What makes a good PhD student?

 --- Nature, Vol 441, May 11, 2006

—— 《自然》，第441期，2006年5月11日

 

 翻译：计军平

 

Doing a PhD should be fun and rewarding, because you can spend all your working time discovering things and pursuing ideas -- and getting paid for it, without any administrative responsibilities. Those who stick with a career in science do so because, despite the relatively poor pay, long hours and lack of security, it is all we want to do.

做一名博士研究生充满了乐趣，也是非常值得的，因为你可以把所有的时间都用在探索事物、追求理念上——并且可以获得报酬，没有任何行政上的责任。那些有志于从事科学研究的人之所以能这样做，是因为这些都是他们真正想做的——虽然报酬相对较少，工作时间很长，也缺乏保障。

 

Unfortunately most new PhD students are ill-prepared, and as a consequence very few will fulfil their aspirations to be independent scientists. The main reasons for this are the 'grade creep' inherent at most universities, making it difficult to identify the really talented first-class graduates from the rest, and the pressure on universities to graduate as many PhD students as possible. The consequence is that we enrol far too many of them without telling them clearly what doing a doctorate should entail. We therefore set ourselves, and the students, on a path of frustration and disappointment.

不幸的是大多数博士新生并没有做好充分的准备，其结果就是几乎没有人能从事独立研究。造成这种现象的原因主要是多数大学评价学生的“等级差”太小，很难将真正优秀的研究生区别出来，同时各大学也面临着让尽可能多的博士生毕业的巨大压力。结果导致我们招了太多的博士生，但没有让他们明白博士因该具备哪些素质。这不但使我们自己，同时也使博士生们感到万分痛苦和失望。

 

So what should we be telling prospective PhD students?

那么，我们应该对未来的博士生们说些什么呢？

 

(1) Choose a supervisor whose work you admire and who is well supported by grants and departmental infrastructure.

选择研究经费充足、设备齐全，同时其工作受到你认同的导师。

 

(2) Take responsibility for your project.

对你的研究项目负责。

 

(3) Work hard -- long days all week and part of most weekends. If research is your passion this should be easy, and if it isn't, you are probably in the wrong field. Note who goes home with a full briefcase to work on at the end of the day. This is a cause of success, not a consequence.

努力工作——所有工作日的大部分时间，以及部分周末。如果你所从事的研究是你感兴趣的，做到这点很容易，但如果不是，那你就要好好想想是不是进错研究领域了。有些人在每天回家时总会带上塞得慢慢的公文包，以便在家里继续工作——这是成功的一个重要因素，而非结果。

 

(4) Take some weekends off, and decent holidays, so you don't burn out.

周末、假期偶尔也出去放松放送，以免自己精疲力竭。

 

(5) Read the literature in your immediate area, both current and past, and around it. You can't possibly make an original contribution to the literature unless you know what is already there.

阅读与你的研究领域直接相关的文献，当前的和过去的，同时也应阅读一些与研究领域相近的文献。除非你已了解文献的内容，否则不可能做出原创性的贡献。

 

(6) Plan your days and weeks carefully to dovetail experiments so that you have a minimum amount of downtime.

根据实验进度仔细地安排好每一天、每一周，这样能最大限度地减少时间的浪费。

 

(7) Keep a good lab book and write it up every day.

每天做好实验记录，并保存好。

 

(8) Be creative. Think about what you are doing and why, and look for better ways to go. Don't see your PhD as just a road map laid out by your supervisor.

创造性思考。思考正在做什么以及为什么这样做，寻找更好的实现方式。不要将博士生活看作是导师帮你画好的路线图。

 

(9) Develop good writing skills: they will make your scientific career immeasurably easier.

练就出色的写作技能：它能使你的科研道路平坦许多。

 

(10) To be successful you must be at least four of the following: smart, motivated, creative, hard-working, skilful and lucky. You can't depend on luck, so you had better focus on the others!

想要获得成功，你至少得具备以下要素中的四种：聪明，主动，有创造力，工作努力， 技术熟练，以及运气好。运气太不可靠，所以你应当将精力放在其它几个要素上。