Thursday, June 26, 2008

What makes a good "group" web page?

Over the years, a lot of my 1st impressions and initial investigations into various departments, research groups, programs, etc have come from web pages.
I am thinking about this differently now that I am beginning to transition from postdoc to assistant professor. I think it is very important to have a good web page for the following reasons:
1. A web page puts a "face" on your research group
2. It can help set, define, and advertise the lab "culture" which is important for recruiting students and publicizing your work in an informal way
3. It is a good way for people to see the progression of your research if there are "news" sections, etc highlighting recent findings, publications, etc

I am starting to take notice of web pages that I like a lot, to get ideas for how to make mine. Does anyone have any favs to recommend or thoughts about what makes a good research group web page?

Here are some I like:
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~asimpson/
http://www.chem.umn.edu/groups/haynes/
http://spot.colorado.edu/~nemergut/

2 comments:

Academic said...

I would be interested in which pages you are finding that seem to accomplish this goal. I find myself very much in the same boat.

Non-fiction scientist said...

I like these group web pages:
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~asimpson/
http://www.chem.umn.edu/groups/haynes/
http://spot.colorado.edu/~nemergut/