Tag Archives: Women in science

Dr. Rasika Hudlikar, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the NIH

We invited Dr. Rasika Hudlikar, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD to tell us about her career as a postdoctoral researcher. Here, Dr. Hudlikar talks about some responsibilities and expectations from her job and offers some advice to those who are interested in pursuing a career in research at the NIH.

About Rasika Hudlikar, Ph.D.

LinkedIn

Rasika Hudlikar, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH working with diverse team that conducts clinical and translational projects in the area of lung cancer research. Her applied research spans the fields of microbiology, cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, and in vitro and in vivo oncology. Alongside her multifaceted role as a postdoctoral research fellow at the NCI, Rasika is an editorial member and reviewer for multiple scientific publishing houses and a freelance science writer.

How did you get your current job? Describe the path to your current position.

I obtained my BS and MS degrees in Microbiology. I pursued my Ph.D. in Life Science (Cancer Biology) at The Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) in Mumbai, India. After obtaining my doctoral degree, I began to explore postdoctoral research opportunities, as I was primarily inclined towards conducting research in the field of disease biology. Although I received multiple offers, I decided to take up my first career opportunity as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in a lab where my current research interests aligned with ongoing projects and provided me with opportunities to incorporate new techniques in lung cancer research. After serving 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers, my interests leaned toward application-oriented and patient-based projects. This led me to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, where I have been working since the last 6 months with a diverse research team, comprising head and associate surgeons, bioinformaticians, and senior scientists to conduct research aimed at understanding the complexity of lung cancer, particularly from a clinical standpoint.

 What is a usual day/week at your job position?

My day primarily involves conducting research/benchwork that consists of designing and performing experiments for both independent and collaborative research projects. I’ve listed three most important tasks in addition to my daily research activities:

  • Presenting/discussing research articles
  • Staying up to date with the latest publications in the research field
  • Discussing potential research ideas with my own team as well as with other clinicians at NCI.

My other research activities involve attending scientific conferences to present our work, collaborating with scientists and clinicians in the US, as well as facilitating international research collaborations to promote diversity from various ethnic backgrounds, which is a crucial aspect of scientific research. One of the ultimate goals of our research group is to disseminate the results of our work to the scientific community by publishing our findings in reputed international journals. As a postdoctoral fellow at NIH, we are always encouraged to actively participate in professional development activities outside the lab, for example attending seminars, colloquiums involving career and personal development, including CV/resume writing, job applications, preparing for the interview process, etc. The NIH provides an amazing opportunity for postdocs to acquire various skills, including mentoring students, judging poster presentations at conferences, and preparing candidates for taking up future career endeavors.

From your experience, what does a company/institution look for in candidates applying to your job position?

I believe that dedication to research is an extremely important aspect of working at the NIH. My background in cancer research spans a broad range of experiences, including working with in vitro model systems, experimental animal studies, and human tissue samples, all of which strengthened my application for a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH. From my experience, research institutions also look for candidates who are eager to take on completely new research projects with a diverse soft skillset, including quick learning ability, teamwork, collaborating, and multitasking! Furthermore, developing strong communication skills is an important aspect in postdoctoral research as most work responsibilities involve meeting with a diverse team, including surgeons, bioinformaticians, and global research collaborators where one is expected to not only explain the research with clarity but also understand the challenges at their respective ends. Overall, horizontal learning allowed me to focus on improving my research expertise, whereas vertical learning enabled me to put that knowledge into practice.

