Disclaimer! This is a lengthy one!
25 blogs later, ASM Microbe 2018 was a jam packed conference for me! These meetings are blessings and curses because there is so much awesome stuff to see and listen to and not enough time to 'do it all'. But I am always excited when I am able to participate.
If you liked this series, I have other series posted as well, feel free to follow the blog and you'll get notified when I start posting again...hopefully. Before I sign off and my blog goes dark (until my next 'learning adventure') I wanted to take a moment to chat about mentorship.
It's challenging, being a woman in science.
It's challenging, being a minority in science.
It's difficult to get funding for everyone, especially new investigators. You have to have a track record before you can apply for funding and yet you cannot develop that track record easily without funding. It's like being offered a packaged up pair of shiny new scissors and then realizing you NEED a pair of scissors to open the package to begin with... *facepalm*
So what do you do? You rely on mentors, those established, willing to let you borrow their scissors, to float your ideas with theirs and start building your scientific niche.
In 2009 I was finishing up my PhD and starting to apply for postdoctoral fellowships. At the time, bioinformatics was a very new, un-established field - of which I was primarily involved in out of necessity. When your PhD gives you 560,000 data points and excel gives you the finger you simply have to find another way right?! Enter Linux bash scripts, text editors and python programming. Additionally I was interested in the ecology of pathogens and aside from the NSF EEID program which was for more seasoned investigators, there was no funding mechanism or funding in general that was melding microbial ecology and public health and available at the postdoc level. But this was my interest - environmental health and public health.
I wrote a postdoc fellowship to study Vibrio cholerae and the ecology it has with it's associated phage that confers the toxin gene(s) that is so detrimental in cholera infection. I proposed some bacterium/phage experiments, some modeling, some targeted genomics (simpler stuff as next gen sequencing had just come out)...I wanted to understand the interplay between these two organisms and what that meant for ecology and evolution of Vibrio cholerae and it's virulence over time. Environmental microbiology, nascent bioinformatics and yet applicable to public health. I got feedback and support from several in the field including Rita Colwell who has done a lot of public health research in the area of cholera. She mentioned my proposal sounded interesting but she wasn't sure the funding mechanism where it would fit.
I gave it a go, what the hell right? I sent it off to NSF for their postdoc fellowship program, the reviews were favorable but it was not accepted, mostly because the organism is more pathogen and the public health aspect of the proposal was hard to justify via their mission. I sent it off to NIH's postdoc fellowship - similar response but this time it was 'too much on the ecology' their mission is health focused. So I sent it off to CDC, but in order to send it off to CDC I had to have a host laboratory for the work. This is how I met Dr. Efrain Ribot, a microbiologist at the CDC and a giant in the world of microbial source tracking, pulsenet and foodborne diseases with a lot of work in E. coli (citations).
I sent my proposal off to him. He was quick to respond - again favorably but also mentioned that this was out of his area but he'd be excited to host the work in his lab if it was accepted as he saw a lot of potential. Unfortunately, once again CDC mentioned they could not accept the proposal because it was too far off 'mission'. Dr. Ribot sent me an email following the decision asking to keep in touch as he would be very interested in the trajectory my career takes. So we did...we kept in touch via LinkedIn and email.
Though we'd never met and our interactions were sporadic, he had a huge impact on my development and confidence in the field. He was the first (though thankfully not the last, haha) scientist following my PhD that took an interest in my future, my career and my potential.
After the 3 rejections followed by another CDC rejection for one of their training programs (APHL), I didn't give up. I figured if I couldn't work on my favorite bacterium I'd write a different proposal to work on my favorite virus - Dengue. I first became acquainted with the virus in Cost Rica while studying abroad and working at a clinic that did education and outreach in mosquito control specifically to stem the tide of dengue infections in the area. After that I started reading about the virus and I was hooked. I sought out other fellowship opportunities, this time in the field of virology and I came across the National Academies of Sciences National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship program.
I wrote Dr. Ribot about it - he said go for it.
