The PI (principal investigator) at Krasnow

In contrast to the typical university department, the scientist leaders of Krasnow are termed “principal investigators”. This term of course derives from the world of grants, where a PI is the legally accountable spender-in-chief for the direct costs associated with an award (and also for her laboratory, the “decider”). At Krasnow however, the term means something considerably more complex. For one thing, it reflects the seniority (based upon research) to participate in the decisions that reflect the direction of the Institute as a whole–such has recruitment of new PI’s, selection of seminar series speakers and mentorship issues. On another level, it reflect the independence of the PI as far as their research is concerned. Thus, crucially, the PI initiates research at Krasnow.

Every semester, the Krasnow PI’s gather for lunch, as a group, to discuss the direction of the Institute. At the last such gathering, we dined at a small Turkish restaurant in Fairfax, I was struck by how collegial this group has become over the years. And this is also an important component of what it means to be a Krasnow PI: to be a colleague of ones fellow PI’s. Krasnow PI’s collaborate with one another, and when they aren’t collaborating, they serve as scientific sounding boards for one another.

Most of Krasnow’s PI’s are also university faculty members at George Mason. These two roles are distinct from one another, although they are very complementary: research is a crucial criterion for promotion and tenure. So very often, a Krasnow PI is also a professor in some academic unit of the University (Krasnow isn’t an academic unit by-the-way). Thus a Krasnow PI usually has to balance teaching and departmental service obligations with a life of scientific research at the Institute–and this isn’t always trivial.

An odd item: there are no titles on the office name plates at Krasnow. So PI status is a bit murky. But I think in whole, that ambiguity on the door labels makes for a more open scientific atmosphere here at the Institute. Students and postdocs wander in with new ideas, and ultimately those ideas are the engine of science.

Happy 4th of July,

Jim