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

Looking back, my career path involved a series of stepping stones, starting from conducting research involving handling organisms at a microscopic scale during my graduate studies in microbiology, to handling organisms at a macroscopic scale, with mice during my doctoral research to understand the complexity of diseases. The research experience I obtained during my Ph.D. was the primary step in learning the basic nuances in the research process, which involves 4 major steps: designing, executing, interpreting/analyzing, and troubleshooting experiments. To accomplish these steps, my mentors taught me in detail about how to dive into research literature to understand potential challenges and research gaps and troubleshoot experiments. After receiving my Ph.D., I began my journey as a postdoctoral fellow in the US with a diverse research culture, and it was thrilling to apply my knowledge/skills to understand different challenges in the field! Although postdoctoral research involves mentorship, I learned to how to independently conceptualize my own project, design the required experiments, conduct experiments, as well as troubleshooting them. My role as a postdoctoral fellow also gave me an amazing opportunity to mentor both Ph.D. candidates and undergraduate students with their research and thesis progress. Another important aspect of my career trajectory was my role in actively participating in professional development research opportunities, which included grant writing and evaluation, reviewing original research articles and literature reviews, as well as writing book chapters, and other university-related volunteering opportunities.

What advice do you have for current graduate students looking into work in this job position?

Learn, learn… and keep learning! Never ever give up on learning new things every day, let it be a new research paper, new techniques, new soft skills, or even new software/websites for analysis of your data. When I observe the working styles of well-renowned scientists, I noticed that the one thing common among all of them is that they never stop learning! Actively build your networking skills and stay up to date with the latest publications in your research lab as well as peers in your research field. Finally, I also suggest exploring traditional as well as non-traditional career paths associated in the STEM career to make this path more enjoying and fun!

The views expressed in this article belong to the authors and not the organization, its affiliates, or employers.

Interview by Janhavi Damani

Perspectives of Women in S.T.E.M.

By Kerry R Belton

For centuries, discrimination, sexism and inequity have plagued STEM fields and has hindered many innovative spaces. Despite these issues, women have remained in the forefront of scientific progress. Women have achieved or surpassed equivalence with men in most academic fields, yet continue to be outnumbered in many STEM areas. I have learned communication is the sole enemy of ignorance. Therefore, I seek to bring forward unspoken issues and point of views so to break the chains of silence by celebrating openness, ideas, and experiences. For this piece, I spoke with several female students at various stages in their Ph.D processes to get their first-hand perspective as a female scientist at Penn State.  I asked them several questions and below I compiled a collage of responses in an effort to better foster communication and openness in the STEM areas.

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http://www.thebigidea.co.uk/cost-gender-inequality/

Meet:

 

erika

Ericka D. Reed

What is your major and why?

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; I want to pursue a career in infectious disease research

What year are you? 2nd year

I study how quorum sensing, cell-to-cell communication among bacteria, impacts host colonization using the Hawaiian bobtail squid and its symbiont Vibrio fischeri as a model system.

 

tia

Adwitia Dey (Tia)

What is your major and why? Physiology-it allows me to study a wide array of biological processes.

What year are you? 3rd

My current research focuses on a particular immune cell (macrophages) and how it’s activation with a receptor (Ron) influences chronic inflammation in the CNS.  Ron activates anti-inflammatory macrophages and plays a protective role in inflammation. We study CNS inflammation in mice with two methodological approaches: 1.Diet-induced atherosclerosis and obesity models and 2. Immunization induced Multiple Sclerosis.  Ron seemingly has a protective role in attenuating CNS inflammation, thus my ongoing research endeavors to identify a mechanism underlying this observed protective phenotype.

headshotPaige Chandler

What is your major and why? I’m a doctoral student in the Physiology program. The Physiology program at Penn State offers flexibility in terms of research areas that you can explore.

What year are you? I’m a 5th year.

My lab is interested in skeletal muscle growth control from the perspective of ribosome biogenesis. We are studying the role of degradation pathways, primarily the ubiquitin proteasome system, in regulating skeletal muscle growth. We use both cell based and animal models of hypertrophy and atrophy to answer our questions. The goal is to better understand how the proteasome contributes to skeletal muscle wasting in an attempt to provide better therapeutic targets and strategies for people suffering from muscle loss.

jennifer

Jennifer Legault

What is your major and why? I’m in the neuroscience program because I’m fascinated by the possible effects of training (especially second language training) on the brain.

