Growing up in Science: Clinton Cave
About
Clinton Cave is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Middlebury College. He arrived at Middlebury in 2018 after completing his Ph.D. in Neuroscience and post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Clinton conducted post-baccalaureate research at the University of Colorado and holds a B.A. in Psychology from Yale University. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Shanthini Sockanathan, his research efforts expanded the known roles of GDE2, a cell-surface enzyme expressed in the nervous system. Using functional genetic approaches in mice, his work demonstrated that GDE2 also plays a crucial role for neuronal survival in the postnatal nervous system, heralding a new research direction for the lab. As an independent investigator, Clinton runs a laboratory at Middlebury College mentoring undergraduate researchers. His group examines the molecular mechanisms regulating embryonic progenitor patterning, neurogenesis, and cell fate decisions through the lens of GDE signaling. Clinton is a published author in Neuron, Development, Molecular Neurodegeneration, and his laboratory is supported by grants from the NSF and NIH. In 2020, Clinton was selected as a Next Generation Leader by the Allen Institute for Brain Science, highlighting his research accomplishments and his work to integrate open access datasets into the classroom.
Clinton is also dedicated educator, contributing to both the undergraduate and graduate curricula while at Johns Hopkins. At Middlebury, Clinton teaches four courses for the college’s increasingly popular neuroscience major. He teaches the lecture and laboratory sections of “Fundamentals of Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience” and “Fundamentals of Behavioral Neuroscience.” These are two core survey courses that cover multiple sub-disciplines within neuroscience. The former describes membrane physiology, receptor biology, synaptic plasticity, neural metabolism, glial biology, and offers laboratory components on whole cell electrophysiology, action potential conduction, sensory adaptation and fluorescence microscopy. The latter course assembles a range of topics from neural coding to behavioral genetics, addiction and memory, and provides laboratory sessions on comparative neuroanatomy, mouse and rat behavior, and human electroencephalography. Clinton also teaches an upper level elective on neurodevelopment, promoting students’ ability to engage with primary literature; as well as an elective on the history of neuroscience, a course that contrasts and contextualizes the lives of scientists versus the impact of their works. The story is re-published in collaboration with Growing up in Science.
Key Lessons
- Protect your health, find mentorship, and help those around you. And just for the record, “You DO belong here.”
“Do I belong here?” That’s a question I frequently asked myself during freshman year of college. I had always done well academically in high school, and I entered college with a deep curiosity about the natural world. However, I found that my passion and enthusiasm for STEM was not reflected in my grades. My transition to college was very much the proverbial big fish moving from a small pond into the sea. At the time I hadn’t realized how much of my identity and self-worth was hinged on academic performance-far too much. I worked hard over the next two years to find my footing and right-the-ship as it were. And it worked! By the second semester of my junior year I was earning straight A’s again, with two courses even taken at the graduate level. But these self-imposed pressures to perform were not sustainable.
My senior year, I suffered a major depressive episode. I had my new-and-improved formula for academic success but couldn’t execute; a malaise and a pervasive darkness sank in around everything I tried to do. It strained friendships, frightened my family, and jeopardized my graduation. Many factors can lead to depression, and many of them are out of one’s control. My error was not asking for help when I needed it most. My recovery was enabled by supportive healthcare practitioners, professors, mentors, friends, and family that all helped me find the road forward. Though incredibly difficult at the time, these experiences now help me better empathize with my students as they navigate tumultuous times in their lives. I am enormously grateful to be able to pay forward the mentorship that I received and help my students recognize their value inside (and more importantly) outside of the classroom.
“Do you need any help?” That’s a question I’ve tried to ask others since college. As a technician working at the University of Colorado, I helped run a confocal core facility. My job involved teaching users about the different types of confocal microscopy, the care of use of the instruments, and helping them design an imaging experiment. This was a unique position because it allowed me to participate in a wide variety of research projects throughout the institution, and I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with new users and teaching them about microscopy. Being part of this vibrant community is also what motivated me to pursue my PhD. By my mid-twenties, I had a renewed self-awareness, new tools to manage my mental health, and had separated my self-worth from classroom performance.
I had landed a spot in a top PhD program, in a lab with a collegial, friendly atmosphere and a wonderfully supportive mentor doing research that I truly enjoyed. As I became a senior member of the lab, I was able to supervise the projects of several rotation students and two summer undergraduate students. Again, I found it extremely gratifying to be able to help them understand their projects, gain technical acumen, and mature as researchers. After graduating, I still had quite a bit of uncertainty about my next steps. I loved teaching but I wasn’t sure about remaining in academia. “Was I good enough?” “Do I have something to offer?”
Here again, I will stress the importance of finding mentors that are supportive, and will act as advocates for you. I was reminded that I had received a world-class education, my diverse experiences on multiple projects made me a very well rounded scientist capable of utilizing multiple techniques across different areas of neuroscience, and I myself was becoming a practiced teacher and advisor having supervised students and designed an undergraduate neuroscience course. All these experiences helped me become a better educator and be competitive for teaching-focused faculty positions. During my job search, (just 1.5 years into my post-doc) I was extended two tenure-track offers. Ultimately, everyone’s scientific and professional journey is different, and you don’t always know when things will lock into place. Protect your health, find mentorship, and help those around you. And just for the record, “You DO belong here.”
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