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Wenhua Yu, patent agent

Graduate school is quite challenging already. As an international student, you might be faced with additional challenges in locating a job after graduation. To help navigate you through this process, the Huck Graduate Student Advisory Committee (HGSAC) invited Dr. Wenhua Yu, who graduated in 2010 with a Ph.D in Genetics, for a seminar on Jan.29, 2016. Dr.Wenhua Yu has been working as a patent agent for three years.

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Patenting is one of the hot fields STEM graduates could consider as a lifetime career. After working as a patent agent for more than 3 years, Dr. Wenhua Yu decided to take it one step further. Now she is a Juris Doctor candidate at Northwestern University. Northwestern University law school is one of the top 14 law schools (tier 1) in the United States. Last summer, Wenhua worked as a summer associate in an international law firm (Foley & Lardner LLP) and will work for the firm after graduation.

Dr. Wenhua Yu sets a good example for those who would like to pursue a career outside of academia, especially for international students. In the Q&A below, she has provided practical suggestions, such as how to make the transition into patenting and how to be successful in this field. However, if you have other questions regarding the career in patenting, please find her on LinkedIn. She is more than happy to answer questions from Penn State alumni!

Title of seminar: Career Path in Intellectual Property Law for STEM
Q&A session:

1. What’s your educational background? Is there anything specific that prepared you for your current career?
I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Pharmacology from Wuhan University in 2004. Then I graduated with my Ph.D. degree in Genetics from Penn State.

What I got from my prior education and school training that is most helpful for my current career is independent thinking, research and self-learning. Working in the patent field, I am dealing with frontier developments, new concepts and innovations in science and technology on a daily basis. The ability to self-learn is critical for me to get up to speed and work with the materials.

2. What are your current roles/responsibilities? How have these changed over time?
Currently I am in law school. But if I had stayed in the work force for the past two years, I can imagine for myself a role of preparing and prosecuting patent applications and counseling clients on their options for protecting innovation and other forms of IP. In terms of teamwork, I would presumably have a role that involves supervising paralegals, IP secretaries and younger patent agents on various prosecution matters. I would also support senior associates or partners on projects other than patent prosecution, such as litigation support, and opinion work.

Naturally, as I grow more senior, the role becomes more complicated and requires more experience. Looking forward, in my opinion, a senior lawyer’s role would likely involve some level of business development and client management. Thus, entrepreneurial skills may become important at some point.

3. Was this career path something you had always considered?
Yes. I realized that pure scientific research was probably not for me pretty soon after I enrolled in the Penn State graduate program. But at the same time, I was still interested in pharmacology and life science. Thus, the idea of switching to a totally unrelated field was not appealing at the time.

I came to know about the career path in IP law close to the end of my graduate program, and I liked it right away. To me, it seemed to be a unique combination of what I wanted to do and what I was trained for many years before. That was the key decision point, and it remains the same since then.

4. What skills have made you and others in your field successful? Were there any unexpected skills that you needed to learn?
Conducting research in a particular field by finding and studying scientific papers, technical reports and other related references as well as analytical skills and oral/writing communication skills are all important. As a person with a foreign background, one “skill” that I find myself constantly trying to improve is that of engaging in interesting casual conversations with colleagues and clients about things not related to the job, such as football.

5. What can a young scientist do to position himself or herself for a career as a patent agent or lawyer? Any tips on specific ways to network in the field?
I think the best way to network would be to reach out to people who are already in the IP field and let them know your interest about this career. These people could be those who work at the university technology transfer office, alumni who have taken this path, and those one might meet at professional conferences. For example, American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) national center and regional branches hold several conferences each year.

6. After law school, where would you like to work?
I will join the San Diego office of a general practice law firm. I picked the San Diego market because of its concentration on intellectual property law, especially biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

7. How easy/difficult is it to balance work and personal/family life in your career?
I chose to become an attorney and work in big law. Life-work balance may be hard to maintain with this particular combination. However, I don’t think there is a universal answer to this question. I know many successful attorneys who enjoy both their life and career, raise multiple children, and/or have serious hobbies. I think this question also depends on at what stage you are at in your career. For example, patent agents have significantly less billable requirement than patent attorneys.

