Golden tickets to a marathon

October 21, 2013 at 3:43 pm

by Juliane

I got a PhD. Doing it was very normal: I did research in a laboratory, during the 2nd year I started to realize that my supervisor wasn’t the all-knowing wise man I thought he was, and after my third year he finally grew tired of having me around, so he let me graduate. Then they gave me a piece of paper and told my that I am now allowed to introduce myself as Dr. Juliane.

And I felt nothing. I was sure I would be happy, proud, full of joy or at least relieved, but I wasn’t. Something really big, something that used to be my life had ended. The goal, I worked so hard to reach was achieved, but it didn’t feel like an achievement at all. Because, the minute after you get it, your PhD doesn’t matter any more! A PhD is your entrance ticket into the world of science. It proves that you are smart (or obsessed) enough to join the club. In the world of science everybody has a PhD and because of this it is nothing special. It is a little bit like learning how to walk, it is hard while you try, but after you mastered the task it is no big deal anymore, and just because you can walk it doesn’t mean you are a great athlete or endurance hiker. The same is true for science, just because you did a PhD, you are not a great scientist or even a mediocre scientist. Now we can walk, or have got the PhD, the real work begins. We have to stay in training, because you are only as good as your latest paper, or maybe your PI’s latest grant application. Often when you are busy writing three papers at once and trying to produce data for a grant application, it is akin to doing a PhD thesis all over again and it never really stops. Is this really the life I dreamed off when working on my PhD? The life I want for myself until I retire, always trying to have ideas good enough to convince editors and grant application committees? Never stop thinking about science and deadlines? Do I have to run, just because I can walk?

While I was working on my PhD, I and the other students were told that the goal is the PhD and everything else will fall in place after that; this is simply not true. With the little piece of paper that allows me to call myself Dr. Juliane, I stood in front of the gate leading into the gigantic mazy space that is ‘academic science’ and realized that it is just the very beginning of the big adventure. And exactly at this point, standing at the gate with the ticket, a life changing decision had to be made: Doing my PhD was great and I am proud of it. However, just because I got the ticket doesn’t mean that I have to go in. Just because you can walk, doesn’t mean you have to run a marathon, lots of people are much happier taking a stroll or doing some recreational jogging.  The same holds true for science, there are a million different ways of using the basic skills we obtained during the PhD training: self-discipline, a high threshold for frustration, scientific thinking and understanding, critical reading, presenting data, efficiently working with eccentric personalities and on top of all this, the knowledge of our field and methods. Self-discipline is very important to start your own business, in science or otherwise; critical reading abilities and scientific thinking is a skill highly needed in banking and patent law, as well as scientific writing and editing; presenting data and getting other people’s help with your projects are great skills for freelancers as well as managers; and the specific skill set you acquired performing experiments in the laboratory might as well make you the expert some pharmaceutical company is looking for. Often we will have to build on the basic set; just like there is walking, but also running, skipping, jogging, strolling, sprinting, etc, there is basic science, applied science, law, management, starting your own business or becoming a movie director.

Enough with the walking metaphor, here comes the chocolate factory metaphor!! You have your PhD, it’s like finding the Golden Ticket; but just because you got the Golden Ticket, doesn’t mean that you will get the chocolate factory. You get a chance at getting it and what you do with this chance is entirely up to you. However, maybe you don’t like chocolate or after spending some time in the chocolate factory, realize that too much chocolate is bad for your health and that you would rather have a grilled cheese sandwich.

That is the great thing about our golden tickets, only the entrance value into the world of academic science expires (sort of). If you take it and frame it and put it on your wall, people you know who are not scientists will believe that you are a very smart person, since getting the ticket is already a great accomplishment. They are absolutely correct, most of them haven’t even tried. And just like I would never want to run a marathon, but admire people who train for it and finish 10099 out of 12000, people outside the world of science admire us for getting this far. At the very least getting a PhD proves to ourselves that we are smart and able to function under immense pressure. So let’s use our golden tickets in whatever way feels right to us, right now.

