Category Archives: Career Choices

My Great Escape From Academia

Inspiration, in the form of a special session at a virtual scientific conference, finally struck for a new blog post about why I recently left academia. Hopefully, those interested in pursuing an academic research career will find helpful #key tips

How justices of the supreme court accidentally just made the biggest argument SUPPORTING affirmative action for university admissions

Pretend one of these justices is instead head of admissions for an elite university. Of course he got there by his single minded hard work and brilliance with help from no one. I am sure his family also rose to

Spotlight: ASBMB Q & A with Charlie Benson, Ph.D.

I enjoyed sharing my career path successes and failures with the member magazine of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.  Hope it encourages those in training and beyond to keep going! Click here to read the spotlight from

How I Became a Cancer Immunotherapy Researcher

I am a member of the Early Career Scientists committee for the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). The committee members were recently asked to “spend a few moments thinking about how we arrived at where we are in

“It’s a balancing act alright”

The problem: “Family formation (marriage and childbirth) is a key factor for the departure from the STEM workforce between Ph.D. receipt and achieving tenure for women in the sciences. Needed progress can take place only through changes in the attitudes,

How my tenure-track academic position isn’t as scary as I once thought.

I presented my research and career path at my departments Graduate Research Seminar a few weeks ago.  I am always happy to share the story of how I got to where I am now so that students will see that

Nobody Puts a Lady in the Corner

I recently shared my research and current career success at a departmental graduate seminar.   During this type of student-centered seminar, I always describe my experiences at the BEST PLACE EVER to do a post-doc (if you are interested in biomedical