8. What advice do you have, about anything, for current graduate students?
For young scientists who want to go down this career path, I think the most difficult phase is when he/she is making the transition from a pure scientific field into the patent field that is at the juncture of science and law. But I think the opportunity is out there.

In my opinion, taking and passing the patent bar would be a big plus for people at this stage. Not only would it show the person’s determination about this career choice but it also indicates that the person has mastered basic concepts about the law. Also, I would encourage STEM students to spend time polishing their writing skills and public speaking skills (e.g., via TA-ing or activity organizing) while in graduate school.

Catching up with Nick Blazanin, Molecular Toxicology 2015 Graduate

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Nicholas Blazanin graduated in May with a Ph.D in Molecular Toxicology. This program was recently merged into the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences (MCIBS) program offered by the HUCK Institutes of the Life Sciences. As a member of Dr. Adam B. Glick’s laboratory, Nick’s dissertation research focused on the cellular compartment known as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a major site of protein synthesis within the cell. Specifically, he examined the role of ER-associated stress in cell replication and cell aging, in response to the cancer-promoting gene Ras. Although Ras can promote cancer, it triggers cellular aging as a fail-safe mechanism to prevent tumor development in normal human cells. What scientists don’t understand is how Ras is able to bypass this fail-safe to cause cancer. In his dissertation, Nick was able to elucidate a specific protein pathway that allows for this bypassing, thus helping to solve the puzzle. Through understanding such protein pathways, scientists might be able to develop drugs that can influence these pathways to counteract cancer development.

So, what’s it like having a PhD now?

Surreal. It honestly felt like the day would never come when I would finally be anointed with my PhD! I have friends and family members calling me “Dr. Nick”, admittedly words that will take time for me to get used too. However, I am excited that my hard work paid off. As the first person in my family to obtain a PhD, I feel incredibly proud and I hope to serve as an inspiration to friends and family seeking to pursue not necessarily a PhD, but simply higher education in general.

What’s next for you, academia or industry? 

I am currently doing research at Penn State, but my desire is to get back into cancer research. I am currently applying to post-doctoral positions in both industry and academia. At this point in time I prefer industry, but I may be swayed back into academia if the right project comes along.

How is your job hunting coming along? Do you have any advice?

Looking for jobs has been a learning process. While I feel that there are plenty of job opportunities available, the actual number is pretty small because you’ll have certain job locations in mind, certain types of jobs you want, and a minimum salary you’re willing to take. My advice is to make sure you apply to a couple of jobs per week; keep at it and don’t procrastinate. While the resume is important, don’t forget that writing a good cover letter is equally important when searching for jobs. Also, start looking for jobs at least 6-12 months before graduating to increase your chances of having a job once you graduate. While you will get some responses fairly quickly, most won’t arrive for several months. In addition, something I have been recently doing instead of just applying to jobs that have been posted, is that I have been emailing investigators I am interesting in working with directly to see if they have any openings. You may not always a get a response, but you will also never know unless you try!

Is your career headed in the direction you originally thought it would go?

I find that my career goals are constantly evolving. I originally wanted to teach science in high school, but that quickly turned to doing research after working in the laboratory as an undergraduate. My specific interest in cancer stemmed from taking a special topics course on cancer biology as an undergraduate, as well as from working as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the National Cancer Institute. My training in cancer research continued as a graduate student, and early on (like most graduate students), I wanted to be a research professor in academia. However, my experiences as a graduate student altered that somewhat. I still would like to be an investigator pursuing topics I find interesting, but it does not necessarily have to be in academia.

What will you miss most about Penn State?

I will miss all the friendships that I made over the years and the vibrant atmosphere. However, most of my family lives close by so State College and the Penn State community will never be too far away!

Shakira Nelson: Fellow at the National Cancer Institute

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Shakira M. Nelson, PhD, MPH, Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute

 

It is chiefly important to show the variety of career options for PhDs at the end of their graduate school journey. As part of this spotlight, I asked one of our Penn State alumni to answer some questions about her career journey up until this point.

Meet Dr. Shakira M. Nelson, cancer prevention fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. Nelson obtained a PhD in Pathobiology from Penn State, class of 2013. Her former advisor was Dr. K. Sandeep Prabhu.  She also recently received a MPH (Masters in Public Health) in Epidemiology from John Hopkins University.