What year are you? I’m a 4th-year student.

I use a multimodal neuroimaging approach to examine the various effects of second language training on the brain.  Specifically, I examine whether the context in which a person learns a second language has different effects on the gray matter structure of the brain with training.  Furthermore, I examine whether these gray matter changes occur in regions that are functionally active during language control tasks.  I then examine whether these brain changes are different for non-linguistic training as a way to glimpse what may be unique in the brain about learning second language vocabulary.

 


 

Do you feel like your work environment is male–dominated? Do you feel the workspace tends to have aggressive, transactional cultures?

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http://vadlo.com/cartoons.php?id=26

“Luckily, I think my work environment is pretty gender equal, however, that’s perhaps one of the reasons that I gravitated towards it in the first place.  I don’t think I would feel as comfortable working in an environment that was aggressive or demeaning towards women or any other demographic.”

“My work environment is not male-dominated. In fact, most of my experiences in research have involved women. Additionally, I don’t think I have had many experiences with aggressive peers.”

“At this stage/place of my career, I do not feel as though it is male dominated, however coming from biochemistry labs it was predominantly male. Depends on the area of research?”

“Not really. My PI actually seeks to create a balanced lab.  I even recall an instance where he asked our opinion regarding the gender balance in the lab. He seems to be a major advocate for women and minorities in science.”

What’s your advice to little girls everywhere as a woman in STEM?

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https://wchaverri.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/la-feria-cientifica-imagenes-para-invitaciones-y-otros/mad_science_flask_girl_yq8e/

“I would tell young girls to be confident. As women, and especially as women of color, we feel as though we’re invading spaces that weren’t necessarily meant for us. So I would say to trust your brain and be confident.”

“Take any criticism as a challenge to do better, try to learn from it and even if it is completely baseless, use it as a motivational tool to work harder.”

“Don’t be intimidated by the “hard’ fields, i.e. engineering, hard core biochemistry, computer programming, etc. We are just as capable of excelling in these areas as men are.”

How do you think women can overcome the perpetuated stereotypes in STEM?

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http://benitaepstein.com/

It is impossible for women to change the opinions/stereotypes people might have. We’re not less prepared, and we’re not less qualified than our male counterparts. I’m not exactly sure how we can overcome perpetuated stereotypes. Can you really penalize men or women who maintain and vocalize detrimental opinions? I’m specifically thinking about when Tim Hunt told journalists in South Korea that “three things happen when they are in the lab … You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry.” I’ve also worked with a woman PI who constantly disparaged women as being “bitchy” and hard to work with; she even went as far to hire a Lab tech who is male because the lab “needed more testosterone”. And the man she hired was the most emotionally unstable person I had ever met. But what is the recourse for situations like these? I think as soon as more people become intolerant to ideas/opinions like these, then maybe people will change the way they think.”

 

“By continuing to do great research. If life has taught me anything, it’s that people will form their opinions of you regardless of what you do. Instead of proving them right or wrong, I’d rather focus on contributing something worthwhile to my field and letting the work speak for itself.”

What encouraged you as a woman to study STEM?

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http://www.stemwomen.net/category/stem-women/

“I always wanted to be a doctor growing up, yet when I moved to the U.S. in 4th grade and had to learn to read and write in English (I’m a French Canadian), I was worried that I might not be able to make it.  In fifth grade, my English scores had improved enough to not need English as a Second Language classes, but I was still hesitant.  Luckily, my teacher, Mrs. Gray really encouraged me by telling me that I could of course succeed, so long as I put in the work, dedication, and passion.  There was just this high level of complete faith in my ability on her part that I believed her, and I think that made a big difference.  Also, my parents never made me feel like I couldn’t do something because I was a girl.”

“I never really understood or saw the world through gender lenses, so I ventured into studying STEM to purse what I enjoyed.”

Do women in STEM need more role models?

