From Volleyball to Neuroscience

Nicolas Tritsch

Nicolas Tritsch

I grew up in a small village in Alsace, France, near the border with Switzerland and Germany. I have always been freakin’ tall (a scientific term to mean well above average), but shot up most during my teenage years, averaging up to a centimeter of vertical grown per month between the ages of 12 and 15! This was not lost on my sports teachers, who suggested I enlist in an intense sport-study program to play volleyball. And that’s how I ended up spending most of my time during these formative years, ultimately earning an opportunity to train with France’s national team near Paris.

However, my dream to become a professional volleyball player was crushed (thankfully) when my family relocated to the US. Upon finishing high school at the French Lycée in New York, I didn’t have a clear sense for what to do next other than ‘go to university.’ Having not taken the SAT or postulated to prestigious French preparatory schools, I was resigned to return to France to join a local college when I learned that I could apply to McGill University.

By then, I was ready to face my impostor syndrome.

Substantia nigra pars compacta. Image provided by Nicholas Tritsch

A trip to Montreal was all it took to fall in love with the city and convince me to pursue a North American education. I owe passing my first semester undergrad classes to another foreign student who actually understood what was being taught and graciously shared her notes with me. It was only in my senior year that I discovered my interest for neuroscience in a guest lecture by our very own Steve Burden.

Convinced that my CV was unremarkable, I did not apply to US schools and instead joined McGill’s graduate program. There, I not only realized that I enjoyed bench work, I also learned to play ice hockey during ‘lunch breaks’ and met my future spouse. But I continued to wonder whether the grass was greener South of the border… Despite having started my PhD, I tried my luck (but still not to schools I believed to be out of reach), and eight months later, my wife and myself found ourselves packing our suitcases for Baltimore where I would complete my PhD.

I might have not sought a postdoc if it weren’t for my thesis advisor, Dwight Bergles, who (kindly) pushed me out of the lab after 6 years. By then, I was ready to face my impostor syndrome and joined the bustling lab of Bernardo Sabatini at Harvard University. The next six years would be a whirlwind, beginning the work that continues to keep me busy to this day, being a dad to 3 children, interviewing for jobs, and eventually realizing the elusive dream of starting my own lab at a top university.

To be continued…