How did you chose your degree program and what you like about your current career?
As an undergrad I majored in Microbiology (also at Penn State). When I graduated I had no clue what I wanted to do next and decided to enter the workforce. I was fortunate enough to land a contracting job at the Department of Health and Humans Services (DHHS) where I worked within the Pandemic Influenza Division. For two years, I was able to watch MDs and PhDs work together, and with other Divisions and Agencies and Congress, to protect the country against a future influenza pandemic. The more I worked, the greater my desire to move into a field of public health, working to protect those around me. At the end of two years, I felt ready to return to school and get my PhD.

My plan was to work in biological sciences, acquiring the background necessary to understand biological assays, cellular work, and mechanisms. I still wanted to focus on public health and humans, working on prevention of diseases, but I felt having this as a foundation would benefit me in the long run. Little did I know that a person in my future, while at Penn State, would open a door for me that would lead me directly to the work I wanted to do. Towards the end of my PhD, my attention turned back to wanting to work on humans. The animal studies I did as a PhD student showed me mechanisms and helped me establish myself as a scientist, but I still desired to try something new. More specifically, I wanted to work on analyzing human clinical trial data, working in the prevention of diseases, such as cancer. One of my thesis committee members was an alumnus of the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program, a prestigious fellowship offered through the National Cancer Institute. I was encouraged to apply. After reading their mission statement, I felt this would be a great fit for me. It would help me transition from biological sciences towards epidemiology, while allowing me to have experiences that would enhance my portfolio of knowledge and help with career development. I am currently in the third year of my four year fellowship, and it has been incredibly beneficial and fulfilling. I have met many people within the field of epidemiology who have been pioneers in the development of treatments and prevention methods of cancer development, including Dr. Harold Varmus and Dr. Douglas Lowy. I have traveled to conferences and networked with scientists and epidemiologist who work around the world and throughout the government, including CDC, NIH, and USDA. I look forward to the next steps in my career development, where I hope to continue working in the area of cancer prevention.

What have been some obstacles you’ve had to overcome in pursuit of your educational and career goals?
Many times I have had to get out of my own way. I used to worry a lot about not being smart enough, or not knowing enough about a subject, holding myself back from applying to a program or pursing an interest. I have had to learn to trust myself and understand the desire to learn is a trait that has taken me far. I continue to learn daily, and cast aside self-doubt, pursing opportunities as they become available.

What have been some sources of inspiration both in your career and in your life?
My sisters and parents have been my best source of inspiration. Watching my sisters vigorously pursue their educations and opportunities for development, as I have done to this point and time, has pushed me to continue to work hard, to be the best example for them I can be. I also appreciate the support of my parents, and how my accomplishments are a reflection of the upbringing I had and the dedication they had to raising my sisters and me.

What would you describe as your strong suit?
I think my best strong suit is my dedication to any project or task I begin working on. I push myself very hard, but not because I want to outpace anyone, but because I want to make sure this opportunity is going to make me more knowledgeable and be a useful skill in my future. When I start a project I like to give all my efforts and focus until it is completed. By giving my efforts in the manner I do, I know that my work ethic and talents will be seen in the final product of any project I work on.

How has Penn State impacted your life?
I spent a total of 10 years as a student at Penn State (as an undergraduate and graduate student). Over those 10 years I was able to see the necessity of my becoming an African American female PhD. There are so few women in the STEM fields, and even fewer minority women. To be at Penn State and be visible to both the undergraduate and graduate communities helped me to see how important my accomplishments can be and how it can help open doors to future minority females interested in pursuing a graduate degree.

What advice would you give someone who would like to pursue a career in your field?
Be patient. Projects move slow, advisors and students can give you a hard time; there are hundreds of reasons you’ll want to quit. But you are here for a purpose and part of your journey is overcoming these obstacles. Having patience is your best ally, and will help you go stronger in the long run.

What are your words of wisdom for current graduate students?
Enjoy your time as a graduate student and accept opportunities as they are presented to you. Your potential can only go as far as the opportunities you take advantage of. And although everyday can be a struggle (as usually is), this journey towards your PhD can be the example for someone else, helping them in an unexpected way.

