I got asked this question in a forum, so I figured I should post this on my page as well. If you are into Surgery, then look at the Department of your interest.
Past publications are not that important (they are not bad either!). You need to find people who are faculty in Surgery at some uni that you are interested in, and that are ACTIVELY involved with research. So,
1. You find out what university you would like (think broadly, not just the what-you-think-is big names)
2. Go to the Department of Surgery website and find out if they have any research going on (90% there is a link 'Research')
3. Find out who are the Surgeons doing research
4. Go to pubmed, and search for their names
5. If their past paper was 2 years ago, dont bother and look for somebody else
6. When you find somebody who is actually doing research, email them, letting them know who you are, what you are doing now and what you want to do. This is called a letter of intent (you show your intentions). Attach your CV. Let them know that you WANT to do research (besides that you need it for residency) and that their research topic is interesting to you (eg sepsis).
NOTES:
A. USMLEs are NOT necessary, since you will have no patient contact. However, it is a lot better if you are done with USMLEs, since this way you show you are a serious person and not just looking around, and when you will be doing research, you will not need to study for something tedious as Biochem.
B. Any communication with people you find on the net that can be crucial. So make sure you have no typos, and your grammar is perfect. Your future may depend on this, so make sure your email and CV are PERFECT. Keep reading them on your own before you send them to make sure it doesn't get better. Have somebody who speaks English better than you read it (don't ask too many people though).
C. Mention in your letter that you are looking for a volunteer job (aka no money). Let me remind you that you are not looking for a job (if that is what you are interested in, dont do research), but a way to increase your competitive-ness for residency or applying for a fellowship or professorship in the future. If they are looking for somebody to do research, then most likely you don't have the experience to be as good as a lab tech with years of experience. So if I had a salary to give out, guess whom I would give it to? Having 5-7 publications or even more, is priceless, and look at it as a great investment. If you think you cannot afford it, try to afford it. If you still cannot, don't do research. Look for a preliminary spot (in case you ultimately want to do residency). However the prelim spot will have NO OTHER value. Publications put your name out there; make your existence known to the world. Once you get your foot in the system, and you show you are productive, you can ask for money. If they like you, they will find a way to pay you. However, if you go to do resaerch at a very small place, where there is no funding, it will be more difficult (if a center has basic science/bench/animal research, they have funding somehow, so it is a good sign).
D. For an H1 visa you will need a salary when you sign a contract. That makes your chances very bad. Why would anybody want to hire you when they don't really know you and you are a salary and difficult visa (it is difficult for some assistance to file for H1 compared to J1, MUCH more difficult)? I personally would not - never. Know that there are many others that will do this for free and just a J1. Ask your self if you really need a H1? Don't blindly believe rumors that a J1 research has a 2-year requirement. Two friends of mine had no requirement with a J1 visa. Your country might be different than mine - Greeece, so look into it carefully. Asking for an H1 is not good for you.
E. Expect to send A LOT of emails. Most will never respond. Some may. Don't email more than twice to the same people. If you email to more than 1 in the same place, don't copy/paste the same email for god's sake. Consider, taking a trip to the US (everybody has friends or relatives here) and then travel in the US to go to universities/hospitals that interest you, and make an appointment with some of the Faculty who does research. Show your face, be pleasant and hope for the best.
~ Good luck
3.08.2007
Customer Service !@#$%^
Even since I can remember myself growing up in my home country, relatives from the US would always bitch about the bad service, the slow response and the less-than-average quality abroad. So, after spending 20 plus years there, being fed up with all the bureaucracy, delays and non existent service (more about that later), I was thrilled that I would now reside in a system where everybody works to service and support the public/customer.
Well, let me inform everybody in the US and in other less developed countries that things are far away from perfect in the States.
