The Science of Inspiration

When I was in my second year of University, I had to take Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry with labs organized by Teaching Assistants due to the size of the class. Of course, for some of these labs you can be left with some less than stellar TAs which can create long labs and difficulty understanding the material.

The Biochemistry labs were long and arduous and having a great TA who knew what was going on was a blessing. I was placed in a lab with Misty, a 26-year-old Biochemistry Ph.D student, who double majored in Biochemistry and Microbiology for her undergrad. She had been a TA for a few years now and knew all the short cuts for the experiments and was clear with what she expected on the lab reports. I was thrilled to have her as my TA, not only for making my lab a bit easier during a stressful year, but as an inspiration and role model for my career and life.

Misty was young, smart, successful, ambitious woman who also played soccer and baked cupcakes in her spare time. I specifically remember her making cupcakes with amino acid structures on them for our last lab and how amazingly cool I thought they were. Meeting Misty helped me to find my passion in science and really be unabashedly proud of my career choice. To me, she was the quintessential cool girl scientist I wanted to be.

As a female in science, it's tough to find a public role model to look up to. Sure, there are tons of women in the science community but you don't hear about the ones making waves or being featured in articles.  I always look for someone who has the science "Rock Star" life: Great research/work, cool lab, passion for what they do, and semi-normal life outside of their career. These women are out there, they just aren't being talked about enough.

So with that being said, now I turn to my readers - Do you have someone who was inspiring in your life and helped guide you to your career? Leave a comment or Email me krista(at)medlabmaven.com and share!

-K