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https://www.pinterest.com/luzgaral/science/

“Women in STEM do need more role models. Sometimes it is hard to visualize yourself in a career when you don’t see people who look like you or are culturally similar to you. However, we need to realize that if we persevere, we will represent what we hope to see. Originally I decided to join the Physiology program at Penn State because of the flexibility to study in different fields like biochemistry, nutrition, etc. I was surprised to see so many women in leadership positions. I saw many women who were PIs, Chairs of programs/departments, well-funded, and most importantly, respected. However, one thing that I think Penn State could do is try to recruit more racially and culturally diverse women.”

“I wouldn’t say that we need more role models per se, because I think there’s already a great number of amazing people to look up to.  I think we need to increase the visibility of current role models, especially those who stand up to injustices, those who persevere, and those who inspire others.”

“Yes, but we need more women who aren’t afraid to be themselves. It seems that women in STEM fields feel the need to assume a more masculine demeanor to be taken seriously, which plays into the stereotype that women are inferior or don’t belong. I would like to see a researcher showing the world she can handle her business in heels as well as any man in flats.”

What are your thoughts on the factors affecting women entering the field and the high rate of attrition?

“Many women avoid certain career paths due to the constant societal pressure of starting a family. I remember attending a seminar once and a woman speaker was talking about how she sacrificed accepting a faculty position at an R1 university so that she could work at a smaller R3 university. She advised all the women in the audience that it’s okay to make that same decision if work-life balance is important to them.  I personally have never felt pressure to start a family, so I don’t think about that when I’m planning major decisions in my life. But I see my peers around me who do want to start families. I would say that it truly affects how they navigate graduate school and their personal relationships.”

Can you spotlight some of the sexism that many women in STEM fields encounter daily?

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http://www.xkcd.com/

“Although I’ve been incredibly fortunate that I haven’t encountered much overt sexism in my workplace myself, I do have many friends who have.  I’ve know many graduate students who do not even feel comfortable being in a room with their male colleagues alone because of blatant harassment.  Furthermore, some of my female colleagues were instructed to do menial tasks (such as cleaning lab spaces) that male colleagues were not expected to contribute to.  Outside of the lab, or in general, I definitely did grow up thinking that I needed to be more masculine in order to gain respect.  I used to think that dressing in a feminine manner, or showing any kind of emotion was somehow less professional (I have since changed my views).  I have female friends who were advised to not wear clothes that were too tight or too loose, to wear more makeup or less makeup, and it fostered this idea that somehow women were more judged by their appearance than their work.  What’s more is that I’ve spoken to some female professors and many stated that they were expected to be on more committees than their male counterparts, which took away from valuable research and grant writing time.  Importantly, some of my male friends also suffered from sexism where they were told to “man up” or it was assumed that they should know everything about coding and programming (or some other field) simply because they were male.  Sexism does not benefit anyone.”

What are some adversities you have faced as a female student?

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http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/conflicts%20sexism%20racism%20politics_107974

“I was told in undergrad once by my virology professor that the only diploma I’d see if I am to graduate with my Bachelors of Science is a marriage diploma. He believed I couldn’t maintain research (which I started early in undergrad) and courses, in other words women cannot manage multiple aspects of life well and that’s why they chose marriage and family over PhD careers so they can focus on one thing.”

“Learning to swallow my emotions and hide my frustration (I was actually told I need to work on hiding my frustration). My advisor always says “No one cares how you feel. They care how you think”. I understand his goal is to get me to stay focused on the science. However, it is sometimes challenging for me to not become emotionally involved in something I’m so invested in.”

What do you believe are the challenges women face in maintaining a work-life balance in a STEM field after having children?

 

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http://glyndk.blogspot.com/search/label/science

“The perception that only mothers can take time off or should instead of fathers.”

