1 . After I finished my PhD in 2014 at Duke University, I stayed for an extra year to finish a paper and look for a postdoc (博士后) position. The first step of my process was to decide what I wanted to do with my career, and then I should find a laboratory that would help me to achieve that. I was a bit anxious about making such a strong statement about my career—a feeling that I think is shared by many graduating students.
The next step in my process was to broadly identify what type of field I wanted to work in and which techniques, system and organism I wanted to learn. Several people advised me to change one or two of these choices from my PhD work, which was in yeast cell biology (酵母细胞生物学). Although I really value having experience in multiple fields and techniques, I don’t think this change is absolutely necessary. I also talked my options through with my PhD adviser, Daniel Lew, and my lab mates. In the end, I decided to stay working with yeast but to take on more biochemistry approaches.
I then put together a list of possible labs as I read papers and university websites. By this point, my partner and I had decided that we would like to live in Europe, because it would be a great opportunity to move somewhere else and experience a different way of living. I preferred labs in Europe, but I included many in the United States as well.
I applied to eight labs by e mail: four labs in the United States and four in Europe. In the end, I decided on John Diffley’s lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
I could imagine how I would develop as a scientist in John’s lab and ultimately gain more independence. When you’re on an academic career track, that’s a big part of the experience becoming independent and designing your own projects.
1. What did the author do first for a postdoc position?| A．Work in a university for an extra year. | B．Determine what to do with his career. |
| C．Look for a proper laboratory for research. | D．Overcome his anxiety about his career. |
| A．He thought it was popular. |
| B．He liked experiencing multiple fields. |
| C．He accepted his adviser’s and lab mates’ advice. |
| D．He considered it unnecessary to work in other fields. |
| A．Few suitable laboratories in the U. S. | B．Focusing on research and pursuing his aim. |
| C．A better opportunity to finish his postdoc. | D．Wishing for living a different lifestyle. |
| A．By depending on John’s help. | B．By designing his own projects. |
| C．By discussing yeast in groups. | D．By sharing his good experience. |
