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Life as an Early Career Researcher is rather uncertain. The conditions for most postdocs aren’t really great and the availability of professorships isn’t increasing at the same rate as the number of PhDs entering the academic career path - we talk about this, regularly. So it makes sense to seriously consider other career options, and we do so every now and then, too. For this episode, I talk to Dr. John Stowers, engineer, neuroscientist, and founder of "LoopBio", about the transition from postdoc to technology business founder! Listen to the Full Conversation on Patreon! Academic Nomad After being hit by a natural disaster in New Zealand, John left his home country for a postdoc in Austria. He didn’t just switch countries, he also switched from engineering to neuroscience. In his time in Vienna, John developed experimental setups far ahead of the curve in terms of complexity. As other laboratories kept asking for his help with their own setups, he realized there was a market for a certain subset of the technologies he used for his own research. Moving Into Entrepreneurship When his adviser was about to leave Vienna, John faced the decision to either look for another postdoc position in Vienna, where his now-wife was still working on her Ph.D., or follow his adviser to Freiburg in Germany. He did neither. Because the postdoc came with many uncertainties and he didn’t see postdoc opportunities that he considered a step up in his career, he decided to become an entrepreneur, instead. After googling “How to found a company in Austria”, John and his partner got themselves legal and financial advice and founded LoopBio. How They Built It They used their professional network and the reputation John had gained by publishing an impactful paper to find early adopters. Those were laboratories in their field willing to invest resources in LoopBio in return for John and his partner to develop custom solutions for their high-end requirements. By focussing on exclusive customized systems for scientists in a narrow niche, LoopBio gathered experience and a reputation. Now, a bit over three years later, John is satisfied with the course the company is taking, and they are looking to widen their customer base by investing in promotion at the leading neuroscience conferences. LoopBio Conference Booth (Left: Dr. John Stowers, Right: Max Hofbauer, MSc ) What John Learned On the personal side, John is very happy with his role as an entrepreneur. He says it gives him the freedom to choose his battles and to develop the products the way he wants them to work, which is particularly satisfying. Of course, there is still a good amount of stress involved, but it’s stress about different things. He urges early career researchers to realistically think about the uncertainties that lay ahead. Making clear career decisions every now and then is probably better than getting stuck in one career path for too long because one is trying to avoid them. LoopBio is Hiring They have two open positions: * Sales / Administrative Assistant* Junior / Front-end DeveloperBoth would be perfect for a scientist/programmer or science lover looking to transition to industry. All the fun of keeping up with the latest cool advances in behavioral (science) experiments without the burden of writing papers. Links LoopBio WebsiteLoopBio on TwitterVirtual Reality for Freely Moving Animals
In March, Bart visited the bi-annual meeting of the German Neuroscience Society (NWG) in Göttingen. And he took his brand new digital audio recorder with him! So this is the first time we can present impressions from the field! Bart interviewed professor Karin Nordström, graduate student Robert Kossen, and a former researcher and now entrepreneur John Stowers about what brings them to the conference, and when and why students should begin attending. Listen to the Full Conversation on Patreon! Taking it a step further, we also highlight two conferences, the Neuroscience Doctoral Student's Workshop (NeuroDoWo), which is completely organized by graduate students, and the Women's Career Network (WoCaNet), where graduate students also took the organizational leadership. Bart participated at WoCaNet and he managed to interview the three organizers, Luisa Hallmaier-Wacker, Priya Gurumoorthy, and Liubov Zakharova, too! We also got Robert Kossen to talk us through his conference poster. To give you the full experience, he did not hold back on field specific jargon! But if you want to give it a try, here is the poster that comes with it: click for larger version Do you have questions, comments or suggestion? Email info@scienceforprogress.eu, write us on facebook or twitter, or leave us a video message on Skype for dennis.eckmeier. Become a Patron! links: • Neurowissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (NWG) • Women's Careers and Networks • Neurobiology Doctoral Student Workshop • LoopBio • Karin Nordström at Flinders University • Cellular Neurobiology Lab in Göttingen
Ed Tree returns to All About Guitar and he brought some friends!! Joining me is the Tall Men Group, a bunch of guitarists-songwriters (and one keyboardist). The line up is Marty Axelrod on keyboards, Severin Browne on acoustic guitar, John Stowers on acoustic guitar, Ed Tree on electric and acoustic guitar, and bass, and founder Jimmy Yessian on acoustic guitar. In 2011 Jimmy invited these prominent musicians for a gathering and sharing of food and original music, and Tall Men Group was born! We talk to the members about their music, their guitar playing, and, of course, their tone and gear!
Ed Tree returns to All About Guitar and he brought some friends!! Joining me is the Tall Men Group, a bunch of guitarists-songwriters (and one keyboardist). The line up is Marty Axelrod on keyboards, Severin Browne on acoustic guitar, John Stowers on acoustic guitar, Ed Tree on electric and acoustic guitar, and bass, and founder Jimmy Yessian on acoustic guitar. In 2011 Jimmy invited these prominent musicians for a gathering and sharing of food and original music, and Tall Men Group was born! We talk to the members about their music, their guitar playing, and, of course, their tone and gear!
The Tall Men Group discuss their WALKING collection of songs that were inspired by a songwriting challenge during their previous Big Blend Radio interview about their 4th album STRIPPED DOWN. The Tall Men Group features Southern California singer-songwriters and musicians Marty Axelrod, Severin Browne, Jeff Kossack, John Stowers, Ed Tree and Jimmy Yessian. www.TallMenGroup.weebly.com
Acclaimed Southern California singer-songwriters and musicians Marty Axelrod, Severin Browne, Jeff Kossack, John Stowers, Ed Tree and Jimmy Yessian play new songs and talk about their fourth Tall Men Group album, STRIPPED DOWN. Featuring an intimate glimpse at twelve new songs, they bare it all with one voice, one instrument. Learn more: http://blendradioandtv.com/listing/tall-men-group-stripped-down/
This episode of Big Blend Radio aired live on May 3, 2017. Acclaimed singer-songwriters and musicians Marty Axelrod, Severin Browne, Jeff Kossack, John Stowers, Ed Tree and Jimmy Yessian play new songs and talk about their third Tall Men Group album, FEAST. Plus, Spontuneous Rob Ridgeway, creator of the board game Spontuneous ‘The Song Game’, joins in the conversation and challenges the Tall Men to play a Happy Hour round of the radio version of Spontuneous! www.BigBlendRadio.com
Los Angeles based Tall Men Group release their second album 2 TALL. Hear some of the music and listen to their interview. Tall Men Group include musicians, singer-songwriters: Jimmy Yessian, Jeff Kossack, John Stowers, Severin Brown, Ed Tree and Marty Axelrod. www.TallMenGroup.weebly.com.