So I went for it. I wrote a 'really' rough dengue proposal because lets face it - I was an environmental microbiologist who was not well versed in the area of dengue ecology and evolution. I'd been working in speciation theory in microbial ecology for my dissertation - looking at closely related yet ecologically distinct 'units' within thermophilic cyanobacteria. Dengue virus forms a cloud of variants within the mosquito vector and human host. To me, these were 'closely related "units" with ecological niches'. So I wrote some work to study the 'cloud' in mosquito and human hosts via cloning and sanger sequencing (because next gen still hadn't taken off, nor would my host lab have those facilities available). I sent the proposal off to a potential host lab, working together with the lab in Thailand, where I would be going, my proposal was accepted and I was off! I worked in the area of bioinformatics, dengue ecology/evolution (as well as other viruses and bacteria of army/public health concern) and phylogenetics for the next 7 years in Thailand and Maryland with forays into pathogen discovery and bioinformatics software development. It's amazing where your career can take you if you are open and flexible, walking through the doors that open.
Throughout my time in Thailand and Maryland, Dr. Ribot and I kept in touch. When my time in Maryland came to an end...as we moved to Minnesota where my husband took a position as a software engineer for Target headquarters and I started my break as a Mom - he said congratulations! Nervous about the break I took from the field and getting back into it Dr. Ribot and my postdoc mentor from Thailand Dr./LTC Richard Jarman said get back in as soon as you can, both were very invested in my potential - even after taking a break and waffling in my where the heck my career was going! Last year I re-entered my field full-time back in microbial ecology at St. Cloud State University, working under a grant obtained by Dr. Ryan Fink and still finishing up work and collaborations in the world of dengue where I had been since my PhD.
When I found out we were all headed to ASM in Atlanta for Paige's poster presentation (our student on the grant project at SCSU) I immediately contacted Efrain. I'd been in Atlanta once before when I was working on dengue for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) meeting but the stars had not aligned and we were unable to meet up. I was able to arrange, this year, through Efrain, a meeting at CDC for myself and the students I help advise...and for the first time in nearly 10 years, we finally met in person.
I am grateful for the mentorship and career support of Dr. Ribot - just goes to show you don't have to be visually/physically available to be a mentor in a young investigators life.
So I'm going to take a moment to honor those who have kept me in science - through struggles of being a female, being a minority, having 'imposter's syndrome', and life changes that interrupt career aspirations...
Dr. Angelia Alexander, PLU (undergrad)
25 blogs later, ASM Microbe 2018 was a jam packed conference for me! These meetings are blessings and curses because there is so much awesome stuff to see and listen to and not enough time to 'do it all'. But I am always excited when I am able to participate.
If you liked this series, I have other series posted as well, feel free to follow the blog and you'll get notified when I start posting again...hopefully. Before I sign off and my blog goes dark (until my next 'learning adventure') I wanted to take a moment to chat about mentorship.
It's challenging, being a woman in science.
It's challenging, being a minority in science.
It's difficult to get funding for everyone, especially new investigators. You have to have a track record before you can apply for funding and yet you cannot develop that track record easily without funding. It's like being offered a packaged up pair of shiny new scissors and then realizing you NEED a pair of scissors to open the package to begin with... *facepalm*
So what do you do? You rely on mentors, those established, willing to let you borrow their scissors, to float your ideas with theirs and start building your scientific niche.
In 2009 I was finishing up my PhD and starting to apply for postdoctoral fellowships. At the time, bioinformatics was a very new, un-established field - of which I was primarily involved in out of necessity. When your PhD gives you 560,000 data points and excel gives you the finger you simply have to find another way right?! Enter Linux bash scripts, text editors and python programming. Additionally I was interested in the ecology of pathogens and aside from the NSF EEID program which was for more seasoned investigators, there was no funding mechanism or funding in general that was melding microbial ecology and public health and available at the postdoc level. But this was my interest - environmental health and public health.