What are your plans for the future?
I would like to stay within the government, working in the area of cancer prevention. During my time as a Cancer Prevention Fellow, I have focused on nutrients, diet, and prostate cancer. I am interested in staying in this area, as there is a lot of research that still needs to be done. I have also begun working in the area of health disparities, examining how this plays a role along the cancer continuum. Although I have veered away from academia (for now), I would like to continue to be involved with student mentoring, helping to bring minority and female students to STEM, providing a substantial impact in the field.

I asked Dr. Nelson to include a brief overview of her thesis work to hear about some of the interesting science that has happened at Penn State:
My work focused on selenium, an essential micronutrient with anti-inflammatory properties, that plays a vital role in many metabolic pathways. The true physiological significance of this micronutrient is heavily studied, where over 25 selenoproteins have been identified. The goal of my thesis was to understand the role selenium plays in anti-inflammation first using an ex-vivo model, with bone marrow-derived macrophage cells from mice fed varying selenium diets. Collected cells were treated with the bacterial endotoxin, LPS, to induce inflammation, or as the Th2-cytokine IL-4. My studies found that macrophages supplemented with adequate levels of selenium (100 uM) and treated with IL-4 increased the expression of alternatively activated macrophage markers, Arg-1, Ym1 and Fizz1. These alternatively activated macrophages are found in anti-inflammatory settings, and also play a role in wound healing.

Interestingly, in macrophages treated with LPS and supplemented with adequate levels of selenium, we saw a marked decreased in pro-inflammatory macrophage markers iNOS, TNFa, and IFNg. Together these studies suggested that selenium at an adequate level can shift macrophages from a pro-inflammatory towards an anti-inflammatory phenotype. To effectively translate these findings into an animal model, we collaborated with Dr. Joseph Urban from USDA using the helminthic gastrointestinal parasite Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Nb). These parasites have a short life cycle, residing in the lungs for 1-2 days before arriving in the small intestine where they reside until 14 days after initial infection. Mice infected with Nb and supplemented with Se significantly increased the expression of the alternatively activated macrophage markers Arg-I, Ym1, and Fizz1 in the small intestines, while decreasing the presence of intestinal worms and fecal eggs. We found that the experiments conducted in my dissertation suggest that optimal Se status, in the form of selenoproteins, is critical to shunt macrophage activation towards an alternatively activated phenotype that promotes enhanced clearance of gastrointestinal parasites.

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Catching up with Rong Wang, Genetics 2014 Graduate

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Over the last year, I have helped to organize numerous seminars and Q&A sessions with people from all different areas of science, from those working in the pharmaceutical industry to science editing to patent law. I truly love hearing each individual’s story about his/her career path, and almost all of them have said that they never expected to take the path that they did. Following that, they then offer this advice: keep an open mind about what you want to do with your PhD in the life sciences and seize every opportunity you get, even if it wasn’t what you planned on doing in the first place.

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Dr. Rong Wang, Genetics 2014 Graduate

I had the distinct pleasure of learning from and working alongside Dr. Rong Wang for the first three years of my PhD program, and to say that I felt a bit lost when she graduated and moved on to her first “big kid” job is an understatement. Rong landed her first job after grad school working for a small biotech company in Santa Barbara, CA. Like many of the other stories I have heard before, if you had asked Rong even just a year prior what her career plans were, she never would have expected that to be the case.

Right before she left Penn State, Rong sat down with Dr. Melissa Rolls, Chair of the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences program, to discuss the process of how she went about applying for jobs in industry and to offer her personal advice for how to be successful in getting a job – you can find that article here.

I recently had a catch-up session with Rong to see how life after graduate school was going and got to learn a bit more about the industry life now that she has had close to a year of experience under her belt. Rong has since moved to another biotech company in San Francisco.

The “dream” wasn’t necessarily to get into biotech

When Rong first began applying for jobs, she didn’t necessarily focus her search to only biotech companies. She felt that after spending 20+ years in school, she wanted to experience a different life and working style outside of academia but was open to really anything new. However, she did know that she wanted to take her problem solving skills to a level where she could help with the development of specific products.

At both biotech companies she has worked for, Rong’s job title has been an R&D Scientist. As an R&D Scientist, she mainly develops diagnostic products. However, working for smaller companies means that she has had other random responsibilities, including market researching, patent writing, and literature writing.

