#portraitofscience

[portraitofscience-blog]

Gene Myers, Research Group Leader Hometown: Boise, Idaho, USA

What are you working on? Three things: 
(a) building advanced light microscopes to better observe what is happening in living cells and tissues 
(b) creating computer vision methods and programs for building models of cellular and developmental processes from the data produced by the microscopes in (a). 
(c) creating the technology, both protocols and software, to *perfectly* decode the genome sequence of any living organism.

Have you always wanted to be a scientist? No, a doctor, then a mathematician, then an informatician, and now finally I guess you could say I'm a scientist (although some would call me a technologist).

Why did you choose science/your discipline? I simply followed what interested me the most at every step of the way.

What is science for you? Exploring the world about us with the aim of being able to understand or explain how it all works. Also building the gismos needed for the exploring.

What drives/motivates you? The excitement of discovery or creation. Nothing beats the exhilaration of that moment of deep insight.

How do you balance life and science? I don’t. I'm all about science all the time. It’s a calling, not a job.

What is most important for you in life? Being in an exciting, up-beat workplace where there is a strong sense of mission and lots of discoveries, advances taking place.

What was your most important shaping experience/biggest achievement? Sequencing the fly, mouse, and human genomes at Celera Genomics in the period 1998 to 2001. It was a crash program, an incredibly focused mission, and I did probably the best work of my life in that crucible. I had responsibilities and goals at level I had not experienced before, and that really took "my game" up a couple of notches.

Why science is fun? As I said before, the thrill of discovery. Also from a social point of view, the people are generally from all over the world, very bright, and engaging.

Any advice for future students? Be driven by what is inside you, and not on external things. Especially, do not compare yourself to others -- there is always someone smarter than you :-) Do it because you really want to.

[portraitofscience-blog]

Johannes (Yogi), Research Group Leader Hometown: Chur, Switzerland

What are you working on? I am interested in what makes organisms different from non-living systems, and how we can understand the peculiar structure and form of living beings. It is not the what organisms are made of that makes them different. It is how these materials are organized by processes that constantly convert them in complex and intertwined ways to keep the organism active and alive.

Have you always wanted to be a scientist? Not quite. I am the first scientist in my family. My interest in science awoke during my high school years. Thus: early on, but not always!

Why did you choose science/your discipline? I chose to study biology because I could not really decide which branch of science interested me most. The biology curriculum included some chemistry, physics, and geology as well, so I went for that.

What is science for you? Science consists of a collection of rigorous methods, agreed upon by scientists, to study reality. It involves a critical selection process by which ideas that do not match reality are amended or (ultimately) discarded.

What drives/motivates you? I want to understand! Especially my particular place in the universe. I would like to be a natural philosopher like they existed before we fragmented our research communities and ourselves into narrow intellectual habitats.

How do you balance life and science? I try, but fail more often than I succeed. On the one hand, science is more of a lifestyle than a job. On the other hand, there are many, many things that are important to me, which lie outside the scope of science. It's difficult to combine all of them. But it's necessary.

What is most important for you in life? To live my own philosophy. Only that way lays happiness and fullfilment.

What was your most important shaping experience/biggest achievement? My most important shaping experience and my biggest achievement is that I have followed my own path in life and scientific career.

Why science is fun? The thrill of the unknown. But also spending so much time with excellent intelligent and idealistic human beings that are as far removed from the population average as you can possibly get.

Any advice for future students? Think long and hard about what you want to do in life. Choosing an alternative career is not defeat or failure, but often a path to new adventures and increased happiness. If you are one of those determined to stay in academia, no matter what: the longer you survive and stick around, the higher your chance of success! Or as Lemmy from Motörhead put it:  "We're still here because we should have died a long time ago but we didn't." Be like Lemmy. Live long and prosper!

[portraitofscience-blog]

Ramya, PhD Student Hometown: Kerala, India

What are you working on? I work on meiosis, a reductive cell division process which generate gametes (sex cells). Most importantly, genetic information is reshuffled (meiotic recombination) during meiosis producing genetic diversity in populations . I'm trying to understand the process of meiotic recombination that generates this genetic variation which makes us all unique. Errors in meiosis have severe implications in human health and hence by studying meiosis , we can better understand various genetic /developmental disorders and infertility problems.

Have you always wanted to be a scientist? No. I believe, two vital ingredients seem to be necessary to make a scientist: the curiosity to seek out mysteries and the creativity to solve them. I definitely had the curiosity to question things but It was during my masters I figured out, I could have the latter too. Some of the awesome mentors I had during my masters course really motivated me to follow this path.

What is science for you? To me, it is a tool to understand the world within and around us, which is what makes it so fascinating.

What is most important for you in life? Exploring and reaching my full potential.

Any advice for future students? Failure is going to be an inevitable part of your journey if you pursue science, but learn from others and your own mistakes. If something fails, try again but this time try smarter and harder. Proving a hypothesis wrong is often just as useful as proving it right because you learned something along the way. Lastly ,think out of the box and try to look at a problem from different angles.

[portraitofscience-blog]

Prabesh, PhD Student Hometown: Kathmandu, Nepal

What are you working on? I am trying to learn how one of the vertebrate, zebrafish, is capable to regenerate its brain effectively, but we humans are not capable of. I am investigating the molecular programs that zebrafish utilizes to replenish lost cells and cope with neurodegeneration.

Have you always wanted to be a scientist? As a child, i was really fond of Biology and Maths. I just followed my interest and now I'm here as a Biologist.

What is science for you? Science is an approach to learn and understand things better. It explains what happens, why it happens and how it happens. These are all curiosity amongst us and Science answers all these curiosity.

What is most important for you in life? To be happy and satisfied with whatever i do.

