My Career in the Midst of a Pandemic: Overcoming the Limitations of COVID-19

Rodrigo Felipe de Oliveira Pena

Rodrigo Felipe de Oliveira Pena, PhD

I don’t really remember when my interest in physics started. It was probably influenced by the many science fiction stories of time traveling and interplanetary exploration I read while I was growing up. Or perhaps it was because I am a very methodical person, and the rigid rules of physics appealed to me and the way I think. Regardless, as I completed primary and high school, I discovered that I really enjoyed learning how to contextualize scientific questions with real world problems. Looking back, I think it was only natural that I decided to study physics as an undergrad when I began my studies at the University of São Paulo, in a city called Ribeirão Preto.

Throughout my education, from grade school through graduate school and beyond, my excitement has always been about “applying” physics and math to real problems. So, when I started graduate school in an Applied Physics program at the University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto, I took an interest in projects that would involve a high degree of interdisciplinarity. This is a hallmark within the field of computational neuroscience, which became the topic of my graduate studies. I became fascinated by how a phenomenon in our brain could be described not only by one discipline, but by a combination of fields such as physics, math, biology, and computer science. Importantly, I was really drawn to the many unanswered questions that lie at the intersection of these fields, and especially, in how the brain works.

My PhD thesis focused on developing a computational and theoretical description of the transitions between activity fluctuations (which are observed when neurons change and react differently to the same stimulus), and how single neurons and networks of neurons influence this behavior. Activity fluctuations are incredibly interesting yet mysterious, and although some people think they are just noise, studying them is key to understanding how the brain processes and perceives things such as our sense of touch or sight. As I worked on my PhD research, I became emersed in the multidisciplinary atmosphere of computational neuroscience and realized how crucial it is to have regular discussions with different kinds of experts.

Since I was working to solve problems that traversed many different fields, these conversations helped me translate biological concepts into computer science terms and more accurately model neurons.

Have I told you, reader, that I came from Brazil? It is a beautiful country where people are very kind and creative in every respect. There is also a mixture of cultural traits from all around the world, which is clear in the many accents and variety of amazing foods. Scientifically, however, we lack the many well-known and specialized conferences the rest of the scientific world has access to. So unfortunately, my ability to build connections within the computational and neurobiology communities was lower while I studied there. I sometimes attended more general meetings in the hopes that I would be able to learn about what others in my field were working on, discuss new topics and my own research, and connect with people in computational neuroscience. Even then, my scientific development was severely limited.

This issue of inaccessibility is not really a problem in the US or Europe, where you find workshops and conferences on every corner and on every subject imaginable. In graduate school, I was so excited about attending specialized meetings that I often fundraised money and sat through 12-hour plane rides just to be embedded in a few of these discussions for only 4 or 5 days. I still remember how one time during grad school, I missed a flight connection in Frankfurt and spent two days trying to get back home after attending a meeting on Brain Dynamics at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany. The meeting was supposed to be 4 days long, but after attending some workshops and talks, I missed the flight back home and slept on airport benches until my body ached.

As I finished my graduate education, expanding my collaboration network and gaining exposure in the scientific community seemed to be both necessary and important steps to further my research and my career. After I finally defended my Ph.D. thesis, I asked myself this very question: how can I further advance my career? Although my Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Antonio C. Roque, didn’t spare any efforts in helping me expand my collaboration network with experimentalists (who do research on real cells in the lab) and theoreticians (who attempt to use the data from biological systems to develop possible models), I thought I should take matters into my own hands and get more experience in a post-doctoral fellowship (or post-doc, for short).

Thus, I aimed to find a postdoc that would take my passions for interdisciplinary work and collaboration into account. After a lot of searching, I found a position at the New Jersey Institute of Technology which seemed to be a perfect fit for my goals and research interests. With my background in applied physics, I currently study ‘neuronal resonance’: a phenomenon where neurons respond better to certain input frequencies than others, something that is crucial for many brain functions. Neural resonance is observed by experimentalists in real tissues, and more recently, can be explained with theoretical models and replicated in computers using code.