By julianeh | Posted in postdoc | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Trance

October 18, 2013 at 6:30 pm

If you follow this link, you will be able to listen to trance music, which was really popular in the 90s. Interestingly, at the same time a D. Anderson from the group of L. Galibert in Seattle and B. Wong from the group of Y. Choi in New York published papers about TRANCE the TNF related activation induced cytokine, maybe while listening to trance music. So if you are less interested in techno music and more interested in immunology you might find TRANCE a lot more fascinating than flashing lights and funny hair styles. However, if you get bad flashbacks about the 90s just by hearing the word Trance, you can also call it RANKL or CD254.

Trance has previously been mentioned in this blog, because of its interaction with OSCAR. As such it is involved in osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption. However, most research on TRANCE is done regarding its function in the immune response. As the name sort of indicates, TRANCE is a cytokine, that is involved in TNF (tumor necrosis factor) signaling. TRANCE is expressed and secreted by dendritic cells and acts as a ligand for RANK on T-cells. RANK signaling leads to activation of NFkappaB which greatly enhances T-cell maturation and survival.

References:

http://www.uniprot.org
Anderson et al. (1997) A homologue of the TNF receptor and its ligand enhance T-cell growth and dendritic-cell function. Nature;390(6656):175-9.
Wong et al. (1997) TRANCE is a novel ligand of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family that activates c-Jun N-terminal kinase in T cells. J Biol Chem. 272(40):25190-4.
Wong et al. (1997) TRANCE (tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-related activation-induced cytokine), a new TNF family member predominantly expressed in T cells, is a dendritic cell-specific survival factor. J Exp Med.186(12):2075-80.

By julianeh | Posted in Protein of the week | Tagged , | Comments (0)

What Lauren can do for you…

October 18, 2013 at 9:10 am

by Lauren and Juliane

Last week Lauren shared with us her experiences starting her own business. Lauren also works for BU as a career coach for postdocs and PhD students. I asked her questions about what kind of coaching a postdoc can expect from her.

Question: What is your position/role at BU?

LC answer: I am a career coach for graduate students and postdocs at BU.

Q: What can a postdoc expect from career advising and what should we prepare to get the most out of a session?

LC answer: For the coaching work, we can talk about topics including the ones listed below.  Sessions are 20 minutes in length and occur either the 1st and 3rd Saturdays between 10-noon via phone or the 2nd and 4th Fridays between 3-5pm onsite at BU School of Medicine.  I try to ask questions about your background and what you are looking for in a career to provide useful advice.

  • Overview of Career Opportunities
  • Building and Discussing Transferable Skills
  • Resume Critique, Review and Revision
  • Cover Letter Critique, Review and Revision
  • Developing a Professional LinkedIn Profile
  • Developing a Career Search Strategy
  • Informational Interview Advice
  • Networking Advice and Insights
  • Formal Interview Advice
  • Building Thought Leadership during your career

We have a career questionnaire that Yolanta can provide to postdocs prior to coaching.  When a postdoc fills this out and emails it to me beforehand, it can help maximize the coaching interaction.

Q: You and other members of Propel careers are members of several professional associations.  Why is this? Would you recommend membership in organizations to postdocs?

LC answer: We are members so that we can build our professional network and meet people who also share the same interests and passions as we do.  A few of the groups that I am involved with are focused on entrepreneurship and women in science. I am happy to support the organizations and their mission. I think joining professional organizations can be extremely valuable  -  if you join one of these organizations, make sure you have time to get involved, network, and attend their meetings.  Otherwise, you will not get the full benefit of membership.

Q: How important is social networking for job hunting?

LC: Social networking, especially LinkedIn is very helpful for job hunting.  Some stats indicate that ~30% of people are hired via LinkedIn so it is important to create a professional profile.  The hiring does not happen overnight, but many HR people search LinkedIn for talent.  If you have a strong profile, you may appear on their “short-list”. This may lead to them contacting you and starting the job interview process which may eventually result in a hire.

Q: Propel offers a mentor program. How does it work?