Why science is fun? Because its all about learning new things and discovering mysteries that nobody has ever solved.

Any advice for future students? Always do what makes you happy, and be satisfied with what you do. Always be willing to learn more.

[portraitofscience-blog]

Ivo, Research Group Leader Hometown: Arbon, Switzerland

What are you working on? We develop computer simulations of biological processes in 3D space and time. The goal is to computationally reconstitute how cells take decisions and coordinate when they form a tissue. Our tool of investigation, the computer simulation, enables us to identify the interactions and mechanisms that suffice to explain the observed behaviour of, say, a developing embryo.

Have you always wanted to be a scientist? Reportedly, my first childhood job wish was to become an Inventor. Guess that's reasonably close to scientist.

Why did you choose science/your discipline? Because it is generic and not tied to a specific application. It can be used in biology and medicine as much as in manufacturing and finance. Learning and mastering these cross-disciplinary concepts and abstractions attracted me and also allowed me to later choose my areas of application freely.

What is science for you? Science is a method of enquiry, a philosophy of thought.

What drives/motivates you? On the one hand, I'm driven by my curiosity to find out how things work inside. Like disassembling a TV set as a child to see what's in there that makes the moving pictures. On the other hand, I am motivated by the teaching aspect. There are only few things more gratifying than rendering complex stuff understandable.

How do you balance life and science? As a scientist, I am in the fortunate position that I do not have a job. I am paid for my hobby - every day.

What is most important for you in life? My family (I know, it's a very Italian answer...)

What was your most important shaping experience/biggest achievement? The most important shaping experience was when I joined NASA Ames and the Stanford CTR for a summer school in 2000. At that time, I was an undergraduate student and knew little about life outside the auditorium. The atmosphere, the inspiration, the drive, and the collegiality that I experienced in a top research place shaped the way I think about research and set my career ambitions. My biggest achievement was founding the MOSAIC Group in 2006 based on a trans-disciplinary concept that we had no experience with, but made it work.

Why science is fun? It's challenging, motivating, never the same, not boring, free, creative, social, multi-facetted, constantly evolving, and rewarding.

Any advice for future students? Do what you love most and focus on what you are good at!

[portraitofscience-blog]

Christian, Postdoctoral Researcher

What are you working on? I am trying to figure out how to get organs, that normally don´t do this, to regenerate. The organ I am working on is the brain. The adult mammalian brain contains only few stem cells that can form the cellular basis of regeneration. To find mechanisms to make these cells divide even more, I am studying mammalian brains at the fetal stage, when brain stem cells divide rapidly and I investigate other species that possess the ability to regenerate their brains at adult stage such as the zebrafish.

Have you always wanted to be a scientist? As a child, I wanted to be a forest ranger.

Why did you choose biology? When studying biology, I was intrigued by the ability of animal development to generate diversity of cell types and intricate patterns from a common source of precursor cells. I was immediately hooked on stem cell :)

Why science is fun? Science is an unbelievably creative process, where you can learn as much about yourself as you do about the world around you (in my case animals). Even more than high-throughput screens, super resolution microscopes and genome-wide analyses, it’s your ideas that matter.

Any advice for future students? Have fun in the lab, enjoy the science, but at least at the middle of your PhD, make concrete plans about about a possible carer outside of academia! It´s just maths.

[portraitofscience-blog]

James, PhD student Hometown: Brisbane, Australia

What are you working on? I’m trying to understand how planarian flatworms manage to regrow lost body parts - even their head!

Have you always wanted to be a scientist? I've always loved animals so it was probably inevitable but it wasn't until a really awesome first research experience as an undergrad that I decided I wanted to be a scientist.

What is science for you? A lifestyle.

What drives/motivates you? I simply want to understand how extraordinary biological phenomena (e.g. a little worm regenerating its head) work.

How do you balance life and science? I stopped trying to separate the two a long ago and fully embrace being a shameless scienceaholic.

What is most important for you in life? To take the road less travelled.

What was your most important shaping experience? While studying abroad in the States as an undergrad I had the great honour of learning to do science under the mentorship of someone who is refreshingly more Jedi than salesman/politician/manager. This experience was unequivocally the one that most inspired me to pursue a career in science, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity.

Why science is fun? Because of the extraordinary freedom we get to work on the things we think are the coolest, wherever we want, whenever we want.

Any advice for future students? Come up with a question that excites you more than anything and give answering it everything you've got. But don't forget to sleep once in a while ;)

[portraitofscience-blog]

Michell, Research Group Leader Hometown: Siegen, Germany

What are you working on? How to make humans become more like fish. While breathing under water would be a cool thing, I'm more interested in the question why fish can recover from injury to the central nervous system so much better than we can. That's why my lab is working on the mechanisms of CNS regeneration in the zebrafish and how to activate these pathways in humans.

What is science for you? A way of life, it helps me to understand how things work, it teaches me to systematically process information and come to meaningful conclusions. Most importantly, it shapes how I see the world and allows me to truly enjoy the beautiful complexity of life.

How do you balance life and science? Science is an integral part of my life. However, setting up a lab, keeping it running, getting grants and publishing your work can be stressful at times so I am fortunate to have a partner who understands my passion for science, encourages me and gets my back. Also, working with a great team, that I look forward to seeing every day, helps balance the stress of being a group leader.

Any advice for future students? There are easier ways to make ends meet than a scientific career. If you decide to go for it, you will find lots of good advice on what to study, how to choose the right lab, which country/university to go to for your post doc period and so on. Here is one more: listen to your heart when you make these choices, enjoy the time in research and accept that you probably won't stay in research for the rest of your work life but the science goggles will surely transform the way you see the world forever, in my mind for the better.