“To begin with, I think there’s a great disparity in the amount of maternity leave that is available to women, and often times it is only available for a short period of time.  This problem is exacerbated by the fact that often, spouses do not get paternity leave, which means that one parent (often the birthmother) will have to bear the brunt of the work, and many times this is even if there were complications during pregnancy.  For those interested in careers in academia, sometimes the tenure track clock does not stop to accommodate childbirth.  All of this may be perceived as an encouragement to have fewer (if any) children.  Some may think that women deciding to have children have somehow de-prioritized their work.  To the contrary, the women in academia that I’ve spoken to about work-life balance after having children actually state that they’ve become more effective workers and have become better at maintaining this balance than before they had children, so that’s great to hear.  If we can work together to help dispose of some negative (and often false) connotations of having a family (in regards to both females and males), I think we could significantly improve the current situation.  Further, I think it would help to dissuade gender-specific parenting assumptions (e.g. assuming the mother should be the primary caregiver and the father should be the primary financial provider).”

How can Penn State serve the need of women in graduate school better?

“By doing what you are with this writing piece, sharing stories of success and by reading this, the community within can motivate its surrounding.”

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http://blackhistorymonth2014.com/1987/womens-history-month-honoring-black-women-in-science/

 

Cheri Lee, Postdoctoral Fellow at the NIH

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Dr. Cheri Lee, Postdoctoral Fellow at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, MD

As part of the HGSAC, we love honoring our alumni and keeping up with their successes! Alumni stories inspire students by giving them career path ideas. As part of this spotlight series, I asked one of our Penn State alums to answer some questions about her career journey up until this point.

Meet Dr. Cheri Lee, Postdoctoral Fellow at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, MD.  She earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Biology from Penn State, in 2015. Her former advisor was Dr. Craig E. Cameron. 

Here are her responses–in her words:

Dissertation title: Viral-polymerase-mechanism based strategies for viral attenuation and vaccine development.

My dissertation work dealt with the population dynamics of RNA viruses and how, when manipulated, they can be attenuated and used as possible vaccines. As a model for RNA viruses, I used poliovirus. RNA viruses replicate with a high error frequency, which creates a heterogeneous population of mutants dubbed quasispecies. Population genetics theory states that RNA viruses replicate along an error threshold, the theoretical limit in which the virus can maintain its genetic information. An increase in the mutation rate and/or a decrease in the population will drive the viral population towards extinction. Antiviral drugs that increase the mutational frequency and/or mutations in the polymerase that alter population diversity should also exhibit a decrease in fitness. Working with a panel of polymerase fidelity mutants I have been able to study the relationship between fidelity and attenuation. Using this approach, I have been able to determine the effect of fidelity has on pathogenesis and development of the adaptive immune response.

How did you choose your degree program and what you like about your current career?

Ever since high school, I have been fascinated by viruses and how they initiate disease. My first semester in college I visited the career center and learned that there was such a thing as a Virologist and after that I was hooked. I attended George Mason University and at that time they didn’t offer many different degree programs so I majored in Biology and concentrated all of my electives in Microbiology. After graduating from college I worked for several years as a research technician at the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) in the department of Viral Diseases aiding in vaccine development against dengue virus. It was there that I learned molecular and cellular biology techniques and worked with both mice and non-human primates. It was this job that solidified for me my desire for viral pathogenesis research and gave me the push I needed to go back to school and get my Ph.D.

I was drawn to Penn State mainly because it was close to home and I could easily visit family on the weekends, which eventually proved to be nearly impossible! Also because of the amazing research that is conducted on campus especially the work being done in the Cameron Lab. I was attracted to Craig’s lab due to the work he was doing with poliovirus and the idea that altering polymerase fidelity can serve as a universal vaccine strategy. My project was on poliovirus pathogenesis in a transgenic mouse model, but it really only scratched the surface of pathogenesis seeing as we were more interested in the virus and not so much how it interacted with the host. When thinking about my next career steps I knew that I wanted to delve more into pathogenesis and host immunity in response to infection with an RNA virus, which is what I am currently doing at NIH. I currently working in the laboratory of Vanessa M. Hirsch and again I am working with non-human primates. We use simian-immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infected rhesus macaques as a model for AIDS pathogenesis and to develop effective vaccines strategies. My specific project is to investigate hidden reservoirs of SIV in the brains of rhesus macaques with neuroAIDS.

