Peter Buseck,
Regents' Professor of Geology and Chemistry

How to Develop Scholars—Mentor or Tormentor?

Mentoring is a multifaceted form of teaching that includes providing intensive attention to a graduate student, setting high performance standards, and creating a stimulating environment in which to do research. A major challenge for mentors is to facilitate the transition from a hierarchical faculty-student relationship to one of professional colleague and peer. The goal is to have the student become a recognized expert in her/his area of study. The details of the growth process are highly individual and variable. Successful mentoring depends strongly on helping the student develop a commitment to high standards and a sense of personal worth and pride in quality achievement.

Obtaining a Ph.D. is such a wonderful opportunity that for some people it is the only plan worth pursuing. However, it is certainly not for everyone. Among the first things I ask all prospective Ph.D. students is "Why do you want a Ph.D.?" Major prerequisites for my accepting a student include a strong desire for knowledge and enjoyment of the academic experience. Learning should be highly satisfying and rewarding. The Ph.D. degree is so specialized and so costly in both time and money that only very special desires and, to a lesser extent, aptitudes can justify the effort. Assuming that a student wishes to embark on a Ph.D. program, what are the main challenges and stages? They are, in rough sequence: (a) conceiving and defining a problem worth pursing; (b) doing the necessary research to solve that problem; and, finally, (c) writing up the results for publication in the professional literature. Developing oral and written communication skills is important throughout. The role of the mentor is to provide helpful guidance at each stage, but the details and emphases differ as the research progresses. I will discuss them in the above order.

Problem Definition
Recognizing and then defining a significant research problem is one of the most challenging tasks confronting a scholar. It is also one of the most important, no less for a student than for an established scientist. While some faculty think it is their responsibility to lay out the research problem for their students, I believe just the opposite. The struggle to identify a problem and to establish both its significance and its feasibility is a major part of the Ph.D. experience. It is also commonly one of the most frustrating. It requires deep and careful thought based on a thorough knowledge of the topic(s) of interest, including familiarity with work done by others. Nonetheless, the search is immensely rewarding in building independence of thought and, when successful, leads to great and necessary self-confidence.

My role as mentor in the defining of a research problem is to provide general suggestions of research areas that I believe will prove fruitful for exploration and where future scientific progress can and will occur. I commonly also inform a student of the important questions being actively debated by scholars. Many beginning students think that any problem that has not been attacked previously or a question that has not been answered is intrinsically worthy of research. A mentor may be needed to help them separate the simply new and unknown from the significant. An example I use is that no one has counted the leaves on the tree outside the building or the blades of grass in the adjacent plot of lawn, but what important new knowledge would be gained by this information? Unless obtained in response to a specific, well-conceived question, it is simply the collection of empty information rather than fruitful research. I emphasize to students that they must ask themselves the blunt but telling question "So what?" at all stages and for all aspects of their work.

For my students, problem definition and refinement commonly extends throughout the time they are taking courses. In some cases, more time is spent on the definition, while other students devote more attention to establishing the feasibility of different approaches to solving their research problem(s). However, serious research progress often waits until they are able to devote full attention to their project.

The Research Process
A graduate student spends much time doing the actual research, associated data analysis, and interpretation required to address the chosen problem. At this stage, the role of the mentor is to provide the encouragement and gentle direction, especially when the desired results or interpretations are slow in coming. Wrong turns and dead ends are almost inevitable in research, and these are also part of the educational process. At such times the mentor must use careful judgement, allowing the student freedom to explore questionable paths and to make mistakes and yet not become unduly frustrated and discouraged. I try to visit each of my students briefly every day or two to inquire how things are progressing. When problems arise, we discuss them and ways to attack them. Depending on the student, we may have weekly meetings in my office, or we may only meet formally when the need arises.

I also involve my graduate students in the critical process of securing the funds required to support the costs of doing scientific research. Science faculty members spend much time thinking about research projects, writing proposals, negotiating budgets, and finally writing the necessary reports and taking care of the other administrative chores connected with the funding of expensive research. Since preparing proposals and reports is such an important and unavoidable component of the careers of research scholars, whether in academia or industry, I believe students should be involved. I have my students participate fully in the preparation of research proposals, and as they progress through their graduate experience, they do this with increasing effectiveness and professionalism. Although proposal writing can appear to distract from the primary pursuit of their research goals, students generally find that the thought and rigor required to prepare a compact, clear, and yet compelling proposal are highly educational. It forces them to review the literature carefully and to be sure they can articulate clear answers to the "So what?" question.

Analysis of the observational or calculated data occurs throughout data collection, but it obviously grows in importance as the research progresses. For this purpose, the role of the mentor is to serve as a "sounding board" for student ideas. I have repeatedly found that students come to my office with problems that, in the course of their explanations to me and my questions to them, seem to resolve themselves.