LC: With Propel, the formal mentorship program involves connecting a mentor (a seasoned life sciences professional) with one of the individuals we place into a role to provide them with a resource to ask career related advice of.  Generally the relationship lasts for 6 months with meetings for 1 hour a month, but can go longer if the mentor and mentee would like to continue the relationship. Propel does not charge for joining the mentorship program, however there are usually more mentees than mentors, so we do not guaranty you a match. I can also provide people with advice on other mentorship programs, like AWIS, HBA, WEST, or other ones occurring in the Boston area depending upon what someone is looking for.

By julianeh | Posted in career planing, networking | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Leveraging skillsets when making a transition

October 11, 2013 at 11:32 am

by Lauren, CEO of propel careers

this post is reposted from the propel careers blog.

I am often asked by clients at all levels "how to transition" from one type of role to another. The advice I give is the same regardless of who I am speaking with - a CEO, a head of research, or a Ph.D. in academia looking to move into industry. When you make a transition, leverage your existing skills while you build new ones. This way, you do not venture into a situation where you need to build both functional skills and industry knowledge. Below is advice for a few scenarios such as moving from Academia to Industry, research side to business side, and one industry sector to another.

Academic to industry transition

Academics (Ph.d., postdocs, or other individuals in the academic setting) who successfully move into industry, usually do this by applying their technical expertise, disease knowledge, or other aspect of their background directly to industry related projects. Hands on roles that utilize technical expertise (i.e. microscopy techniques, cell culture knowledge, or proficiency with in vivo dosing) or disease knowledge (i.e. lung cancer development or a specific pathway such as mTOR), allow the individual to quickly become immersed in the company research. As the individual grows in the "hands on role," opportunities typically arise as do new responsibilities (i.e. management of team members or projects).

R&D focused scientists looking to move into business focused roles

Many industry scientists aspire to move into business oriented positions (project management, business development, finance, strategy, operations, etc). To successfully transition to a business role, I advise people to build their interpersonal, communication, team work and management skills to complement their expertise in a specific research/disease area. Many scientists move into project management because their research project advances and they advance with the project. For business development roles, many scientists initially become involved in business discussions due to their technical knowledge of a specific project. Success with these discussions usually leads to additional interactions with the business team. As the scientist builds business skills, a full time transition to the business side can become a reality.

Individual moving into the life sciences sector

Individuals with experience outside of the life sciences sector can bring valuable skills to the industry. Functional skills (i.e. accounting, finance, and IT) are often extremely transferable to the life sciences industry since most companies have accounting, finance, and IT infrastructure needs. Individuals with sales and marketing experience may find that their industry knowledge (i.e. consumer goods, insurance, hospital, etc) can be quickly applied to firms working in their same industry. For example, knowledge of the health insurance market, especially coding and reimbursement, can be extremely valuable to life sciences companies with commercial products. Many of these firms need to have a thorough understanding of the reimbursement landscape in order to receive payment for their drug, device, or diagnostic.

Transitioning takes time and is done best when well thought out. In some cases, multiple transitions may be needed to get you to where you want to be. Be strategic and realistic, and you will achieve success.

By julianeh | Posted in career planing, industry | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Spaetzle

October 9, 2013 at 10:47 am

by Juliane

This week I will write about Drosophila genetics. The founding fathers of modern genetics were very creative when naming their favorite genes; from Sonic Hedgehog to Bride of Sevenless, their gene names read like titles of novels rather than hard science. While being super-creative however, they did groundbreaking science, resulting in several Nobel prizes.

This is a plate of spätzle.

It’s the German version of macaroni and cheese, which has to be made from scratch every single time.

Here I zoomed in onto a single one.