What have been some obstacles you’ve had to overcome in pursuit of your educational and career goals?

My number one obstacle as always has been me doubting my own abilities. After college, I never wanted to go back to school and I worked for a long time knowing that I wanted to return to school and get my Ph.D., but not feeling confident enough that I would be accepted anywhere. I reached a point in my career where I felt I had hit the ceiling and there was no more upward movement. At that point, I felt my only choice was to go back to school, which has been the best decision I ever made.

What have been some sources of inspiration both in your career and in your life?

Number one inspiration has always been my mom. As a single mother, she worked very hard to continue to educate herself so that she could provide my sister and I with the best opportunities in life and somehow she made it look easy! She instilled in me a strong work ethic and told me from a very young age to be career driven and as long as I love what I do it won’t feel so much like work and she was right.

What would you describe as your strong suit?

My strong suit is my tenacity. When there is an obstacle in front of me I don’t stop until I either get around it, over it or punch right through it.

How has Penn State impacted your life?

I learned a lot at Penn State. First, I learned that I can be strong and can deal with a lot of adversity and still somehow get through it while still maintaining a smile. Second, I learned that nothing matters unless you have friends and family to share your successes with. I made many friends in State College, year after year. They all helped me through grad school and just life in general and I will forever be grateful to all them for that.

What advice would you give someone who would like to pursue a career in your field?

Start working in a lab as soon as you can to get experience. Universities have lots of opportunities for undergraduate research or work-study positions. Experience is key. Learn techniques that will make you indispensable in the lab and able to collaborator with other scientists. Publications are important but they will come only if you are able to generate data. Of course, the more you are able to learn and more you are able to publish the more job opportunities you will be able to open yourself up to.

What are your words of wisdom for current graduate students?

My best advice for current grad students is to make sure you keep a running dialogue with your advisor and that you both agree that you are making progress with your studies and also have yearly committee meetings. Professors are very busy and sometimes they can lose track of what their students are doing (even though it may feel as though they are avoiding us…). You have to make sure that you remind them that a) you exist, b) you have data and c) you don’t want to be in grad school forever!

What are your plans for the future?

My ultimate goal is to direct my own independent research program on viral population dynamics and pathogenesis.

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.

Recap on Lunch with Jennifer Doudna

Navigating through grad school can be a daunting process in itself.  While you might find yourself busy with your research projects and teaching duties, making time to figure out how to make the best of your time as a graduate student, and how to make yourself an ideal candidate for your future career, is essential.  The Huck Graduate Student Advisory Committee (HGSAC) aims to help you along with this process, by providing career and professional development resources, and by letting graduate students meet with professionals in various STEM fields.

Dr. Jennifer Doudna came to Penn State and delivered to a full house.
Dr. Jennifer Doudna came to Penn State to deliver a seminar on the CRISPR/Cas9 system.

Last semester, Dr. Jennifer Doudna came to Penn State and gave a seminar on the CRISPR/Cas 9 system. She was gracious enough to also have lunch with graduate students for a Q & A session (co-hosted by the HGSAC and BMB department). Below are her (paraphrased) responses to our student questions.

Career advice or questions:

Which experience or opportunity during your education or early career contributed most to your success?

There were two main experiences that I think contributed the most. I grew up in Hawaii, and when I first read “The Double Helix”, that was the first “spark” that got me interested in science. Then, in the 10th grade, there was a program where they had a scientist talk to students, including a biochemist working on cancer cell research, and that helped reinforce my interest.

How do you think the interactions with your previous advisers (Dr. Szostak and Dr. Cech) benefit your academic career?

