“The hardest problems of pure and applied science can only be solved by the open collaboration of the worldwide scientific community.“
Kenneth G Wilson
Just as adaptation is more efficient in genetically diverse populations, science itself benefits from minds with broad perspectives, varied cultures, and life experiences. In the Heath lab, we we celebrate community and collaboration:
We will strive to change systems of rewards – at the university and in science – towards those that explicitly value and reward independence and creativity, mentoring and community engagement, and the uplifting of peers .
We will keep an eye to the literature on implicit bias and how it affects our community so that we can actively counter our own and others’ bias during recruitment and promotion at all levels, and in our teaching and mentoring work.
We will open spaces for discussion and reflection about community issues: during lab meetings, in individual meetings, and in other shared discussions (e.g., on Heath lab Slack channel).
We will engage with training programs, student groups, and other campus resources to support community building efforts on campus and to continue our education.
We will use our platform to engage with the community at all levels of scientific interest through outreach and engagement efforts from K-12 to postdoctoral programs.
We will actively listen to scientists with identities and life experiences other than our own, so that we might broaden our view of the scientific enterprise and how people move through it.
We will intentionally search out and cite the work of researchers across the world in our own papers as well as in our teaching.
We will make mistakes, but are open to listen to others and learn from them.