Throughout the research process, postdoctoral scientists ("postdocs") form a valuable part of the intellectual environment for the graduate student. Many scientists who have recently earned a Ph.D. spend between one and three years doing full-time research under the loose direction of a more senior scholar—somewhat like a professional apprenticeship. I generally have several postdoctoral researchers working in my group, and I try to select people with diverse backgrounds. These postdocs, with experience intermediate between that of the student and mentor, form an extremely important component of the graduate program of the student. Since they share facilities and space, the postdocs are available to the graduate student for easy interaction. They commonly become friends, and lasting professional bonds are often formed during this period. In one sense postdocs share and extend my activities as mentor, and in another they are also the focus of my mentoring. They help greatly in providing a fertile environment for scholarly activities, one that aids in the transition from student to mature scholar.

Periodically during the research period it is useful to discuss the goals of the project and what is required for its successful completion. Testing of a hypothesis and solving of one or more significant problems is essential. However, the question commonly arises of how to determine the importance of the work. A goal that I set, and that most of my students adopt and eventually attain, is to become recognized experts in their chosen areas of study by the time they obtain the Ph.D. degree. Such expert status is confirmed when scholars at other institutions, encountering problems in related areas of study, call or write the student as the "reigning expert" for consultation. Similarly, journal editors will choose the student as a referee for manuscripts in that area, and grant managers will select the student to review proposals on the subject. Such recognition of expert status is important for new Ph.D. holders. It is especially critical for students from universities that are currently in the process of establishing a tradition of distinguished scholarly activity.

Written and Oral Communication Skills: Writing up Results
The dissertation is a massive exercise in writing. However, writing can and should occur throughout the graduate experience. Writing is like visible thought; nothing points out logical flaws or clarifies thinking as well as writing. That is also why it is so difficult. In addition to helping with proposals, I encourage my students to prepare papers for the professional literature as soon as they have results worth reporting. I also ask that they write informal research progress reports at the end of each semester and summer. Consequently they do much writing during their graduate studies.

An important aspect of writing reports and papers is evaluating the data and choosing what to include and what to emphasize. A careful balance is obviously required between being extremely careful and being willing to make mistakes. Some students are so afraid of making mistakes, especially in writing that is seen by their friends and colleagues, that they procrastinate endlessly. An important function of the mentor is to guide the dance between using great care and a certain inevitable risk-taking after all reasonable precautions to avoid error have been observed.

Communication skills are so important, and commonly so deficient, that I make them a major area of emphasis. I have written a sixteen-page document on "Preparing manuscripts, theses, dissertations, and talks" that I distribute to all my students. It contains stylistic and grammatical suggestions, thoughts for presenting talks and for writing manuscripts for publication, instructions for proofreading manuscripts, as well as other information for improving speaking and writing skills.

I end up spending considerable time working with my students on their writing. In many instances, this is the activity where my participation is the most time consuming, commonly the most meaningful, and usually the most frustrating for both mentor and student. It is here, rather than during the research process itself, that I sometimes find myself wondering whether I am mentor or tormentor. Writing commonly produces a tension between a hands-off attitude and the demand of high standards in expression. The need for editing and repeated rewriting and recrafting of manuscripts is a common, albeit painful, experience for all my students. It is not uncommon to be told by a student something like "I have completed my research and just need to write up my results; I will be done in four to six months." A colleague evaluates the realism of such estimates by the experience the student has in writing. The estimate is credible if the student has written an M.S. thesis or had several papers published. Otherwise, it is probably prudent to add six months and expect to be a tormentor.

To practice oral skills, all members of my research group join in weekly group meetings where we discuss ongoing research. Each student and postdoctoral associate is regularly expected to present the results of her/his own research as well as problems she/he is encountering. Additionally, they are encouraged to ask questions of the other speakers. All talks to be given at professional meetings are also practiced in this way, but in a setting that is less frightening than at the meeting itself. In the process of this ongoing exchange of ideas, the students gain experience and confidence in public speaking.

Final Thoughts
In writing the above I avoided mention of formal course work. I did so because I believe that, except for the first two or three semesters as a graduate student, courses are and should be somewhat incidental for a research degree such as the Ph.D. Courses may be necessary to obtain background that is lacking from undergraduate studies or to gain specialized knowledge required to pursue their research, but in general the fewer courses the better. A research scholar needs to learn throughout her/his career, and self instruction through reading, seminars, and all the other means used by all professionals is the preferred method of gaining knowledge. Lack of emphasis on courses also helps downplay the formal relationship between student and professor.

Obtaining a Ph.D. is an intensely personal exercise—invariably difficult, challenging, and frustrating. However, a successful Ph.D. program should also have times when it is energizing, uplifting, and thoroughly exciting. To be most successful, the mentor has an essential role that should, as much as possible, be carried out in the background. An unnoticed prod in this direction, an occasional shove in that direction, periodic questions about whether the results really mean what they seem; such efforts will, when successful, yield significant new research results that highlight the original work of the student—that is my belief of the role of the good advisor. Mentor rather than tormentor.