And underneath the close up is a picture of a Drosophila embryo missing the gene spätzle. Can you see the similarity?

spätzle is the ligand for Toll; a receptor which is absolutely necessary to establish the dorso-ventral axis in developing embryos (not only in flies).  After maternal cells surrounding the embryo have established an environment suitable for development, the protease easter cleaves spätzle and the resulting cleaved form binds the receptor Toll, which in turn relocates the transcription factor dorsal into the nucleus, where it activates all of the appropriate genes for proper dorso-ventral patterning. In adult flies the Toll pathway is involved in innate immunity, and homologues of Toll are found in almost all animals. Of course spätzle acts as a ligand. All this writing about spätzle made me hungry, so I am going to cook now.

References:

David Stein & Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (1992) Multiple extracellular activities in Drosophila egg perivitelline fluid are required for establishment of embryonic dorsal-ventral polarity, Cell Volume 68, Issue 3, Pages 429–440
Kathryn Anderson & Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (1984) Information for the dorsal–ventral pattern of the Drosophila embryo is stored as maternal mRNA Nature 311,  Pages 223 - 227
Weber, A.N. et al (2003) Binding of the Drosophila cytokine Spätzle to Toll is direct and establishes signaling. Nat. Immunol. Aug;4(8):Pages 794-800

Flybase at http://www.sdbonline.org/fly/torstoll/spatzle.htm
http://www.wikigenes.org/e/gene/e/43256.html

By julianeh | Posted in Protein of the week | Tagged , , | Comments (4)

Start your own business

October 7, 2013 at 9:56 am

by Lauren and Juliane

Lauren Celano founded her own business, Propel careers, and advices postdocs at BU about possible careers. In this post she describes how it all started.

Question: You got a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Gettysburg College. Did you ever consider about doing a PhD or master’s in science?

LC answer: I was very interested in medical school and initially planned on pursuing this career path following college. In my senior year of college though, I learned about other career paths, such as roles in biotech and pharma companies. I decided to pursue this instead (at least initially) to learn more about this area.  In 2000 after receiving my bachelor I started working and only began studying towards the MBA part time in 2007, so I had about 7 years of work experience before starting the program.

Q: After receiving your MBA from BU you worked for several biotechnology companies for more than 10 years. When and why did you decide to start your own business?

LC answer: I enrolled in a part-time MBA program at BU in Sept of 2007.  My goal in pursuing my MBA was to learn about business fundamentals since all of my formal education was science based, up to this point.  I felt that I needed to learn finance, economics, marketing, etc in order to grow my career.  I had not thought about entrepreneurship before starting my MBA.  During the MBA, I started to do business plans and competitive landscape assessments for biotech and medical device technologies. During my 10 years of work experience, most of my experience focused on developing plans to take a drug from efficacy to phase 1 and 2 clinical trials so I found thmy previous science experience very useful to the business strategy for the technologies I was working on. The MBA program gave me confidence that my skill set (scientific knowledge and my industry network) was useful and showed me that I enjoyed entrepreneurial activities.  During February of 2009, the idea for Propel came up when I met my co-founder through networking.  We both saw that a need existed to connect graduate students with entrepreneurial companies to help foster their career growth.  I had wanted to do something entrepreneurial and I really enjoy helping people and making connections, so when the concept of Propel was thought out, I decided to start the company with Omar Amirana.

Q: You gave up your job to start your own company, was it intimidating? How did you support yourself in the beginning?

LC answer: I initially left my job in December of 2008 to finish my MBA full time.  Two months later, I found myself starting Propel. Everything happened really fast. It was intimidating to leave my job and start something new, but I enjoyed the challenge. I supported myself initially on some savings and credit cards. It took a while for Propel to have revenue, therefore for the first two years, I lived mostly on savings and credit cards and cut a lot out of my normal routine to save money. Unfortunately I did not apply for start-up loans or kickstarter money.  In hindsight, it would have been good to get some cash from an outside source to make the startup process a little less stressful

Q: You are one of two founders of Propel careers. How did you meet your partner? And why did the two of you decide to start a business together?