I wrote a postdoc fellowship to study Vibrio cholerae and the ecology it has with it's associated phage that confers the toxin gene(s) that is so detrimental in cholera infection. I proposed some bacterium/phage experiments, some modeling, some targeted genomics (simpler stuff as next gen sequencing had just come out)...I wanted to understand the interplay between these two organisms and what that meant for ecology and evolution of Vibrio cholerae and it's virulence over time. Environmental microbiology, nascent bioinformatics and yet applicable to public health. I got feedback and support from several in the field including Rita Colwell who has done a lot of public health research in the area of cholera. She mentioned my proposal sounded interesting but she wasn't sure the funding mechanism where it would fit.
I gave it a go, what the hell right? I sent it off to NSF for their postdoc fellowship program, the reviews were favorable but it was not accepted, mostly because the organism is more pathogen and the public health aspect of the proposal was hard to justify via their mission. I sent it off to NIH's postdoc fellowship - similar response but this time it was 'too much on the ecology' their mission is health focused. So I sent it off to CDC, but in order to send it off to CDC I had to have a host laboratory for the work. This is how I met Dr. Efrain Ribot, a microbiologist at the CDC and a giant in the world of microbial source tracking, pulsenet and foodborne diseases with a lot of work in E. coli (citations).
I sent my proposal off to him. He was quick to respond - again favorably but also mentioned that this was out of his area but he'd be excited to host the work in his lab if it was accepted as he saw a lot of potential. Unfortunately, once again CDC mentioned they could not accept the proposal because it was too far off 'mission'. Dr. Ribot sent me an email following the decision asking to keep in touch as he would be very interested in the trajectory my career takes. So we did...we kept in touch via LinkedIn and email.
Though we'd never met and our interactions were sporadic, he had a huge impact on my development and confidence in the field. He was the first (though thankfully not the last, haha) scientist following my PhD that took an interest in my future, my career and my potential.
After the 3 rejections followed by another CDC rejection for one of their training programs (APHL), I didn't give up. I figured if I couldn't work on my favorite bacterium I'd write a different proposal to work on my favorite virus - Dengue. I first became acquainted with the virus in Cost Rica while studying abroad and working at a clinic that did education and outreach in mosquito control specifically to stem the tide of dengue infections in the area. After that I started reading about the virus and I was hooked. I sought out other fellowship opportunities, this time in the field of virology and I came across the National Academies of Sciences National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship program.
I wrote Dr. Ribot about it - he said go for it.
So I went for it. I wrote a 'really' rough dengue proposal because lets face it - I was an environmental microbiologist who was not well versed in the area of dengue ecology and evolution. I'd been working in speciation theory in microbial ecology for my dissertation - looking at closely related yet ecologically distinct 'units' within thermophilic cyanobacteria. Dengue virus forms a cloud of variants within the mosquito vector and human host. To me, these were 'closely related "units" with ecological niches'. So I wrote some work to study the 'cloud' in mosquito and human hosts via cloning and sanger sequencing (because next gen still hadn't taken off, nor would my host lab have those facilities available). I sent the proposal off to a potential host lab, working together with the lab in Thailand, where I would be going, my proposal was accepted and I was off! I worked in the area of bioinformatics, dengue ecology/evolution (as well as other viruses and bacteria of army/public health concern) and phylogenetics for the next 7 years in Thailand and Maryland with forays into pathogen discovery and bioinformatics software development. It's amazing where your career can take you if you are open and flexible, walking through the doors that open.
Throughout my time in Thailand and Maryland, Dr. Ribot and I kept in touch. When my time in Maryland came to an end...as we moved to Minnesota where my husband took a position as a software engineer for Target headquarters and I started my break as a Mom - he said congratulations! Nervous about the break I took from the field and getting back into it Dr. Ribot and my postdoc mentor from Thailand Dr./LTC Richard Jarman said get back in as soon as you can, both were very invested in my potential - even after taking a break and waffling in my where the heck my career was going! Last year I re-entered my field full-time back in microbial ecology at St. Cloud State University, working under a grant obtained by Dr. Ryan Fink and still finishing up work and collaborations in the world of dengue where I had been since my PhD.
 |
| Dr. Efrain Ribot and I |
I am grateful for the mentorship and career support of Dr. Ribot - just goes to show you don't have to be visually/physically available to be a mentor in a young investigators life.
