Category: Woman
Growing up in Science: Anne Urai
Anne Urai Ihad a careless childhood. I was good at school, but could never quite decide on my passions. I dropped high-school physics and chemistry in a streak of rebelliousness, only to realize my mistake a year later and catch...
My Developing Journey to Becoming an Agent of Change in Science
Milanpreet Kaur: "It has been three years into my doctoral program, and recently I began to draw connections between my studies and personal growth, asking myself - Have I attempted to act as a catalyst to accelerate the rate of...
Sleeping Astrocytes: Failures and Successes on the Journey to Publication
Laura Bojarskaite: "I want to be honest and tell you the story of how science actually happened for me and not how science should have happened according to all the rules, supposed-to’s, and textbooks."
Crisis After Crisis During Pandemic Field Day Experiments
Catalina Mejia: "Whether to a friend, a colleague, or another graduate student, make the small efforts to reach out and ask for support if you are in need of it."
The Talk of The Sea
Aiza Kabeer: "Our traditional understanding of human exploration is incomplete without Polynesian navigation."
Flickering Lights in the Darkness: How Microscopy Shaped My Scientific Path
Natalie Nannas: "Watching those flickering green dots shuttling around the cell convinced me that my future was in research."
How Getting Kicked Out of My Lab Kick-Started My Career
Kristen Vogt Veggeberg: "I could not have earned the distinction of [Impact Scholar] had I not started my career in graduate school, and I could not have started without that initial failure at hand."
A Long and Winding Road: One Disabled Scientist’s Story
Katie Stofer: "Mine is a story of [social and financial] supports, and how I am able to do my research not only because of them but in spite of my chronic illness, which I’ve just recently come to recognize as...
I Thought Only Neurologists Could Study the Brain
Kathryn Bonnen: "The realization that I was not alone put me on a path to recovery that has allowed me to truly enjoy science again."
From Picking Grapes to Treating Cavities
Ramneek K. Batth: "I came to recognize the importance of research and it’s need to advance almost every, if not all, aspects of life."
The Faith of A Physicist
Aiza Kabeer: "Though this is a brief overview, Abdus Salam’s life gives us a sad, yet rich and inspiring story of a talented scientist deeply rooted in a religious and cultural identity."
The Little Boat of “Why?”
Catherine Lockley: "As soon as this voyage is over, it will inform another and yet another. I signed up for the endless seas, but I stand at my bow and salute my fellow voyagers as they sail by on their...
Growing up in Science: Jane Willenbring
Jane Willenbring: "My Ph.D. on rates of glacial erosion in the Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic seemed long and difficult. I thought about quitting many times, but I'm glad I didn't quit."
Breaking the surface: Lessons on resilience and rebuilding from planarians
Divya Shiroor: "When I look at my publication today, I can’t help but be struck by how 5 years of blood, sweat and tears coalesce so tidily into 5 pages of a journal. I wonder how differently things might have...
Ice, heat, science, and acting
Morgan Dundon: "I think we should be more accepting of our many dimensions, both academics and actors alike. In my world of materials science, there are solid materials that can exist in more than one form or structure."
Crossing the finish line
Divya Shiroor: "By trying to make a mad dash to the finish line we run a very solid risk of not making it at all. In the long run, taking a moment to stop and smell the roses might go...
This Is Not The Way Beyoncé Made It Look
Bianca Jones Marlin: "I came to realize that my connection with my daughter, who’s now two-and-a-half years old, isn’t punctuated moments of oxytocin release. It’s our life together."
Fraternizing with Failure
Divya Shiroor: "I stepped up on stage, looked into the audience and for the first time ever, completely drew a blank. I tried to find my focus, somehow stumbled though my speech, leaving a big part of it out and...
Be your own Cartographer
Divya Shiroor: "I think of the IDP as a roadmap to the destination of your choice, with the difference being that you build your own road as you go along. It is a tool that helps assess which career you...
Academia: My forbidden love?
Divya Shiroor: "As happens with all relationships, my honeymoon period ended soon after commencing graduate school. Seven months into my first year, I now realize that my once perfect boyfriend can be complicated, demanding and potentially unstable."
The Spirit of the Inca
Aiza Kabeer: "When we are not aware of the achievements of civilizations such as the Inca, we are unable to see the breadth of cultures that made outstanding scientific progress."
Unexpected lessons from conducting research with older adults
Julia Nolte: "Becoming a gerontologist has taught me many unexpected things about the way the “stages of life” translate into lifespan research. Given these surprising lessons, my advice to other budding researchers is this: know that being an expert in...
My experience as a Kurdish Undergraduate Scientist in Iraq
Soma Sardar Barawi: "As a Kurdish nationalist first, and a future forensic biologist second, I desperately want to serve my homeland through the use of modern forensic technology."
Humans of HBI: Isle Bastille
Isle Bastille: "The largest challenge I’ve had to overcome is allowing myself to dream big. Early in life, I was limited by my environment. My mother is an immigrant and knew very little about the process of attending college in...
Humans of HBI: Caroline Palavicino-Maggio
Caroline Palavicino-Maggio: "During my childhood, I watched violent crimes transform my neighborhood. Now as a postdoc, I aim to understand the origin of aggressive behavior that underpins violent crimes. Though my work is rooted in neurobiology, I hope it will...
Humans of HBI: Stephanie Haro
Stephanie Haro: "I am a proud first- generation, Mexican-American, low-income college student from the community of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, CA. Given my roots and the opportunities that have been provided to me by past and current institutions, I...
How Studying the Brain Transformed my Brain
Lori Saxena: "I began to understand that I didn’t love neuroscience because of the medals and acclaim it gave me, but because of its universality. Because it can be studied and tested and corrected—an ever-expanding, ever-improving existential philosophy."
Becoming a parent in academia – when science fails you
B. Muehlroth: "Although I managed to continue devoting a major part of my life to my PhD, my life with infertility made me aware of my own boundaries and forced me to overstep them many times. I was never sure...