labmate stealing ideas I am a new postdoc at a lab and really worried/confused/upset.
As I am new to experimental work (I have a computational background) the principal investigator (PI) has grouped me into a weekly meeting with 2 PhD students (the lab, in the US, is large with over 20 members in total). One of the PhD students is a &quot;star student&quot;. A star student without so far any ideas which worked out - so stealing my ideas seems to be currently her go to.
When I entered the lab the PI suggested I join these weekly meetings, because me and the 2 PhD students would be interested in similar topics. I, naively, presented the ideas I am interested in just to see that the star PhD student has taken them, implemented them (as she already has experimental experience she can do that quickly), presented them, while also presenting herself as benevolent (mentioning during her talk my name, saying that I must be surely interested in these ideas as well - um yeah, given that it these were my ideas..). She basically immediately abandoned her own ideas after she realized that the PI likes mine and is just copying 1:1 my ideas.
Worse than that, the prof, who really cares about the star student doing well and about her being happy with him, told her then how great it would be if &quot;her&quot; idea would work out, and then added an extension to her idea which was also mine (which he knows).
What do I do? I am new and can't get into a conflict, especially since this PhD student is the PI's favorite and well established. Ideally I would like to avoid these weekly meetings altogether, because if I go I naturally also have to share what I work on, which does not seem too good given that the star student does not mind stealing ideas and presenting them as their own. But I worry that leaving the meetings would already cause a conflict etc.
Also meetings should be a place where I can voice my ideas, safely, in particular when the PI is present, but given that he is helping to feed her my ideas I really don't know what to do. It sucks.
If your ideas were fleshed out experimental plans that someone else took and used, that's not cool. You should complain.
If your ideas were a bunch of &quot;wouldn't it be great to study this topic&quot; thoughts, that's just not enough to stake a claim. If the PhD student is acknowledging that you're also in that area I wouldn't complain. You should ask her for help designing and executing an experimental plan. The best outcome is that she teaches you some new stuff and you both end up coauthoring something solid.