Rong also has the experience of transitioning to a different company. She found that getting her foot in the door and having the previous experience helped her have a better sense of what kind of job fit her the best. It helped that she now had more connections and a stronger network when going through the process of applying for a job after already working in the industry. She also realized the importance of understanding the style and culture of the company you’re working for and how some companies may fit one’s personality better than others.

Industry vs. academia: personal perspective

Having only the experience of doing science in an academic setting, Rong’s mind was trained to assess her research projects by their potential to make good stories and publications. In industry, it’s much more than that. Even after almost a year in the industry world, Rong said she still finds it difficult to decide which direction to push her projects in order to balance product development vs. pure research.

Rong, like many graduate students, put in countless hours each week at the lab working evenings and most weekends. Knowing Rong so personally, I was interested to hear how her work-life balance had changed out in the “real world”. While she still puts in about fifty hours a week, those hours are spent during the week days. “Of course, I would like to spend some time during the weekend for my work so that I can do a little better,” said Rong, which was no surprise to me.

Final pieces of advice

What was pretty comforting to hear from Rong was that after spending a year in the biotech industry, she still finds that there is a lot to learn, and that’s okay, because no one expects you to know everything. The process of getting a PhD is what’s important. “It’s way more critical to obtain a growing mindset and a good habit of learning and applying new knowledge,” said Rong. “I personally think that all you need to learn while you’re in graduate school is what you’re already learning about and doing – understanding background knowledge, developing solid techniques, critically thinking, being eager to learn, and being a hard worker.”

When applying for and interviewing for jobs, Rong stressed the importance of being able to communicate your science to your potential future employers. As a fresh PhD, your studies as a PhD student are all that they have to evaluate you on, so it’s important that you can accurately and succinctly describe the work that you’ve done. The more closely your past experience is related to the job you are applying for, the more likely you are to stand out. Also, if you can show that you have some sort of industry experience, it’s a huge plus (though not a necessity!) – this can be something as simple as your lab having a collaboration with a scientific company or you having an internship experience. (Interested in doing an internship? Check out these resources!)

Finally, start applying for jobs as early as possible, and make sure each resume and cover letter you send out is customized for that specific job (resources for writing these can be found here!). Also, after you apply for a job, write a follow-up letter to catch up – this extra effort can really help you to stand out and increase your chances of getting an interview.

The Cavener Lab (and Mark!) at Rong’s graduation

Beverly Purnell: “Scientific Publishing from the Inside Out”

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So what’s next? Industry or academia?

When discussing a graduate student’s future career plans, this is the question that is usually asked: Do you want to do research in industry or academia? What many graduate students don’t realize is that there is a multitude of career paths that are available to them with a Ph.D. in the life sciences, and many of these career paths don’t include bench work at all!

Beverly Purnell photoDr. Beverly Purnell, Senior Editor at Science magazine and Penn State alumnus, made her way back to Happy Valley on May 29, 2015 to speak to students, faculty, and staff in a two-part seminar about her career path and responsibilities as well as about the process of publishing a paper in Science. As a Senior Editor, Purnell serves as a gatekeeper, working as a member of a team that has to turn more than 10,000 submissions into 700 published articles each year.

With 200+ students and faculty present to fill the Berg auditorium in the Life Sciences Building, Purnell’s seminar was the first in the Career Exposure and Professional Development Seminar Series. This seminar series was started by the Huck Graduate Student Advisory Committee (HGSAC), a group of student leaders from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the BMMB graduate program.

In addition to her seminar, there were two opportunities for graduate students to meet with Dr. Purnell in small group settings (no more than eight students). I myself attended one of these small group meetings, and I really enjoyed hearing from Dr. Purnell more one-on-one. Students were able to ask her more personalized question about her career and what it takes to get into a career as a science editor.

Just in case you weren’t able to attend Dr. Purnell’s seminar or you’re just looking for more of the “inside scoop” on being a science editor, the HGSAC sent a follow-up questionnaire to Dr. Purnell to get some extra information about her career and advice she has for young scientists:

What’s your educational background? Is there anything specific that prepared you for your current career?

I graduated from a small liberal arts school with a double major in biology and chemistry and a minor in math.  At Penn State, I obtained a Master’s degree and PhD in the department of Molecular and Cell Biology.

