定，我会尊重你的选择，同时强烈建议你立即规划你的未来，请你在1月31好之前离开实验室。我将尽我最大的努力帮你找一个新的实验室，或者新的工作。

如果你接受这些规定，我将很高兴的为你提供最好的学术知道，希望比以往更好。我将在2002年7月之前考察每个人的工作。我希望每个人都能做出足够的进展，从而可以在近期发表论文（至少J Neuroscience这个级别的）。如果到时候考察不合格，我将不得不让你在8月底前离开实验室。

慕明

As a scientist, you must dedicate everything to this business—全身心投入

8-hour is unpractical. There is NO way for a scientist or a Ph.D student to work only 8 hours a day!—一天8h根本不够

Go to your mother’s house for afternoon naps and never come back!—不准午休

5 weeks per year (Chinese New Year, the May Day and the National Day breaks are included)

Start your morning work not later than 8:30 am and afternoon work no later than 1 pm

–节假日，不晚于8:30，下午不晚于1点

Surf over the Internet for non-scientific purposes should be less than 30 min a day

–上网做其他的事不超过30min

Reading newspapers should be limited less than 30 min a day

–读报纸不超过30min每天

Novels or other non-scientific journals/magazines are not permitted in the lab and office

–小说或者其他非学术杂志期刊，不允许出现在实验室或者办公室

If you are absent from the lab more than one hour, get permission first.

离开实验室超过1h,要请示

Everyone has personal business, but the lab business always has priority unless in emergency

实验室的事永远优先，其他的事除非是紧急

In this business, an “average” student who works seven days a week is definitely more productive than a “genius” who works five days a week

在这项事业上，一个普通的学生每周工作七天绝对比一个聪明的每周工作5天更有产出。

If you are able to make any major progresses by working 8 hours a day and 5 days a week, every fortunate in this world must be on your side!

如果你每天工作8小时，一周工作5天，还能做出重大进展，那一定是中大奖了