FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
(Answers by Richard Hughes, Director of LOCOS)
Question: What kind of projects do your
students work on?
Answer: The general vision of my research is provided
on another page of this site. For more details on
current projects that are suitable for new students, please contact me directly
by e-mail.
Question: What kinds of students do you take in
your lab?
Answer: I have had graduate and undergraduate
students. I have had medical students and residents. I have also
had volunteers from the community. My only requirement is that you want to get
a lot out of the experience.
Question: Do you have a preference for students
from specific departments?
Answer:
No. I have had students from Mechanical, Industrial and Operations,
Chemical, Nuclear, and Biomedical Engineering departments participate in my
research group. I also have many undergraduates from Literature, Science
& Arts, especially mathematics. For students pursuing a Ph.D., I encourage
them to consider the Biomedical Engineering Department.
Question: Where
is your lab and what is its history?
Answer:
LOCOS is located in G173 of the
Question: Do you take medical students for one-month
research rotations?
Answer:
Yes. Please read my document about expectations for
medical students.
Question: What is the job market like for
biomedical engineering graduates?
Answer:
The long-term job market for BME graduates appears good, based on projections
by the US Labor Department. Remember, though, that it is virtually
impossible to predict the job market four to six years in the future.
Question: What have your students done after
graduation?
Answer: Most all have taken jobs in the biomedical
device industry. Some have taken faculty positions immediately after
graduate school, and others have done post-doctoral fellowships. Some have
gone into AmeriCorps. I do not push students towards
specific jobs or careers.
Question: How long do your Ph.D. students take
to graduate?
Answer:
Approximately five years.
Question: What do you expect of students who
work in your lab?
Answer: I
provide an environment and hope that students will maximize what they get out
of it. That takes dedication and hard work. It is up to them.
I have prepared a handout that
I give to each student when she/he enters the lab. Please download and
read it if you want to know more about what I expect from students.
Question: One of the things I want out of a lab
experience is a letter of recommendation. How do you feel about writing
letters?
Answer:
My philosophy is that I want to write the most wonderful, outstanding letter
for you. What I need from you is the raw material for the letter.
If you show creativity, dedication, intelligence, and team work, then I will be
very happy to write a letter detailing all of the great things you will have
done in my lab. Students often do not understand exactly what goes into
letters of recommendation. To help the students I work with get a more
concrete feel for what an outstanding letter looks like, I have provided a downloadable
handout in PDF format. Take a look and you will see what mediocre,
good, and outstanding letters look like. I have written many outstanding
letters for students. Writing great letters for superb students is one of
the best parts of being a professor.
Question: What is your philosophy about
authorship on papers?
Answer:
Many students who have come through my lab have been first-author or co-authors
on peer-reviewed manuscripts. I encourage students to be
co-authors. In deciding whether someone should be a co-author, I follow
the guidelines on authorship provided in "Uniform Requirements for
Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" in New England Journal of
Medicine, 1991, 324(6): 424-428.
Question: Do you send your students to
conferences?
Answer:
I generally send graduate students after their first year.
Question: Do you do consulting outside the University?
Answer: I do limited consulting through a company I co-own with my
wife, White Pine Occupational
Health Research LLC. I am also an unpaid scientific advisor for Grizzly
Moose LLC, and I have an STTR grant from NIH to work with Grizzly Moose. There
is a Conflict of Interest Management plan in place. No students
are involved in any of this consulting work. I keep my consulting separate from
the University and limit its extent so I can focus on teaching students,
collaborating with clinicians, and conducting research.