With my first advisor, I learned that you need to be proactive. As a first year, my advisor asked me about this idea, and he actually trusted me to make decisions on the science, even as a novice–that made a big impression on me to have early success.

During my post doc, Tom Cech was insightful about making the best of your data and interpreting your results, which also benefited my career.

Could you recommend some ways to find a lab for a promising postdoc experience? Should the lab of a very well-known PI be preferred, or the lab of a new PI in a promising topic?

Whether the PI is well known or new, you should pursue what you are interested in first, and then consider the personality and environment of the lab, make sure it’s a stimulating environment.

Could you provide some insights on what helped you with first being a professor?

It was more like a fly by the seat of your pants experience. You have to be willing to do every job in your lab, initially. That means even fixing leaky faucets. It’s a great idea if you can hire a technician right away to help set up. This person would be able to help you initiate the culture you want in your lab. Science is about people working together.

Dr. Jennifer Doudna with HGSAC members during the Q & A lunch session.

Graduate student/research advice:

Do you have any advice for women who want to pursue an academic career?

Don’t put yourself down, try for positions even if you do not think you are likely to get them, and make sure you choose a supportive life partner.

How do you complete a project efficiently?

Delegate, rely on students and postdocs, and make sure that there are subgroups of the lab so that everyone is teaching one another. Then, meet regularly, and constantly ask the questions of “are we working on the most important question? Is there new literature?”

What kind of qualities do you look for in a candidate?

Honestly I think my job is to figure out what the students are best suited for. We need scientists trained in all sorts of methodologies, and my job is to help them figure out what they should focus on.

Work/life balance and gender adversity:

What have you found to be the most effective way to balance work/life?

Pick the right life partner. If you want to have kids, involve them in your work–bring them to your conferences and trips!

Have you been faced with any adversity as a woman in science? If so, how did you overcome it and do you have any tips or advice for graduate students in general?

I’ve generally worked with males and females who were very encouraging. I think it’s important to have a personality that can deal with delayed gratification.

CRISPR/Cas9 questions:

Did you have a moment where you had to consider the ethical considerations with CRISPR, like human genome editing?

There was an evolution in my way of thinking. Initially, there was so much excitement that this was possible, then it became clear it would work in any cells including embryos and germ cell line. It was when they genetically modified monkeys that it seemed like a profound topic to discuss this in the community. I have gotten involved in the call for a public discussion about gene editing, especially in the germ line. Tomorrow, I will be attending a summit at the International Academy of Science, for a global discussion of the matter. We need a transparent discussion about this, to not do that would be irresponsible.

How did you balance the research on new biotechnology and industrial development of a technique?

We’re still focusing on biology and the underlying molecular mechanisms-understanding this enables you to do many other things. By working on fundamental mechanisms, we can learn more about how to refine this process of gene editing, gene disruption and gene replacement. It’s not a transition but rather a natural progression.

What is your prediction of how CRISPR/Cas9 will be used 10 years from now?

Transcriptional control and live-cell imaging will be further developed. Eventually, this will be a tool in your molecular toolbox, like PCR.  Its’ an enabling technology, I am excited with the science that will be done with this.

Did you celebrate when you realized what you had with CRISPR?

There was definitely this moment of joy when I realized what we had.

Other questions:

Have you ever considered working in industry?

Yes, I worked at companies in Boston but I chose academia because I found it was the best way to pursue “pure” science. I worked for Genentech for a few months then came back because I wanted to have an applied direction to research. As the VP of research, there’s actually a lot more administrative and management duties than I expected. I missed actually doing the science. That’s why I went back into academia.

What do you think about the future of high-risk science funding?  With decreased funding, how do you move forward?

We need to have a mechanism to enable scientists to be creative and explorative. Remember, a grant is not a contract.  Once you have the money, you should have some freedom to pursue “risky” science. You will likely be rewarded. Your judgement should come in here as to whether or not you think it will succeed. You can bootstrap ideas. In general, I think you don’t need huge resources to do good science.

 

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