I am a woman in academic science. Do I need to say more than that? I will don’t worry.. that’s the purpose of this blog.
I am a veterinarian and biologist, and I have a tenure track junior faculty position. I come to work every day because there are certain biological questions that I find fascinating and I can’t stop thinking about. I hope that what I do in my job (and in my life) makes a difference for others. I’ve had a twisted career path that includes a Ph.D. in microbiology completed during a leave of absence from Veterinary School, the D.V.M. of course, a post-doc in academic science, a little (and I mean a very little) time spent exploring industry, a non-tenure track academic appointment… and finally the tenure track position… which, by the way, I said from the beginning I would NEVER want. I’m a lot more careful when I use the word ‘never’ now. While all this was going on I got married and had two children (now 10 and 5 1/2). Oh, and yeah- I am part of a two-academic-science-career couple… as if things weren’t complicated enough already.
I realized recently that I spend a tremendous amount of time sharing my experiences (from all the stuff that happened in the previous paragraph) with others around me with the hope that they can avoid some of the mistakes/heartache/frustration etc… that I have been through… and just cut straight to the science-is-fun part of the program.
And yes, I wear a blue lab coat.
(Thoughts expressed here are solely my own, not those of my employer… )
Wait, why do you wear a blue lab coat? Does your whole lab wear them, or just you? Please explain!
Thx-
Crystal
goingtohellforthis.blogspot.com
Crystal-
There is no significance to the blue lab coat- just happened like that. I used to have white ones that I wore in vet school- but they got really really dirty. I find the blue one more practical…. it doesn’t show coomassie or 10x loading dye… The lab members wear whatever lab coats they like, we have blue ones, and white ones… whatever they want.