Welcome to our lab!

Cool that you’re here. This page is meant to serve as a reference for you when you get started in our lab, with a few things you should know about, and a few questions before you begin.

ESI and lab related infrastructure

  • Check-in list: When you join ESI, administration will give you a check in list so that you can meet all responsible people within the institute. For our purposes, IT is probably the most important. You will need to meet them, also to get your laptop working on our wifi (best to contact Michael Schwickert).

  • Access card: You need one, and you want to always carry it with you (or you may get locked out of all floors except the 0th and 1st).

  • Pre-check-in-list: To get access to the offices and labs, and an IT account, Rosanne needs to fill out a pre-check-in-list for you and hand it to administration. Ask Lea to make sure this happens.

  • Internal lab communication and organization: Works via slack, google calendar, and we have an internal wiki (google sites). It is recommended that you use the former 2 (slack & calendar) during your internship if you want to keep track of all happenings. If yes, please email Rosanne and write (1) which tool(s) you would like to be added to, and (2) which email address you would like to use for this.

  • We have a lab document that everyone who joins our lab (that includes you!) is expected to read. It goes over important points with respect to good scientific practice.

  • Your office will be on the 4th floor (1.4.18), our behavioral labs are in the basement (2.0.04) and on the second floor (1.2.20), and neuroimaging labs (MEG and fMRI) are at the coBIC.

Regular events to keep track of

  • Once a month we have a journal club together with the IMP lab (Goethe), the date is on the calendar, or ask your daily supervisor. Joining this meeting is recommended.

  • Every Friday at 9am we have lab meetings. Every week we alternate between organizational lab meetings (optional) and a paper presentation (recommended).

  • Every Friday around lunch time (12.00-13.00) we have “Sushi & Science”, where we order lunch together (often sushi, but this is optional, you can bring your own food of course) and someone gives a talk on their work. This can be someone from our lab, but we also regularly invite external guests. If you do order sushi, you pay Rosanne back in cash or via PayPall (rosanne.rademaker@gmail.com)

  • Every Thursday Rosanne’s calendar is open for appointments on a first-come first-serve basis. So if you want to meet (together or without with your daily supervisor), just ask your daily supervisor to book you a slot in the lab calendar. Please come to your meeting prepared (i.e., with points that you want to talk about).

    Other possibly cool stuff

  • Some previous interns managed to get a lab tour of the animal facilities. Ask Lea in case you’re interested (she could contact the vet).

  • It’s possible to see the neuroimaging facilities even if you do not work there directly. Ask Noa (MEG) or Lea (fMRI) in case you’re interested.

    A few questions to kick things off

A few words on our attitude toward interns working in our lab

  • You are an unpaid intern, so we will not chase you down and make you be in lab 9-to-5 if you do not want to. You choose your hours (when & how many), and we won’t make specific demands (with 1 exception, see last bullet point).

  • That said: You will get out of your internship what you put into it. If you want many learning experiences, please join all of our meetings, ask all of your questions, and we’ll try to create all the possibilities that you may be looking for. If you do not want many learning experiences, that’s also okay. At the end of the day, if you do not care about our topic/ your grade/ a potential reference letter from us - that’s entirely your choice. You may have other priorities and we will not judge you.

  • Here’s the 1 exception to the “you do you” rule: If you’ve have made a commitment (e.g., to meet with your supervisor, to run a human participant in an experiment) we expect that you will show up. And if there’s an urgent reason for you to cancel, we expect you to let us know as soon as possible.