Working in several research areas helped prepare me for the broad coverage of research handled by an editor.  While an undergraduate student, I worked at a USDA Agricultural Research Station with a stone fruit breeder.  Over the summer between undergraduate and graduate school, I had an internship at the NIAID, National Institutes of Health.  My research for the Master’s degree and PhD at Penn State included two different models and systems.  The Master’s research was in sex determination of the nematode C. elegans and my PhD research was on Drosophila basic transcription machinery.  Then my postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry spanned Drosophila gene regulation and developmental biology.

I feel that the international perspective and exposure gained while doing the postdoc in Germany was helpful—whether communicating with international researchers or for the considerable amount of travel of an editor.

What are your current roles/responsibilities? How have these changed over time?

A Science editor has three major jobs: solicitation, selection, and editing.  Solicitation entails attendance at international meetings and visiting labs to find out about exciting research for possible submission to the journal.  The editing that we do is technical editing.  Copyeditors take care of grammar and style issues.  The largest part of the job is in the selection of papers for publication in Science.  We reject about 75% of papers without in-depth review.  For the remaining 25%, we select international experts to evaluate the work.  Finally, about 1/3 of papers that go to review are published.  These general duties have remained largely the same over time but the areas of editor coverage shift with changes in research trends/advances.

Was this career path something you had always considered?

No, an editing career was not something that crossed my mind.  As I was applying for positions to come back to the U.S. from the postdoc in Germany, I saw the ad for Editor at Science.  The job description sounded very interesting.  I applied for the position at the same time as applying for research positions.  I thought that if I did not enjoy the editing job after about two years, I could still go back to the bench.  However, 18 years have passed and I’m quite happy with my decision.

What skills have made you and others in your field successful? Were there any unexpected skills that you needed to learn?

The science world is constantly shifting. To be successful, an editor must be open-minded in order to discern which advances will take us in a new direction. Listening to and communicating with researchers, as well as keeping up on the literature, are key. This aspect of the editor’s job is separate from written communication. Editors frequently write for a technical or general audience, and this is a skill that continues to develop over the years. However, publishing research extends beyond communication with scientists. Several departments cooperate in the presentation of papers. Once a manuscript has been accepted, editors work with staff in many different departments for copyediting, art and online presentation, commentary, as well as News and public outreach. All of these aspects make for a varied, interesting, and sometimes hectic job.

What’s the most challenging part of your career?

The first year at Science was quite challenging since my work shifted from a very focused area to that which covers many different disciplines.  Editors must keep up on their own topics and papers but also comment on submissions that are circulated from fellow editors. Keeping up on submissions and circulated manuscripts, while at the same time attending international conferences and reading the literature, is challenging and requires considerable dedication and organization.

How do you think your career will change in both the near and distant future?

The means by which science is disseminated is ever-changing.  We have seen a major shift from a focus on the print to the digital product.  I expect that digital features and opportunities as well as social media will continue to expand.

What can a young scientist do to position him or herself for a career in science editing? Any tips on specific ways to network in the field?

Conducting top-notch research is most important.  Editors at Science need to be able to think critically and present work in a clear and logical manner.  Furthermore, participating in science review, such as journal clubs, in-depth review for journals, or evaluating grant proposals for colleagues, can be helpful.

Regarding networking, top international meetings provide networking opportunities—whether presenting a talk or poster or just sitting across the dinner table talking science.  Collaborative science is also helpful in extending one’s reach.

If you weren’t at Science, where do you think or where would you like to be? 

Although some people take editing positions because they are fed up with research, that was not my situation.  I truly enjoyed working at the bench.  If I had not taken the job at Science, I expect that I would be doing research in academia or industry.

Outside of research, the communication and dissemination of science, including education, are areas for which I have a particular interest, so my career might have taken one of those directions.

How easy/difficult is it to balance work and family life in your career as a science editor? 

One reason that I decided to apply for the job as an editor was that I viewed it as a potentially family-friendly job.  Editors often put in long hours, but this is true of most people in the sciences.  I have definitely found it possible to balance work and family life.  Once editors have worked for several years as an Associate Editor, there has been the option to work remotely.  I took advantage of this 14 years ago—after working in the DC office for four years. Telecommuting eliminates time-consuming commuting and allows for more family time.

What advice do you have, about anything, for current graduate students?

Keep your options open.  Many different science avenues can lead to worthwhile and fulfilling positions—at both a personal and professional level.  If something sounds potentially interesting, check it out.