When I first signed up for cable tv from Comcast, the lady on the phone (aka The Stoned) kept wanting me to go 20 minutes drive and pick up the equipment on my own. I called later in the week and another representative had no idea and said that they ship the necessary box to your home address. The Stoned also wrote down an incorrect social security number for me. Two months later, I wanted to cancel some movie channels, so I logged on my account on their website to change this. For my surprise, online you can only ADD and not REMOVE features; of course, why would anybody want to make easy for you to pay less, while the same time they want to make it as simple as possible to pay more. I then called the customer service and The Stoned was no longer working there; the person who I spoke with could not process my request because the social on file does not match the one I was giving them. As if some identity theft would involve me getting 5 less tv channels. I offered to fax them whatever the hell they wanted, but that wasn't good enough. They wanted me to take time off work, take a train and a bus to one of the three ghettos in the area (why are all the Comcast offices in the ghetto anyways?) and solve this in person. This way, the managed to have me pay $30 extra for 10 months. Also, after I moved they were refusing to cancel my subscription and sent me a nice $400 bill, which of course I got back.
Verizon is awesome. I have to admit that their dsl rates make overpriced cable internet look like a joke. And I don't want to hear anything about ping and bandwidth. 5 years ago people had AOL dialup. In my new apartment I wanted to get dsl for internet access, so I signed up with Verizon. In a week, I called to see the update and nobody had any idea about my account or my dsl (note: I ordered dsl without having home phone line). A month later they said everything is ok, but still the dsl modem showed line (not just internet) error. After another month and waiting approximatedly (I did calculate this) 4 hours and 20 minutes on the phone, I managed to cancel as well.
By the way, check the dsl status in other countries to see who is less developed. And, also why the hell do I lag like crazy in Steam with comcast cable?
Customer service = corporate service.
Well, let me inform everybody in the US and in other less developed countries that things are far away from perfect in the States.
When I first signed up for cable tv from Comcast, the lady on the phone (aka The Stoned) kept wanting me to go 20 minutes drive and pick up the equipment on my own. I called later in the week and another representative had no idea and said that they ship the necessary box to your home address. The Stoned also wrote down an incorrect social security number for me. Two months later, I wanted to cancel some movie channels, so I logged on my account on their website to change this. For my surprise, online you can only ADD and not REMOVE features; of course, why would anybody want to make easy for you to pay less, while the same time they want to make it as simple as possible to pay more. I then called the customer service and The Stoned was no longer working there; the person who I spoke with could not process my request because the social on file does not match the one I was giving them. As if some identity theft would involve me getting 5 less tv channels. I offered to fax them whatever the hell they wanted, but that wasn't good enough. They wanted me to take time off work, take a train and a bus to one of the three ghettos in the area (why are all the Comcast offices in the ghetto anyways?) and solve this in person. This way, the managed to have me pay $30 extra for 10 months. Also, after I moved they were refusing to cancel my subscription and sent me a nice $400 bill, which of course I got back.
Verizon is awesome. I have to admit that their dsl rates make overpriced cable internet look like a joke. And I don't want to hear anything about ping and bandwidth. 5 years ago people had AOL dialup. In my new apartment I wanted to get dsl for internet access, so I signed up with Verizon. In a week, I called to see the update and nobody had any idea about my account or my dsl (note: I ordered dsl without having home phone line). A month later they said everything is ok, but still the dsl modem showed line (not just internet) error. After another month and waiting approximatedly (I did calculate this) 4 hours and 20 minutes on the phone, I managed to cancel as well.
By the way, check the dsl status in other countries to see who is less developed. And, also why the hell do I lag like crazy in Steam with comcast cable?
Customer service = corporate service.
3.07.2007
Debian on IBM ThinkPad 770
Alternative Title: Old Laptop - Who Needs Vista Anyways...
[Disclaimer: if you are not into computers, don't read this. It will bore you to death]
I recently came across a post on a forum of users advising somebody to throw away his 'old' PC (pentium 1.4G with 64MB gpu) in order to get the new Windows Vista. Everybody gets it wrong; it is not about getting a computer to have Vista, it is about having a computer to do your freaking job.