LC:I met Omar through a person called Marc Cote who I met networking at a MassBio event. I met Marc in the late fall of 2008 at a MassBio Investors meeting – a meeting where a lot of VC’s (venture capitalist), angel investors and CEO’s attended. I attended the meeting to network since I wanted to learn more about the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Boston. Marc introduced me to Omar and the rest is history.  When Omar and I met, we both saw a need to cultivate the careers of the emerging leaders (Ph.D.’s, postdocs, MD students, grad students, etc) through connections to well run entrepreneurial companies. By doing so, we get to actively develop the careers of our future leaders.

Q: At the beginning, were you ever afraid that your company would fail?

LC: Sure.  I think every entrepreneurial has some fear that their company could fail.   Most entrepreneurs try to build something new and innovative so by default, this means that the company could fail, since it is not a proven model yet. When a company starts, it is important to listen to customer feedback and pivot (if needed) to be able to seize opportunity and grow.

Q: What is the mission of your company?

LC: Our mission is to develop the careers of individuals through coaching, mentoring, networking and placement and by doing so, strengthening the life sciences companies we work with.

Q: Who do you see as your primary clients? Employers or job seekers?

LC: Our clients are both – we are unique as a career development and recruiting firm since we work actively with both job seekers and employers. The coaching work that Propel does, which includes resume and cover letter coaching, LinkedIn development, interview prep and networking guidance, has grown steadily over the last 4 years. We see a large need to provide advice to talent looking for roles.  Sometimes we place people who we have coached, but in most cases, this is separate from the placement activity of Propel.  The recruitment work that we perform provides us with a unique insight that we can provide to talent looking for roles.  With respect to companies, we actively work with numerous companies to identify talent to join their firms.  The level of talent ranges from recent Ph.D. graduates to director level.

Q: There are a lot of recruiting firms in the greater Boston area, that do similar work to Propel, what makes you special?

Our focus on entrepreneurial companies (i.e. 5-50 ish person firms) is a differentiator.  We focus mainly on the emerging leader (the current student/ recent grad up to about 15 years of work experience). This is a strong differentiator since many other firms are focused on more senior level talent (CEO, CSO, COO). The coaching work that we do is unique among recruitment firms – this allows us the opportunity to really get to know people and help them even if we do not have a role that is the perfect fit for them right now.

By julianeh | Posted in career planing, industry, networking | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

oscar

October 1, 2013 at 3:37 pm

by Juliane

When you think about Oscar you might think about him:

Or him:

but unless you work on the effects of inflammation on bone density and development you might not think of the Osteoclast-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor.

Osteoblasts (the cells that make bone) and osteoclasts (the cells that absorb bone) work together to maintain a healthy balance between too strong bones and too brittle bones. Osteoclasts stem from the same precursors in the bone marrow as the main components of the immune system. To turn these precursors into osteoclasts two factors, M-CSF and TRANCE, have to be secreted by osteoblasts. Since these factors are relatively wide spread in the body and we don’t want bone eating cells to turn up everywhere, a second layer of regulation is included, Oscar. Only the lineage of cells destined to become osteoclasts express Oscar as a co-stimulator, which then ensures their differentiation into osteoclasts instead of macrophages.

The first paper describing Oscar (Kim et al.) was published in January 2002, during Oscar season, a coincidence?

References:

Kim N, Takami M, Rho J, Josien R, Choi Y. (2002) A novel member of the leukocyte receptor complex regulates osteoclast differentiation. J Exp Med.;195(2):201-9.
www.sesamestreet.org
www.dreamstime.com

By julianeh | Posted in Protein of the week | Tagged , | Comments (0)

On being a postdoc and a father

September 29, 2013 at 11:58 pm

by Daniel

As a postdoc I have attended many conferences and workshops dealing with work and life balance, but I feel that the father’s role is sometimes overlooked. I would like to share my experiences on being a postdoc and a rookie father.

At the end of my second year of postdoctoral tenure at Boston Medical Center/ Boston University School of Medicine, the unexpected happened. After more than ten years of marriage, some of those trying to enlarge our family, my wife and I had a very beautiful baby girl called Emma.

