2001年蒲慕明教授写给他实验室学生的信

2001年蒲慕明教授写给他实验室学生的信

        蒲慕明：伯克利大学教授，中国科学院神经科学研究所所长。
      

Lab members:

Over the past several months, it hasbecome 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 youchose to join in the first place. Lab progress reports over thepast six months have clearly shown the lack of progress in mostprojects. One year ago, when we first moved to Berkeley, Iexpressed clearly to everyone my expectation from each one in thelab. The most important thing is what I consider to be sufficientamount of time and effort in the lab work. I mentioned that about60 hr working time per week is what I consider the minimal time anaverage successful young scientist in these days has to put intothe lab work. There may be a few rare lucky fellows like Florian,who had two Nature papers in his sleeve already, can enjoy life fora while and still get a job offer from Harvard. No one else in thelab has Florian's luxury to play around. Thus I am imposing strictrules in the lab from now on: 1. Everyone works at least 50 hr aweek in the lab （e.g., 8+ hr a day, six days a week）. This is byfar lower than what I am doing every day and throughout most of mycareer. You may be smarter or do not want to be successful, but Iam not asking you to match my time in the lab. 2. By working, Imean real bench work. This does not include surfing on the computerand sending and receiving e-mails for non-scientific mattersunrelated to your work （you can do this after work in the lab or athome）, and excessive chatting on nonscientific matters. No longlunch break except special occasions. I suggest that everyone putsin at least 6 hr concentrated bench work and 2+ hr reading andother research-related activity each day. Reading papers and booksshould be done mostly after work. More time can be spent onreading, literature search and writing during working hours whenyou are ready for writing a paper. 3. I must be informed in personby e-mail （even in my absence from the lab）when you are absent fromthe lab for a whole day or more. Inform me early your vacationplan. Taking more than 20 working days out of one year is themaximum to me. In fact, none of you are reporting any vacation andsick leave on your time sheet （against the university rule,although I have been signing the sheets））, but you know roughly howmany days you were not here. On the whole, I understand and acceptthe fact that you may not fulfill the above requirements all thetime, due to health reasons, occasional personal business. But ifyou do not like to follow the rules because it is simply a matterof choice of life style, I respect your choice but suggest youstart making plans immediately and leave the lab by the end ofJanuary 31. I will do my best to help you to locate a lab totransfer or to find a job. If you do accept the conditions Idescribe above, I am happy to continue to provide my best supportto your work, hopefully more than I have done in the past. I willreview the progress of everyone in the lab by the end of June of2002. I expect everyone to have made sufficient progress in theresearch so that a good paper is in sight （at least to the level ofJ. Neuroscience. If you cannot meet this goal at that time, I willhave to ask you to prepare to leave my lab by the end of August. Asa scientist, you must dedicate everything to this business. Workingtime: 8-hour is unpractical. There is NO way for a scientist or aPhD student to work only 8 hours a day! Go to your mother’s housefor afternoon naps and never come back! Vacation: 5 weeks per year(Chinese New Year, the May Day and the National Day breaks areincluded). Start your morning work not later than 8:30 am andafternoon work no later than 1 pm. Surf over the Internet fornon-scientific purposes should be less than 30 min a day. Readingnewspapers should be limited less than 30 min a day. Novels orother non-scientific journals/magazines are not permitted in thelab and office. If you are absent from the lab more than one hour,get permission first. Everyone has personal business, but the labbusiness always has priority unless in emergency. In this business,an “average” student who works seven days a week is definitely moreproductive than a “genius” who works five days a week. If you areable to make any major progresses by working 8 hours a day and 5days a week, every fortunate in this world must be on yourside!

实验室的每一位成员：

在过去的几个月中，我发现如果再不对实验室进行一次剧变，很快，Poo实验室就不是那个你们最初选择加入的高产出，第一流的实验室了。从过去六个月的实验室进展报告中可以清楚地看出大多数项目都没有什么进展。在我们一年前刚搬进伯克利时，我就清楚地表达了我对实验室中每一员的期望。我认为最重要的一点就是我希望大家保证在实验室中付出足够的时间和努力。我提到了每周60小时是我所认为的一个成功的年轻科学家每天呆在实验室的时间的最低限。当然，有极少数幸运的同仁如Florian，他已经发表了两篇Nature并有了一份在哈佛的工作，是可以稍稍的享受下生活了。但是实验室的其他人都不能像Florian这样奢侈的享乐。从现在起，我在实验室里立下严规：

1.每个人每星期必须在实验室50小时以上（比如说，每天八小时，每周六天。）这比我整个职业生涯每天所花的时间少得多。你们可能会比我聪明或者并不渴望成功，所以我并不以我的标准要求你们。

2.工作，是指真正的搞研究，不包括上网，接发与科研无关的邮件（你可以在工作完成后在实验室或家中做这些）和过度的与科研无关的聊天。除了特殊情况，午餐后的休息时间不要太长。我建议大家每天花至少六小时在自己的科研工作上，2个多小时做阅读或其他和研究相关的活动上。阅读文献和书籍应放在工作之后。当你打算着手写论文时，建议将更多的工作时间用来阅读，搜索和撰写论文。

3.当你们超过一天不在实验室时，必须用e-mail告知我（即使我不在实验室）。提前告知我你们的假期计划。对我来说，每年最多可以请20天的假。你们没有一个人在你们的时间表上汇报了你们的假期和病假（尽管我给你们签字了，但这是违反校规的），你们自己知道你们每年大概有多少天是没有待在实验室里的。

总而言之，我知道出于一些个人的临时状况，健康因素等，让你们时刻遵守这些规矩是不现实的。但如果你们出于个人生活方式不同而不遵守这些规定，我尊重你的决定并建议你早作打算，在一月31日以前卷铺盖走人，我会尽力帮你转去另一个实验室或找份工作。如果你能接收我上面说的这些条件，我会非常开心地为你的工作提供支持，希望比以前做的更好。我已经看过大家2002年六月末所做的工作进展，祝愿大家的研究都进展顺利，这样一篇好的论文就胜利在望了（至少达到《神经科学杂志》的水平），如果那时你们还不能达到这个目标，那我就不得不请你在8月底离开我们实验室。作为一个科学家，你必须把一切都献身给科研事业。

工作时间：每天仅仅工作8个小时是不行的。对于一个博士或者科学家，每天仅仅工作8个小时根本就是死路一条！如果有人敢午休，那就马上卷铺盖走人，永远不要再回实验室！

假期：每年五周（包括春节，五一，国庆）。上午必须早于8：30上班，下午早于1点上班。

每天用于看网页以及其他与科研无关事情的时间不得多于30分钟。

每天看报纸的时间不得多余30分钟。小说和非科研性杂志不准带入实验室。

如果离开实验室超过1个小时，必须事先请假并得到允许。

除非紧急的事情，否则实验室的事情永远大于私事。

在这行里，每周只工作5天，即使是天才，也比要比一个工作7天的资质平平的人成果要少。如果你在这每天工作8个小时，每周只工作5天中成功了，哪怕只有一次，那你就是世界上最幸运的人了！