Teach your children well. . . .

complexities that must be overcome by anyone who hopes to establish a career in research. Throughout our ascent of the academic ladder, we are rewarded largely for our individual achievements and abilities—intellect, insight, curiosity, creativity, dexterity at the bench, communication skills, and so on. Upon obtaining a measure of independence, however, we find that our success depends largely on a completely different skill set that is not taught as part of any established curriculum. Those of us who enter academia by becoming assistant professors, for example, suddenly find ourselves responsible for selecting the questions that our groups will pursue, identifying, attracting, and managing the students and fellows willing to devote their talents to the pursuit of those questions, finding the funds to support our fledgling laboratories, and figuring out how to get our papers published. New assistant professors are hired because they manifest promise in the individual pursuits of their graduate and postdoctoral work. In order to succeed in this new role, however, they must possess an innate ability to apply the same sorts of skills that are required to manage a successful small business. Independent scientists need to know how to inspire rather than demand the dedication of those who work with them, to bring out the best in these individuals, and to recognize their own responsibility for the entire enterprise. They need to know how to identify good questions, how to formulate them in a manner that peer reviewers will find compelling, how to recognize a complete story, and how and where to advocate for its publication. They need to know how to get senior colleagues to read drafts of their As I sit down to write this piece, summer is galloping to a close. To push the equine metaphor even further (perhaps too far. . .), I can already hear the hoof beats of a new academic year thundering their way inexorably closer, signaling a return to the rigors and routines of a new semester. At times like these, I tend to become somewhat sentimental , a sentimentality that is perhaps enhanced in this instance by the fact that one of the excellent articles in this month's superb issue is by my very own first graduate student, who is now all grown up and doing wonderfully out on her own. With your permission, I will avail myself of the opportunity afforded by this editorial to spend a …