Research Scientist biography playbook
Lab, focus, and the work that has come out of it.
What the reader is hiring this bio to do
Research scientist bios are read by collaborators, journalists, funders, and prospective postdocs. The bio's primary job is to communicate the scientific program with precision.
Credibility signals to include
- Institutional affiliation, lab, and PI relationship.
- Discipline and sub-discipline.
- Two or three landmark publications.
- Funded projects with agency.
- Methods, instruments, and unique capabilities.
Avoid in this industry
- Marketing-style discovery language.
- Conflating lab membership with primary authorship.
- Failing to name the discipline.
Structure
Preferred structure for the bio
A reliable order that performs in this field. Adjust to the venue.
- 1Name, title, lab, institution, discipline.
- 2Research focus, in concrete terms.
- 3Selected publications with venue and year.
- 4Funded projects and collaborations.
- 5Education and personal sentence.
Tone
How this industry's bios should sound
Academic register, similar to faculty bios but with greater emphasis on the program of research and instruments used.
Lengths
Recommended lengths by venue
Openings
Opening formulas that work in this field
Open with lab, institution, and discipline.
Dr. Rohan Mehta is a research scientist in the Patel Lab at the Broad Institute, where his work focuses on single-cell transcriptomics in early hematopoiesis.
Worked examples
One hundred words. Fifty words.
Dr. Rohan Mehta is a research scientist in the Patel Lab at the Broad Institute, where his work focuses on single-cell transcriptomics in early hematopoiesis. He is the first author of the 2023 Nature paper on Bone-marrow Niche Heterogeneity in Aplastic Anemia and a co-author on the lab's 2024 Cell paper on long-read sequencing of HSC differentiation. His current NIH R01-funded project tracks erythroid progenitor commitment in adult bone marrow at single-cell resolution. Dr. Mehta received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2016 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at MSKCC. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dr. Rohan Mehta is a research scientist in the Patel Lab, Broad Institute. Focus: single-cell transcriptomics, early hematopoiesis. First author Nature 2023 (Aplastic Anemia); co-author Cell 2024 (HSC differentiation). NIH R01 active. PhD Cambridge 2016; postdoc MSKCC.
Vocabulary
Words to reach for — and words to handle with care
Cross-references
Frameworks and voices this playbook pairs with
Ready to draft yours?
Open the matching generator with this playbook open in another tab.
Open the generator