Scuba dive job for cellular/molecular biologist?

[DBPacific]

I did my Master thesis at Salk Institute I was in San Diego for almost 1 year and loved it.
But again, there are working visa problems (impossible to work in USA without green card) and as you said the diving is not really tropical eheh

My idea was also to change research topic to really work in the marine field. Maybe be able to run a diving volunteering program for example.. but again, not sure how feasible this is..

Not quite biochem or molecular bio but the REEF program in the US is a diving volunteering program collecting biodiversity data. You might find it interesting if only for inspiration. It's just at reef.org

If you come to the US to combine research and diving, you'll probably need the AAUS certification if you want to officially dive for a research lab or institution. Not sure about industry, but that can throw an extra wrench in things. I think folks needed it in Townsville, Australia too but I'm not sure.
I'm guessing you were referencing the ARC Centre of Excellence (Careers / Employment – ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies) there, but James Cook University is also in Townsville and it's just a ferry ride from Magnetic Island which has a bunch of shore diving spots and a couple dive shops that go out to the GBR.

Marine science is very interdisciplinary so there should be a ton of molecular biology topics, it just depends on if you're more interested in a specific topic or the method you use.

 

[DBPacific]

Seems like your first decision is whether you dive for a living, or make a living some other way and dive on the side. Most of us choose the latter, because then diving remains fun instead of work. And we make more money. And we can live where we want. You can travel to dive, and probably will, so your home location is not so important.

Following on this, when I was first thinking about my thesis topic, I was juggling with the idea of doing a project where I'd have to dive to get more time in the water. My advisors recommended instead of diving for my own project, design a project where I don't need to dive and volunteer to help out on other students' projects instead. That way diving wouldn't be a chore and I wouldn't run the risk of ignoring diving risks or bad weather because I didn't want to lose data or fall behind schedule.

 

[stebatta]

You do not need a PhD in micro-biology to run a diving volunteer program. The closest to that I can think of would be if you were on staff as a professor in a small university that had a diving program; as an additional duty you might be running the diving program. But, you likely would not be getting to do a lot of diving.

Seems like your first decision is whether you dive for a living, or make a living some other way and dive on the side. Most of us choose the latter, because then diving remains fun instead of work. And we make more money. And we can live where we want. You can travel to dive, and probably will, so your home location is not so important.

You do NOT have to choose the rest of your life right now. Keep your options open; don't close out opportunities by quitting your PhD program; your idea of changing research topics is good. Almost anything to do with coral DNA will allow you many opportunities.

Don't be afraid of being "over-qualified." Any employer who pulls that on you isn't worth working for.

I wish I knew if I can finish my PhD or not (it will depend of the progression of my project, and we know how unpredictable science can be).. the alternative I was thinking is to drop my current PhD (before wasting other 3 years and may not getting it after all) and start a new one in marine biology that would allow me to 1) dive more (as suggested maybe by helping other students) and 2) potentially live in a tropical place.
Hard core molecular biology is very interesting and I love it but being a rat lab doesn't match my personality or life goals and I currently live 5h drive from the Mediterranean which leaves me only a couple of weeks a years to dive..

Regarding the volunteering dive project it would be fine for me not to dive everyday and I actually love to organise things and teach/give presentations. As long as I can keep my brain challenged and live somewhere beautiful where I can just go for a fun dive whenever I like, I would be happy

 

[stebatta]

Not quite biochem or molecular bio but the REEF program in the US is a diving volunteering program collecting biodiversity data. You might find it interesting if only for inspiration. It's just at reef.org

If you come to the US to combine research and diving, you'll probably need the AAUS certification if you want to officially dive for a research lab or institution. Not sure about industry, but that can throw an extra wrench in things. I think folks needed it in Townsville, Australia too but I'm not sure.
I'm guessing you were referencing the ARC Centre of Excellence (Careers / Employment – ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies) there, but James Cook University is also in Townsville and it's just a ferry ride from Magnetic Island which has a bunch of shore diving spots and a couple dive shops that go out to the GBR.

Marine science is very interdisciplinary so there should be a ton of molecular biology topics, it just depends on if you're more interested in a specific topic or the method you use.

Thanks I will look into the REEF and also I didn't know about the AAUS certification!
Yes as you said marine biology can be quite interdisciplinary, I really need to go through a lot of labs to find something that would at least partially match my knowledge and allow me to jump into marine biology.
Also, yes sorry I meant exactly that institute (ARC centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies), I already looked into their research and there may be some interesting stuff


Thanks a lot guys for all your suggestions! I didn't expect to get so many answers, really appreciated
Any advices you have (on either what to do or where to go) are really helpful!

 

[Angelo Farina]

Grazie mille Angelo sembra molto interessante

I spent a period at Marhe in 2018, working on a project about underwater acoustics.
It is a very nice research center, where advanced research merges nicely with didactic activity for students of the Milano-Bicocca university and various open training projects involving researchers from all the world...

 

[greeniguana]

I only have a lowly undergrad degree in Limnology..... I work as a private sector consultant, most of my workload is environmental permitting for transportation, mining, ports, etc. I occasionally have jobs that require diving, but they are infrequent; seagrass surveys, hardbottom/coral surveys. I usually have to have my staff do this kind of fun fieldwork, because my hourly rate is too high. It is more lucrative for me to do the regulatory paper pushing and report writing, because that "pays more".

I will say that i think being a "generalist" consultant rather than a specialist is nice. I might do gopher tortoise surveys one week, wetland delineation in the Everglades the next, and marina sediment contamination sampling the next.

I've also worked at state and local government regulatory agencies over the last 20+ years, the pay is crap and the politics wears you down. I just saw an FDEP job ad for a position I had 20 years ago..... the pay scale is exactly the same.

 

[WeRtheOcean]

it's sometime dangerous to do a postdoc as you may end up overqualified.

In my experience, having ANY postsecondary education makes you overqualified for the jobs that have the most openings.

 

[tursiops]

In my experience, having ANY postsecondary education makes you overqualified for the jobs that have the most openings.

You only need one opening.

 

[stebatta]

I spent a period at Marhe in 2018, working on a project about underwater acoustics.
It is a very nice research center, where advanced research merges nicely with didactic activity for students of the Milano-Bicocca university and various open training projects involving researchers from all the world...

I looked at the website and it seems that they also do research on heath shock proteins in corals (which would totally overlap with my knowledge). It is not clear to me though if all the PhD is at Maldives in order to keep collecting samples or if it's done in Milan and yearly trips are organised... Thanks

 

[Angelo Farina]

When I was at Maldives, there were two PhD students of UNIMIB living there for months. One permanently, in practice. However in Italy the rule for PhD students is that, over three years, you can spend abroad a maximum of 18 months.
So I suppose that their PHD program is organized half in Italy, half at Maldives.
Also consider that in Italy there is a very small number of PhD positions, and the competition for entering the program can be quite strong. It will not be easy to enter it...
The call is usually opened in late spring, the exams are during summer, and the PhD program starts on 1st november of each year.
On the other side, our universities are very open to cooperation with foreign universities.
So, instead of leaving your current PhD program and starting a new one in Italy from scratch, you should evaluate the possibility to re-route your current PhD in Switzerland, asking to your supervisor to establish new goals and new topics, which involve making research at the Marhe center.
I am quite sure that they will be happy to host you there for periods of reasonable length (typically 2-3 months for each visit). During my visit, there were at least 5 foreign PhD students, coming from their host universities in United States, Mexico, Philippines, etc.
I suggest that you contact the director of the Marhe center, prof. Paolo Galli, and ask him directly about the possibilities.
Here the references and E-mail:
MaRHE Center