Suggestions
Eli Lyons
Uncommon background that includes computer engineering, molecular biology and bioinformatics.
Eli Lyons, Co-Founder and CEO of GenomeMiner
Eli Lyons: is the Co-Founder and CEO of GenomeMiner, an OIST-based biotech startup.23 He co-founded the company in 2021 and has led it to achieve major milestones in its first year of operation in Okinawa, Japan.2
GenomeMiner is a startup company that spun out of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST).3 The company focuses on developing innovative solutions for genome analysis and data mining.
Eli Lyons: has a diverse background, with experience in various fields including:
- Principal and Vice President of Business Development & Operations at Gray Hawk Land Solutions1
- Chief Executive Officer at Pacific Coast Land Solutions1
- VP of Business Development at geoAMPS, a software company for managing land rights and infrastructure assets1
- Senior Vice President at Prudential Colorado Real Estate1
He holds a Master of Science in Engineering & Technology Management from the Colorado School of Mines.1 Lyons is fluent in English and Spanish, an active member of the IRWA, and holds a managing broker's license in Colorado.1
Highlights
Related to my last post. Probably more convincing to some when it's a Japanese person saying it:
https://lnkd.in/gEQn22Gc
I’m a big fan of Richard Katz, and to be fair, this article, like his other articles, have good macro-level insights.
There were a couple minor points I am not sure about, starting with, “Most Japanese PhDs become university professors.“
I don’t think that’s true, I think they go onto postdoc, then maybe assistant professor. I would guess the majority wash out of academia.
Someone show me the data. I believe the number will be less than 10%, as in every other developed country as far as I’m aware.
The second issue I had is more of an elaboration regarding the lower salaries in Japan compared to Academic positions abroad. Many of the Japanese researchers I’ve met have a totally different view of academia than in the US and maybe elsewhere. IMO, they tend to view academic research as a sort of religion, where their practices are not to be influenced by business and industry. Academia is the group they belong to, and they worship at the alter of their grant providers.
Disclaimer: I’m obviously aware that America and elsewhere have terrible issues as well. I would point to all the recently found fraud/retractions in the US and how people used those publications to further their careers. So the following is just the version in Japan I’ve seen and heard through reliable sources. As another side note, these were NOT based on anything at OIST. Also maybe these have become less common, no idea.
Sins of Academia in Japan (More than 7, yikes! Will add 3 in the comments):
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Cherry-picking data. This is one of the most egregious I saw when I was at Todai.
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Hoarding resources. Won’t let other people use equipment or hoarding so the PI can get tagged on another group's publications.
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Intentionally keeping methods/key info secret. Not wanting to reveal key steps or methods in order to prevent competition and so other people cannot attempt to reproduce their fraudulent work.
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Other forms of Tit-for-tat behaviour. In one example, a reviewer who was supposed to remain anonymous called up the paper submitter directly to ‘let them know’ they were the ones reviewing the submitter's paper.
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Various forms of power harassment. Ooof don’t get me started. It’s a good thing I’m a bit of a masochist.
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Always going with the cheap method. Includes a lot of extra manual labour for PhDs and researchers. We had glass pipettes in the lab I was in (as opposed to plastic disposable). Also can mean crappy or incomplete data. Or hard to reproduce.
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Non-standard ontologies/misleading language. Stop calling microarray a type of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). It’s also not ‘automated’ because you found a way to use a robot for one step in a multi-step process that no one will ever use again.
