The burning question that’s on everyone’s mind: What is it like in The Schmid Lab? I’ll tell you. For starters, this is not a 9-to-5 government job with an hourly wage and a 30-minute lunch break and a dress code. Life in a lab varies wherever you go. I usually roll into lab around 10 and have left as early as 4 o’clock before and as late as 6:45ish. Sometimes I’ll go to lunch around 11:30 and sometimes it’ll be after 2.
Aside from the schedule shifting around, things that need to be done change too. Sometimes glassware may be piled up and I’ll need to wash, dry and autoclave it. Sometimes I’ll need to spec some cultures, recover strains from frozen stock, or inoculate cultures. I may have to make selective media one day and plate some strains that have (hopefully) mated on it a few days later.
My lab itself is amazing. It’s composed of different people that I like to think of as characters that are not at all similar but that compliment each other perfectly. There is a sense of care and friendship in my lab that I love and that is also infectious. I cannot tell you what I will do in lab tomorrow (except check on some plated cultures which I am actually excited for oh god that sounds nerdy) but I can tell you that whatever it is, it will be in great company.