Emma was born in the hospital where I trained as an internist and where my wife is a clinical oncologist in the outskirst of Barcelona (Spain). I arrived in Barcelona just in time to be present for the delivery and I managed to stay for four weeks, given that I had some vacation time left and I got two weeks of paternity leave from the Spanish Ministry of Education, who are funding my postdoctoral stay in Boston.

I forgot to mention that my wife had to go back to Spain at the end of her leave of absence, and during the 2012-2013 season we had been seing each other for a week or two every two or three months, but that is another story.

I cannot express in words the tremendous joy of having Emma, mixed with jet lag and an overwhelming sense of doing most of the things pretty wrong, at least from the Ob-gyn nurses point of view. The diapers I changed during Emma’s first night were the first diapers I had changed since my little cousin was born, and he is now in his early twenties.

Emma’s birth was just 3 weeks before the deadline of a competitive grant I wanted to apply for, with the unlikely prospect of funding my return to Spain. We stayed four days at the hospital, and back in our apartment I ended up spending many more hours in front of my laptop than I had initially wanted. I also had many more meetings with my former supervisors and the director of the research institute at the hospital where I have my main research appointment than I had originally envisioned.

Moreover, I had two manuscripts that had to be revised and resubmitted by that time. The two manuscripts finally got accepted, I still do not know about the grant, but I can say for sure that those first weeks of Emma in this world were not what my wife had expected, especially after going through most of the pregnancy on her own.

Somewhere in between diaper changes and visits from relatives and friends, I tried to spend as much quality time as possible with my wife and our newborn baby girl. As the time to go back to Boston approached, I was invaded by a sense of guilt of not having fulfilled my expectations as a father and as a husband. In addition, a big chunk of my time in Barcelona was wasted navigating through endless bureaucracy and civil servants’ breakfast breaks to get everything that Emma needed to have health insurance, a pediatrician, an I.D. and a passport to fly to the States as soon as possible.

Two weeks after I got back to Boston, my wife and daughter came to spend most of my wife’s maternity leave here. Now that we are the three of us together everything is much more straightforward... I try to get home a little earlier than I did before, and everyday the three of us enjoy a nice walk, and Emma is now a regular at many coffeeshops around Davis square.

My coworkers at BMC have been exteremely supportive, they organized a very nice baby shower with pink frosting on a cake, and they have allowed me to take time off to go to the pediatrician.

For now, dinners at restaurants are over, as well as going to the movies or to rock concerts, and a slower pace has been instituted in our career-driven life as a couple. My wife gets the heavier burden of baby-related work, and I try to be the best father that I can, while being as productive as I can during the rest of my time in Boston.

By julianeh | Posted in career planing, work/life balance | Tagged , , , , | Comments (6)

Building skills for a career while in academia

September 27, 2013 at 11:28 am

by Lauren, CEO of propel careers

this post is reposted from the propel careers blog.

The topic of career planning is something that I discuss with almost everyone I speak with, regardless of whether they are a graduate student or industry professional. I emphasize that regardless of where someone is in their career, steps can be taken to develop the hard (e.g. techniques) and soft (e.g. management) skills necessary for career advancement. Since successful careers develop over years, even decades, the earlier someone starts to plan, the better. Even as a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow, ample opportunities exist to develop skills. Below are two examples of proactive career development. By sharing these, I hope to inspire others to take similar initiative.

Ph.D. student passionate about research in industry:

I recently talked with a Ph.D student who is extremely interested in performing bench research for a biotech company. She described her background and how she developed marketable skills. During her Ph.D, she honed her technical skills and took every opportunity to learn about industry relevant work. She took the initiative to lead a collaboration with an industry partner to focus on small molecule screening against a drug target. She also had the opportunity to write grants and a patent for her work. During her 4th and 5th years, she trained interns, RA's and other grad students on research techniques. During her 5th year, she also became involved with the Boston chapter of the national disease association related to her research. She did this to learn more about the current state of industry research in her field and also to increase the size of her professional network. She has just started her job search and her preparedness will certainly pay off.

