Nobel Laureate John B. Gurdon shared career advice with 40 students and postdocs at the Society of Toxicology (SOT) Trainee Discussion with Plenary Lecturer, March 24, held in conjunction with the SOT 53rd Annual Meeting. A summary of this event is below.
“I do not have lab meetings” was the Nobel Laureate’s response to one of the students in the audience when asked how he manages his lab. In fact, Dr. Gurdon is equally admirable and unorthodox in the way he describes his work ethic and habits in the lab. He does not understand the motivation for having separate lab and office space and goes on to express disappointment that most new buildings separate professors’ offices from the lab bench area where the students are expected to work. “I have my microscope right in my office,” he continued, and his office happens to be adjacent to the lab. To add to his presence in the lab, he explains how Tuesday for many years remains his dedicated day for conducting experiments. On this day, Dr. Gurdon removes himself from his computer and other distractions to do what he enjoys—run experiments. Instead of scheduling meetings and filling up his day, he pokes around and is hands on with each student or postdoc. He keeps his lab relatively small, only about seven or so members in total. The spontaneous meetings are short when everything is going well, “but the long meetings,” he jokes, “usually happen when an experiment is not working.” Attendees included the scientists pictured above from left to right: Niha Bhatt (Center for Devices and Radiological Health, CDRH–US Food and Drug Administration, US FDA), Shelby Skoog (CDRH–US FDA), Dr. Gurdon, Peter Petrochenko (US FDA–CDRH), and Trish Eustaquio (US FDA–National Center for Toxicological Research, NCTR).
Dr. Gurdon answered many questions for an hour and readily gave out advice to the small audience. His background is that of overcoming challenges, mainly consisting of a memory he carries as a reminder to this day about a schoolmaster telling him that his dream of becoming a scientist was ridiculous. In fact, he admits he was no good at science and credits his parents for supporting him and providing extra classes after school. He has been lucky and cites a time early in his career when he was out butterfly hunting with his net, only to catch one odd looking fly; so odd, that it landed him a new species. Overall, it seems everyone took away some snippet of career advice. One that stuck for me is to read papers in the morning; he pointed out that’s when the mind is fresh. As I write, I hope you will be reading this article before lunchtime.