What Should You Name Your Research Group?

So, you’ve officially got the job.

Things are looking pretty glorious.

Your grad student and postdoc days are over.

You are finally joining the adult workforce and getting paid a salary, not a stipend.

You may have teaching and service looming in the periphery, but the biggest point of order is your research.

While you of course need to get writing those manuscripts and grants, even more pressing is that you need to start telling people what you research.

You have some time, but you want to have a name for your research lab or group within your first semester.

This is the first step in communicating that you are a research leader.

But the clear conundrum is this: do you name it after yourself or do you name it after your research?

Here’s a breakdown of what to consider:

What is the standard for your field?

This might seem obvious but check around to see what others in your field are doing.

Make sure you are looking at mid-career professors as well as professors that are just 1-3 years ahead of you.

Some fields are more prone to “The Smith Lab” while others it is more typical to see something like “The Stress Physiology Lab.”

Does someone already have a lab with your last name?

Just do a quick Google search.

It’s not a dealbreaker and you can still name your lab after yourself if that is what you are leaning towards.

But it is important to know if someone types in your lab name, are they going to be able to find it easily or will you have some competition to be the top Google result.

If someone does have a lab name with the same name, how active is it? If it is a large active lab, you might want to consider naming your lab after your research.

Might your research direction change in the next 5 years?

The answer is yes.

If you are just starting as a professor, then you are most likely still some sort of mini-me version of your PhD mentor, which is fine and it got you the job.

Might you stay on the trajectory you are on?

Of course!

But is there a chance you start finding some other aspect of research interesting and want to change tracks?

Yes! Of course there is!

Unless you have an aversion to learning new things and getting interested in them, which seems unlikely if you are a professor.

So, knowing that it is a possibility you might change your research direction, choose your lab name accordingly.

Clearly, using your last name lets you change your direction as many times as you would like without ever changing your lab name.

If you want to name it after your research, try to be broad enough that you are pretty sure you will stay within that umbrella and still have room to move around.

Or just realize you might need to change your lab name at some point and be mentally prepared for that.

How will you market your lab?

That’s correct, I said market.

What no one really seems to talk about in academia is that academic research is very much a business.

We have to sell our research to funders, to potential collaborators, and to talented students and postdocs that we want to recruit into our lab.

If you name your lab after your research, you have a clear advantage in the marketing realm, as your lab’s name is already starting to do the selling.

If you want to name it after yourself, just think of how you will communicate what your lab does quickly and easily.

Make a logo for your lab (you can hire a graphic designer, or you can do this for free on Canva yourself).

On your lab website, make it super clear what you research right at the top of the home page.

Be active on social media with your research.

Others will still have to do a bit of legwork to find out what you do, but with a logo, website, and social media, it shouldn’t take them too much time to figure it out.

Okay, but so what should I name my research lab/group? 

If you are still completely torn in both directions, I would say to name it after yourself in the beginning.

I think the pro of having complete flexibility with your research direction and not feeling trapped by a label you put on your research program outweighs the con of needing to do a bit more on the marketing side.

After 5 years of completely independent research, you can then revisit the name of your lab and name it after your research from a more secure and established position.