Postdoctoral fellow passionate about starting a company:

I recently talked with a postdoctoral fellow who has a strong record of accomplishment (Nature and Cell papers) and a 10-year goal of starting a biotech company. During his Ph.D. and postdoc, he has been very focused on building business skills to increase his chance of success. As a 3rd year Ph.D. student, he began to build business skills by interning in the university Technology Transfer office, performing scientific due diligence on technologies relevant to his research background. This work also provided exposure to market research and competitive landscape assessments and insight into what makes a technology commercially attractive. As a 4th and 5th year Ph.D. student, he interned for ~ 5-10 hours a week at a venture capital firm and performed scientific diligence on technologies of interest to the firm. After his Ph.D, he chose to do a postdoc at a top lab in his field to gain new scientific skills and deepen his disease area knowledge. During his postdoc, he also became involved with the Technology Transfer office where he evaluated technologies for commercial potential. Now, as a 3rd year postdoc, he is actively pursuing roles at boutique life sciences consulting firms that focus mainly on business development work – merger, acquisition, and partnership strategy, as compared to the general strategy consulting firms. These firms will provide him with relevant knowledge and experiences for his career goal, which is to start a biotech company and have a successful exit.

The individuals in these examples may seem more proactive than most, but I chose to highlight them since these types of profiles are very attractive to companies.

 

By julianeh | Posted in career planing, industry | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Is the media shaping us or do we shape the media?

September 26, 2013 at 11:26 am

by Juliane

I often find the presentation of science and scientists in the media quite biased. This might be because I am female and for a long time have had a hard time seeing a person like myself portrayed in popular media. However, the presentation of scientists in the media can be an interesting reflection on how society perceives both our jobs, personalities and characters. Quite a few other people are interested in this too and in fact there even is a scientific journal for just this topic.

I don’t own a TV, instead I use Netflix. Following from that I am mostly interested in the presentation of science and scientists in movies and TV dramas.

Because of that, I was surprised when I came across this article by Jennifer Welsh. I admit that I didn’t know that Dancing With The Stars was still a thing. It is great that a scientist is considered to be a star (however, after 17 seasons they could just be desperate). However, he isn’t exactly a scientist. He isn’t doing any active scientific research; he promotes science and is doing a tremendous job in this difficult but so important and valuable field. He is funny, educational and perfectly fits into the stereotype of a scientist as described in the Draw-a-Scientist Test and promoted by the media whenever possible: an older, white man, who is a little eccentric. To paraphrase Jennifer Welsh, Bill Nye allowed dancing with the stars to reduce him to “a scientist”, not a human being who happens to work in science; so once again he is the face of science to the American public, the “SCIENTIST TM”.

old, white and male=scientist

There (still) is an interesting astronomy program in the UK, broadcasted for decades on the BBC, hosted by a scientist called Patrick Moore, who fits the stereotype to a dot: he is old, white and slightly eccentric.

He died in December last year.

not old, white, not male ≠ scientist

The new hosts are a female solar researcher and a young astrophysicist. Unfortunately there are rumors that the show is to be cancelled. They haven’t lost many viewers in the last 8 months, but it seems that without the stereotypical scientist presenting, the BBC does not seem to believe in the show any more.

This is another example of how only older men with beards can possibly be wise enough to educate us about science.

Scientists actually do a lot to change the public face of science and it works!

 

Sometimes I do a Google image search for scientists; I am actually quite happy to see that about half of the scientists presented in the results are female.

Strangely enough, they all seem to be working in a molecular biology lab with colorful liquids. (colorful liquids are a topic for another time). However, there are still no pictures of minority scientists or scientists, who don’t actually do their research in a laboratory. The public perception of science is definitely changing, with women now featuring much more prominently. This is also seen in changing scores in the Draw-a-Scientist Test. But we are still a long way away from the public accepting us as a diverse group of normal people.

In the end, maybe we are only looking at it from our own perspective and need to collectively work much harder to convince the other side (media, public) to give ‘alternative’ scientists a chance.

By julianeh | Posted in Movies, Popular Science Articles | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)