So I'm going to take a moment to honor those who have kept me in science - through struggles of being a female, being a minority, having 'imposter's syndrome', and life changes that interrupt career aspirations...
Dr. Angelia Alexander, PLU (undergrad)
- In the field there are two types of female scientist - those that are uplifting, encouraging and supportive and those that make your life a living hell because they want your skin to thicken up for the inevitability of being marginalized and discounted in a field dominated by men. Dr. Alexander was the former - she hooked me on microbiology and was always supportive of my wide eyed, naive, 'wanna-change-the-world-for-the-better' attitude.
Dr. Richard McGinnis, PLU (undergrad)
- When my original undergrad adviser dumped me because I decided not to go to medical school. I was transferred to Dr. McGinnis. He found my undergrad research in Ecuador really interesting and supported my interest in pursuing microbial ecology in grad school. While I ended up taking a two year break before actually going to grad school it was his and Dr. Alexander's words during my undergraduate education that echoed in those years I took a break and pushed me to go back to school.
Dr. David Ward, Montana State University (PhD adviser)
- Taking on a student 'cold' having not met them except by a cover letter and email indicating interest in their research is always a risk. Dave took a risk. I had a decent GRE but my GPA was kind of meh. He saw I was motivated, he told me perseverance will allow me to survive and be successful in the field - you just don't give up. You work hard and you play hard. We had our differences, as many student/adviser relationships have - I was in his lab for 7 years. Graduate school is a crazy, sometimes super frustrating, long ride - but I am proud to have obtained my degree from MSU out of Dave's lab. We kept in touch through my postdoc finishing papers and touching base. I also met some of the most amazing students, now colleagues, working for Dave - all of whom I still follow and communicate with when I can. Today, Dave and I continue to collaborate to finish up some work toward his monograph and finishing the story on cyanobacterial ecotypes in Yellowstone National Park.
- Thane was in Dave's lab before I got there. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a meeting. After graduating from Dave's lab he jumped ship to Doolittle's lab and started working on some other theories of speciation (or lack thereof - gasp! Seriously check out his pub record it's pretty awesome). He encouraged me to stand up for myself in the field, to not back down from my views or what I have experienced or learned. Experimentation, hypotheses, differing opinions...these are the life blood of science - so grab a beer and let the debates and brainstorming flow, it's what makes us all better scientists.
Dr. William Hanage, Harvard (mentor)
- I met Bill through Thane via the International Society of Microbial Ecology Meeting in Australia, easily one of the best meetings I've been to. He re-piqued my interest in epidemiology and infectious disease. He offered great insights into my current work and future interests. After our interactions I went back and finished a certificate in epidemiology and biostatistics. I ran into him again when I took a mathematical modeling of infectious disease course at Imperial College toward the end of my PhD. Over the years I sent him career questions and excerpts of writing - he sent me reviews, levied advice and was generous with sharing writing examples and manuscripts of his own. He also showed me the power of social media, twitter to be specific, and was the reason I got onto twitter which has been invaluable for following developments in the field.
- As mentioned above during the time I was most impressionable (graduate school), it was difficult to find a female scientist I could look up to. Those I had come across were...not bitter, but somewhat hardened emphasizing the uphill battle I inevitably faced and well, good luck. Jenn, a savvy social media enthusiast in her own right, was different. First female scientist exuding excitement about life, grant writing, teaching, research...you name it. She embraced, and continues to embrace it all. Is it hard? Sure, it can downright suck sometimes and she's not afraid to say so - but she's inspiring because it doesn't deter her and she's one of the scientists I feel I can go to with my anger, frustration and confusion without fear of her thinking me unprofessional. Because that's the reality of being a scientist - good days and bad days, funding and no funding; when you love what you do, you find the support (both human and monetary) and you just make it work.
