The Morgridge Institute approach to curiosity-driven research, called Fearless Science, means pushing into new frontiers of biology and biomedical engineering by asking bold questions and following wherever the answers lead.
But that approach can lead to many paths beyond conventional bench science that can be just as rewarding, personally and professionally. It’s a research-backed but often overlooked approach to training the “whole scientist” for which Morgridge is becoming a national model.
“Morgridge has a unique culture,” says Wes Marner, Morgridge’s director of engagement, education, and equity. “We provide a whole suite of opportunities and training in non-technical skills catered to our graduate students, postdocs and staff scientists — skills they will need to be successful leaders wherever they go.”
Together with Ellen Dobson, Morgridge’s postdoctoral and graduate program manager, Morgridge has been building a culture of career development that opens many paths to fulfilling futures. “A scientist’s next career steps are not necessarily a given and not always a single transition,” Dobson says. “Exposure, planning and preparation are key career steps for the whole scientist.”
Good leaders are good communicators
In pursuing a PhD, early-career scientists acquire many more marketable skills than they think they do — perhaps none more important than communication. Scientists today not only have to communicate their science to their advisory committees, but also work effectively in teams, communicate complex ideas to researchers from other fields, navigate conflicts with a colleague, collaborate, network and advocate for themselves.
“There is a deep-seated belief in academia that as long as you do good science, everything else will fall into place, which is no longer true,” Marner says. “You can be a brilliant scientist, but if you cannot communicate and work in a team, you will be leaving a lot of progress on the table.”
Communication is an underlying skill woven into being a good leader, manager and mentor. Marner emphasizes that in academia, these three roles are often conflated into one person and acquired on the job. Recognizing their distinctions allows Marner and Dobson to help scientists cultivate each of these skills more meaningfully.
While a leader articulates vision and direction for a team by bringing people together, a manager sets departmental or research goals that need to be accomplished. Mentorship, on the other hand, requires unique prowess — building a relationship, aligning goals and expectations and pivoting when needed.
Our programming strategy in Madison and beyond
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the average ratio of students to career services staff is about 2,000-to-one. Experts recommend a ratio as low as 500-to-one for effective personal support. “Ours is around 150 to one,” Dobson says. Through Dobson, Morgridge scientists can tap one-on-one advising, career exploration strategies, professional and personalized support, tailored access to resources and networking conversations.
On campus, Morgridge has bolstered ties with UW–Madison’s Graduate School Office of Professional Development and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs through formal programs such as the Morgridge Professional Development Series and the Postdoctoral Training Course in Scientific Leadership.
Nationally, Marner has been a representative to the National Academies’ recent Roundtable on Mentorship, Well-Being, and Professional Development in STEMM, and is a newly elected member of the National Postdoctoral Association’s Board of Directors. Dobson has been expanding Morgridge’s footprint on LinkedIn, long an important platform in industry and increasingly used by academics.
In 2026, Dobson will expand her advising approach into direct support and guidance from alumni through a new Morgridge Community Network group on LinkedIn. This new resource is rooted in the fact that, as Marner puts it, “The best champions and cheerleaders for Morgridge are those who look back on their time here with a positive outlook.”
Balancing research productivity with career planning
Having been a former postdoc herself both at Morgridge and abroad, Dobson recounts feeling isolated. But things have changed drastically today. “The pull to the lab bench is very strong — to meet certain metrics such as publications, grants, advisor’s goals, and the list goes on. The fact that our office exists at Morgridge shows the importance of developing non-technical skills,” Dobson notes.
In traditional high-pressure academic environments that only focus on the number of papers you write and grants you win, the culture can very quickly shift from healthy productivity to counting the hours spent at the bench and days spent in the lab. The team’s goal is to educate scientists about the small investments toward their career development that can have a huge payoff in the end, not just for their own careers but also in the form of highly productive and scientifically active groups.
From uncertain to unstoppable: career success stories from Morgridge
Many Morgridge alumni can attest the value of this holistic approach.
“Ellen organized many exceptional sessions that helped me with everything — from resume writing to academia-to-industry transitions, says Ross Soens, a graduate student from Josh Coon’s Lab and incoming research scientist at Promega Corporation. “She even personally assisted me with optimizing my resume for a specific role that I ended up receiving in no small part due to her guidance.”
Steve John, a former postdoc in Jing Fan’s lab who is now a scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific, offered a similar take. “Ellen’s one-on-one training was invaluable as I navigated networking and the job market. She is kind, patient and very willing to support your career growth. Her professional development seminars were very insightful,” John says.
Our roadmap for the future
Marner and Dobson aim to build on the success by bringing these principles to colleagues around the country. The duo also believe that early-career scientists play a key role in strengthening the social contract that ties science to society. Marner underscores the importance of having scientists grow as fulfilled, well-rounded people. By engaging in public communication, and sharing their wonder and awe with the public, scientists can reignite a child-like curiosity in science.
“As Morgridge continues to produce tomorrow’s scientific leaders, we believe that our training programs can work toward changing the culture of science,” says Marner.