After coming to the US and working with my postdoc supervisor, Dr. Horacio G. Rotstein, I was able to leverage his help and connections to quickly build up a collaboration network. We also discussed some of the exciting conferences I should plan to go to. The position was ideal not only because Horacio is interested in similar questions as I am, but also because the New Jersey Institute of Technology has a very good interdisciplinary environment in neuroscience, not to mention its proximity with other great research institutes. I was also lucky as I found very kind lab-mates.

Moving to another country was also scary for me in every sense. You feel like taking a few steps back: you pack as many belongings as you can carry and leave your collaborators behind, not to mention your family and close friends who are always there to support you. I was, of course, frightened. However, both my advisor and my new lab colleagues were very welcoming, and I can say my transition was somehow very smooth.

Everything seemed to be moving forward in my career with no complaints. A typical day in my life included going to the lab (mine or someone else’s) and either discussing some experimental observation or drawing and coding a mathematical model that could explain what we observed. It is not very hard to make computational models; the difficult part lies in making them useful. Hence, we need a lot of input. Because of that, my schedule would always include spending time where neuroscience is being discussed, whether that was in one-on-one discussions or large conferences.

But as it approached one year since I left Brazil to pursue a postdoc in the US, I was forced to sit in my apartment as the entire city locked down due to COVID-19.

Would I be stuck for months unable to pursue my goal? Not necessarily. I could still attend meetings and talk to people I had met so far virtually, but the beauty of being in a central location and taking advantage of such a good scientific environment was somewhat jeopardized.

In a similar fashion, I suddenly also realized that this situation was not entirely negative (well… in fact, somewhat positive): all the conferences we hoped to attend for the purposes of networking and learning about recent cutting-edge research were moved online. And most importantly, they were free. This was definitely the miracle I was waiting for, and we soon took advantage of every conference available: Neuromatch, the Organization for Computational Neurosciences (OCNS), the Bernstein conference, the International Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience (ICMNS), Dynamics Days, and many others.

Even in a normal situation, I wouldn’t be able to go to all of these meetings as they would be happening on different continents, not to mention how costly it would be. Recently, I recall the day I went to my lab meeting in the morning, gave three poster presentations at the computational neuroscience conference OCNS in the afternoon where I got a lot of input (about my work on neuronal behavior, resonance, oscillations, network behavior, among other subjects), and still found some time to clean my kitchen afterward.

Looking back, these virtual conferences were even more attractive than the in-person ones since they managed to recruit more scientists at the forefront of their respective fields. This was great because if the conferences weren’t online, busy and well-known scientists would probably think more seriously about whether they had time to present their research before traveling across half the planet. Additionally, the process of talking to other people became organized and easier, since every other scientist in the world was sitting at home as I was doing.

Finally, my “old” collaboration network, which I thought I would lose, was living again. I gave a talk at the Federal University of Alagoas, an area in Brazil I’ve never been to. Together with my supervisor Horacio and my former supervisor Antonio, we taught a course about computer modeling of neurons and resonance at the Brazilian Society for Neuroscience and Behavior.  If it hadn’t been for this pandemic, this kind of collaboration and productivity would not be possible. I have reached a really great point in my career where I can give back to my home country without ever leaving my current research, and at a time where I am finally networking and learning from scientists from all around the globe.

This pandemic has made me realize that, as scientists, perhaps it is time to change how we share and discuss our science so that we can be more inclusive. This virtual model of work and conferences would especially benefit third-world countries. Science should be without borders, we just have to figure out how to keep the borders open after the pandemic. In addition, I understand now that my path towards becoming an independent researcher is not exactly direct or straightforward, but rather tortuous; I will probably have to reinvent myself along the way other times as issues show up rather frequently. Learning how to deal with and adapt when you encounter tough situations is just part of the academic career path. I think this experience will reflect well on my future, not that I expect another pandemic-like situation again, but somehow, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.

Cover Photo by Brad Javernick.