Dr. Julie Pavlin, AFRIMS, Bangkok Thailand and My life in Maryland (mentor)
- After my 3 rejections, switch of subject and intent to apply to NAS-NRC - I sent an email to Julie inquiring about the postdoc position she had posted in NAS-NRC based in Thailand. I sent her my CV and a rough proposal. She replied back that her position was no longer available but after reading my submissions she'd pass my information to Virology - perhaps they could support it. A week later...the Virology dept emailed me to set up a phone interview. Following my PhD and transition in to infectious disease ecology and evolution, in another country, no less; Julie - like Jenn, was there, a solid female scientist presence I could learn to emulate - who was also willing to commiserate over the difficulties in the field, usually over a much needed glass of wine. Beyond supportive of all my decisions even those she may have internally thought 'suspect' and perhaps not in my best interest. Always advising, but allowing me to experience my own career path.
Dr./LTC Richard Jarman, AFRIMS, Bangkok Thailand and WRAIR, Silver Spring, MD
(postdoc mentor/boss when I was Chief of Bioinformatics at WRAIR)
- Jarman took a risk on me too. My CV and NAS-NRC proposal were passed along to him and the Virology group in Thailand. I had no publications in their field...the field I'd just written a whole damn 'admittedly a bit naive' proposal on. I had a downright intimidating phone interview (I can say that now, haha) with most of the virology crew after they assessed my documents and at the advice of Julie. They told me they'd get back with me in two weeks-ish (standard, I thought at the time). I got an email the next morning asking if I could fly to Thailand for an in person interview and whirlwind tour of what they are doing out there. Rick worked the proposal with me and my proposal was accepted. But I was a risk... new to the field, touting a promising yet still new skill set in bioinformatics and phylogenetics and attempting to defend and having to push my defense back several times. I'm sure at some point he contemplated that taking me on was a mistake. But I made it - defended, turned in my dissertation 7 days later exactly on a Friday, flew out the following day (Saturday) stopping off in Hawaii to dump my last possessions and was in Thailand Sunday - started my postdoc late in the day Monday. That was 2010, the start of 8 years of some of the most rewarding mentorship I think I have had to date. He believed in me before I started believing in myself. He pushed my limits scientifically and personally in field...he pushed a lot of my limits...a lot; and it was scary and amazing because I was learning what I was actually capable of and what was going to make me happy in my career and life. I am a much more stable, confident teacher and scientist because of it. When I left the field for awhile to pursue motherhood I still contracted for his group, I was in career turmoil though - the only thing that came to mind was the inscription I put in my dissertation, not knowing at the time, how applicable it would be at this moment...
"Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?" ~Life of Pi
- Jarman was the one who flat out told me "You are good researcher. Don't let that go." He believed in me and in the end, he made me believe in myself. After almost 2 years of motherhood/career waffling I reentered science full-time.
My life has take a lot of crazy turns career-wise and I have considered leaving science altogether but it's the support and mentorship of some irreplaceable people that keep me in it and I get really excited when I get to introduce the students I work with to the mentors I had as I embark into teaching and research in academia or wherever I end up permanently. And aside from mentors - I have several colleagues that I definitely look up to in the field;
- Dr. Stephen Thomas who, like Jarman, joined in the risk taking when I came onboard in Thailand and even more so when I joined their group at WRAIR as their Chief of Bioinformatics - happily doing everything he could with Rick to ensure our success.
- Dr. Fink who has been mentioned in a few blogs previous to this one, helping me navigate academia, pushing me to publish and write grants - make a name for myself as a computational microbiologist.
- Dr. Sophie Shaw my bioinformatics/running/social media contact 'bestie'
- Dr. Nick Loman - twitter/nanopore presence extraordinaire, his drive is dizzying and inspiring
- Dr. Daniel McDonald - programmer, microbiome analyst expert, one of the orchestrators of the American Gut and more
- Dr. Mark O Martin and Dr. Vincent Racaniello, neither of whom I have personally met and yet I admire their dedication and teaching prowess in STEM education, and I addictive-ly follow their blogs and twitter accounts.
I am sure well into retirement I will still be naming mentors and if I am successful, in the least, with my own abilities as a mentor... a teacher... a researcher, these individuals are why.
It takes a village to raise a child...
Well...apparently it took (and continues to take) a village to raise this scientist and I am grateful for every moment of it and for those that believed, and continue to believe in me.
No comments:
Post a Comment