I purchased an old IBM ThinkPad 770 laptop with a pentium 266, 96MB RAM, 4Gb hard drive, only floppy (no CDROM), two PCMCIA cards (LAN and modem). This piece of junk has half the power of my PDA for drying out loud! I gave $30 to get it and then $20 for a power adapter (the original was lost, and the battery doesn't hold a charge). Probably $50 is too much for this machine (aka The Brick), but the feeling of giving birth to something dead is priceless.
I tried using Windows 95 for 2 minutes and then I decided to make this actually usable. I am not that experienced with linux distos, but I have given it a try in the past (redhat and, mostly, ubuntu). Of course without a CDROM, there were not much I could do; my usual method of downloading the iso and making a boot/install CD was not an option. So, looking around I found this and decided to install Debian 3.1 using the PCMCIA lan card.
Step 1.
Obtain the img files for the three floppies I will need, boot, root and network drivers.
(this will only work for i386 CPU - for other types check here)
Make the floppies using the program rwwrtwin.
Step 2.
Insert the floppy boot into the drive and reboot the computer. When prompted insert the root floppy and when asked for additional drivers use the net-drivers floppy. It is crucial that by that point you already have your computer hooked up to the network, using a lan cable.
I have also done this using my iBook to connect to a wireless network and then share internet through the ethernet port of the iBook, where I hooked the IBM.
The installation should now begin. Select one of the servers to download the necessary files from (I used the MIT one, since it is fast - obviously - and close to my location).
Follow the directions from then on.
When prompted to pick a task to download appropriate files, select "Select packages manually" to start up Aptitude and from there choose what you need to avoid bloating your computer. If you don't care, then maybe selecting "Desktop" in the tasks would also work for you, but I don't recommend it. Aptitude is the best thing in debian so you might as well start using it as soon as possible. Before you install anything update the cache (pressing u).
Step 3.
Suggestions for old hardware:
Search (pressing / ) and mark for download (pressing +) the following
x-window-system-core this will install a basic X system on your machine
gdm this is a login manager - you don't need this one (you can use xdm or simply type startx every time you turn on your computer after you login) but I think this is disk space well spent
xfce4 this is a desktop environment (not just a window manager) that is very slick and fast, so I really like it in contrast to gnome/kde (you can try fluxbox, blackbox or anything else you like)
dillo very lightweight internet browser
links text based internet browser
qtorrent resources-friendly torrent client with gui
leaftpad very fast text editor (although I nano most of the times)
Step 4.
To get X working properly I had to manually edit the configuration file.
Login as root.
cd /etc/X11/
(or locate XF86config and cd to that folder)
Make sure that these sections are part of your file or that your monitor, graphics card and screen are configured in this way (only for IBM TP 770 users). Thanks to Martin Fluch for having this config on his website. I have edited the file based on my preferences and have it ready for you. Don't use it as is, but change your XF86Config-4 based on it.
UPDATE:
11/01/08 I have now updated my IBM to running Lenny. Since I had trouble finding floppies for netinstall, I used the etch floppies, and did minimal install by selecting no package in dselect (not even base or minimal). Then, after rebooting (this is probably a bad habbit from the winblows era), I edited the /etc/apt/sources.list file and changed the word etch or stable with lenny. Then I did aptitude update
aptitude dist-upgrade
aptitude upgrade
I have to say that it now I have a lot more features on rtorrent (mainly encryption) which is the main thing I use on that machine.
[Disclaimer: if you are not into computers, don't read this. It will bore you to death]
I recently came across a post on a forum of users advising somebody to throw away his 'old' PC (pentium 1.4G with 64MB gpu) in order to get the new Windows Vista. Everybody gets it wrong; it is not about getting a computer to have Vista, it is about having a computer to do your freaking job.
I purchased an old IBM ThinkPad 770 laptop with a pentium 266, 96MB RAM, 4Gb hard drive, only floppy (no CDROM), two PCMCIA cards (LAN and modem). This piece of junk has half the power of my PDA for drying out loud! I gave $30 to get it and then $20 for a power adapter (the original was lost, and the battery doesn't hold a charge). Probably $50 is too much for this machine (aka The Brick), but the feeling of giving birth to something dead is priceless.
