post-docs in LA

[Hannah Dvorak]

In article <32pdvt$oea at agate.berkeley.edu>, lmk2 at garnet.berkeley.edu
(Leslie Kay) wrote:

> I have a questio, which leads off from the sexist treatment 
> discussions:
> 
> I am looking at some post-doc opportunities in the Los Angeles area
> (CalTech, UCLA, and USC), and I was wondering if anyone had experience
> working as a post doc or professor at these institutions and could 
> offer insight as to the working conditions for women.  I am not so
> much concerned about UCLA and USC as about Cal Tech.  I have been told
> that it is very much a "boys club" and that the atmosphere is very
> competitive and backbiting.

Not that I've really seen so far, but I'm only a second-year (eek! almost
3rd year) graduate student.  The gender ratio in biology is pretty good -
for example, my class has 6 women and 9 men.  (In other disciplines, of
course, the ratio is much more skewed.)  My classmates are very supportive;
we just went through qualifiers together, and did a good job helping each
other out.  As for postdocs, again, there are more men then women, but the
ratio is not too bad.  Now faculty, on the other hand, is a different story
- I think we have 5 or 6 women in the Division of Biology, and none in
Computation and Neural Systems.
 
> I work in electrophysiology and dynamics, looking at field potential
> activity in the mammalian olfactory and limbic systems during perceptual
> periods.  At least that is what my dissertation is on, and I would like
> to continue to work in this field.  I am looking both at more physiology
> oriented labs and also at theoretical labs (studying dynamics and so
> forth).
> 
> Any words of advice or information would be very much appreciated, and if
> you want to discuss this by email instead of publicly I can keep your 
> comments confidential.
> 
> Thank you,
> Leslie Kay
> lmk2 at garnet.berkeley.edu

Please email me if you want to discuss particular labs, advisors, etc.  I
can probably get you in touch with people in any lab here, especially
within neurobiology.

Hannah

-- 
Hannah Dvorak
DvorakH at starbase1.caltech.edu
Division of Biology, Caltech, Pasadena CA