{"id":37,"date":"2023-01-31T17:07:45","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T16:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/?p=37"},"modified":"2026-08-05T13:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:27:14","slug":"s01-episode-1-dr-michael-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/2023\/01\/31\/s01-episode-1-dr-michael-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back: „Appreciate the random interactions you have…“"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this episode, we interview Dr. Michael Love, associate professor<\/a> in the Department of Biostatistics and Department of Genetics at UNC. Dr. Love earned his doctoral degree in computational biology in 2013 from the Freie Universit\u00e4t and the Max Planck Research School for Molecular Genetics in Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audio <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Download or listen to the audio version of the podcast here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlights<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n

„…the advice I would give to, to myself going back in time is that I think it’s – it’s, you will not appreciate the random interactions you have during your PhD and how those will inform you later on. So, you know go to talks that make no sense to you. Don’t worry about the fact that they make no sense to you. You know, write down the words that people say a bunch and that seemed to be important so you could look them up later.“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

„You cannot plan ahead and understand how small conversations […] will be highly relevant for your research program and will be like future directions that you take […] pursue – just like, pursue your curiosity even if you have no training in that area.<\/p>\nfrom our interview with Dr. Michael Love<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

SUMMARY<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

English:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this episode, Dr. Michael Love from UNC Chapel Hill shares his academic journey, detailing his PhD in Computational Biology in Berlin and his postdoctoral research in Boston before joining UNC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Love discusses the balance between academia and industry in developing data analysis tools and appreciates the collaborative environment in his department. He highlights the differences in academic systems between the US and Germany, particularly regarding structured coursework and research focus. He also stresses the importance of mentorship and soft skills in computational fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about his experiences with advisors, Dr. Love suggests that students should view their advisor relationships as collaborative, managing both sides effectively. He aims to connect computational students with experimental teams for better collaboration and detailed data analysis. He believes students should learn the language of their interdisciplinary peers and engage with underlying questions of data, but also acknowledges the role of luck and networking in academic careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Love advises those interested in working in academia to diversify their research areas, as it increases appeal to job committees. He reflects on the value of seemingly random academic interactions, encouraging future PhD students to embrace curiosity and attend diverse talks, as these experiences may later inform their research direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[see the full transcript of the episode here<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

German:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In dieser Folge berichtet Dr. Michael Love von der UNC Chapel Hill \u00fcber seinen akademischen Werdegang; er schildert seine Promotion in Computational Biology in Berlin sowie seine Postdoc-Forschung in Boston, bevor er an die UNC wechselte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Love er\u00f6rtert das Verh\u00e4ltnis zwischen Wissenschaft und Industrie bei der Entwicklung von Werkzeugen zur Datenanalyse und sch\u00e4tzt das kooperative Umfeld an seinem Institut. Er hebt die Unterschiede zwischen den akademischen Systemen in den USA und Deutschland hervor, insbesondere im Hinblick auf strukturierte Studieninhalte und Forschungsschwerpunkte. Zudem betont er die Bedeutung von Mentoring und \u201eSoft Skills\u201c in computergest\u00fctzten Fachbereichen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auf die Frage nach seinen Erfahrungen mit Betreuer:innen r\u00e4t Dr. Love Promovierenden, die Beziehung zu ihren Betreuern als partnerschaftliche Zusammenarbeit zu begreifen und die Interaktion von beiden Seiten aus aktiv zu gestalten. Sein Ziel ist es, Studierende und Promovierende aus computerorientierten Bereichen mit experimentell arbeitenden Teams zu vernetzen, um die Zusammenarbeit und die detaillierte Datenanalyse zu verbessern. Er ist der Ansicht, dass Studierende die Fachsprache ihrer interdisziplin\u00e4ren Kolleg:innen lernen und sich mit den grundlegenden Fragen der Datenanalyse auseinandersetzen sollten; gleichzeitig erkennt er jedoch auch die Rolle von Zufall und Networking f\u00fcr eine akademische Karriere an.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interessierten an einer akademischen Laufbahn r\u00e4t Dr. Love, ihre Forschungsgebiete breit aufzustellen, da dies ihre Attraktivit\u00e4t f\u00fcr Berufungskommissionen steigert. Er reflektiert \u00fcber den Wert scheinbar zuf\u00e4lliger akademischer Begegnungen und ermutigt angehende Doktorand:innen, neugierig zu bleiben und verschiedenste Vortr\u00e4ge zu besuchen, da solche Erfahrungen die sp\u00e4tere Forschungsrichtung ma\u00dfgeblich beeinflussen k\u00f6nnen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this episode, we interview Dr. Michael Love, associate professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Department of Genetics at UNC. Dr. Love earned his doctoral degree in computational biology in 2013 from the Freie Universit\u00e4t and the Max Planck Research School for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. Audio Download or listen to the audio version … \u201eLooking Back: „Appreciate the random interactions you have…“\u201c<\/span> weiterlesen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6863,"featured_media":119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6863"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1717,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/1717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.fu-berlin.de\/drs_podcast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}