I tried using Windows 95 for 2 minutes and then I decided to make this actually usable. I am not that experienced with linux distos, but I have given it a try in the past (redhat and, mostly, ubuntu). Of course without a CDROM, there were not much I could do; my usual method of downloading the iso and making a boot/install CD was not an option. So, looking around I found this and decided to install Debian 3.1 using the PCMCIA lan card.
Step 1.
Obtain the img files for the three floppies I will need, boot, root and network drivers.
(this will only work for i386 CPU - for other types check here)
Make the floppies using the program rwwrtwin.
Step 2.
Insert the floppy boot into the drive and reboot the computer. When prompted insert the root floppy and when asked for additional drivers use the net-drivers floppy. It is crucial that by that point you already have your computer hooked up to the network, using a lan cable.
I have also done this using my iBook to connect to a wireless network and then share internet through the ethernet port of the iBook, where I hooked the IBM.
The installation should now begin. Select one of the servers to download the necessary files from (I used the MIT one, since it is fast - obviously - and close to my location).
Follow the directions from then on.
When prompted to pick a task to download appropriate files, select "Select packages manually" to start up Aptitude and from there choose what you need to avoid bloating your computer. If you don't care, then maybe selecting "Desktop" in the tasks would also work for you, but I don't recommend it. Aptitude is the best thing in debian so you might as well start using it as soon as possible. Before you install anything update the cache (pressing u).
Step 3.
Suggestions for old hardware:
Search (pressing / ) and mark for download (pressing +) the following
x-window-system-core this will install a basic X system on your machine
gdm this is a login manager - you don't need this one (you can use xdm or simply type startx every time you turn on your computer after you login) but I think this is disk space well spent
xfce4 this is a desktop environment (not just a window manager) that is very slick and fast, so I really like it in contrast to gnome/kde (you can try fluxbox, blackbox or anything else you like)
dillo very lightweight internet browser
links text based internet browser
qtorrent resources-friendly torrent client with gui
leaftpad very fast text editor (although I nano most of the times)
Step 4.
To get X working properly I had to manually edit the configuration file.
Login as root.
cd /etc/X11/
(or locate XF86config and cd to that folder)
Make sure that these sections are part of your file or that your monitor, graphics card and screen are configured in this way (only for IBM TP 770 users). Thanks to Martin Fluch for having this config on his website. I have edited the file based on my preferences and have it ready for you. Don't use it as is, but change your XF86Config-4 based on it.
UPDATE:
11/01/08 I have now updated my IBM to running Lenny. Since I had trouble finding floppies for netinstall, I used the etch floppies, and did minimal install by selecting no package in dselect (not even base or minimal). Then, after rebooting (this is probably a bad habbit from the winblows era), I edited the /etc/apt/sources.list file and changed the word etch or stable with lenny. Then I did aptitude update
aptitude dist-upgrade
aptitude upgrade
I have to say that it now I have a lot more features on rtorrent (mainly encryption) which is the main thing I use on that machine.
Something borrowed something new
It took me a while to figure out whether I should write in english, greeklish or greek. I decided to write the first post in english, however I am sure in the process I will post in all three, depending on my time availability and of cource context ;) so if you start seeing weird characters or text that makes no sense, it will be all greek to me as well.
The purpose of this blog (everything seems to need a purpose these days) is to exchange 'images' with family and friends, as well as complete strangers to some extent. Come on. You have to admit that you have had the weirdest convos with people you have never met before; and without having some weirdness in our lives, things would be very very boring.
[image = unit of thought, e.g a photograph, an idea, a story]
The purpose of this blog (everything seems to need a purpose these days) is to exchange 'images' with family and friends, as well as complete strangers to some extent. Come on. You have to admit that you have had the weirdest convos with people you have never met before; and without having some weirdness in our lives, things would be very very boring.
[image = unit of thought, e.g a photograph, an idea, a story]
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