inspiration
I just had a very long conversation with one of the new post-docs in the lab. He's from either Bolivia or Peru, I can't remember which. After having done his undergraduate work on optimizing water purification, he worked with the US Navy. He went into a South American village for 6 months. The kind where you can only reach it by boat... 2 days... no contact with the outside world, no literacy, poverty, suffering...
There were Dengue Fever outbreaks and Hanta virus outbreaks, and no one ever knew about them because the village was so remote. He trapped small animals to test for virus, he took blood to try to figure out which diseases these people suffered from. He watched people die, he saw the effects of these unbelievable "jungle" viruses first hand.
He started going more into his personal life afterwards. How, when he came back, he decided to try to get his Ph.D in America, to do everything he could to try to get his own lab, to recruit students from impovereshed countries so that he could educate them and then send them back. How, when he came to New York for grad school, his wife filed for divorce and stayed behind because he'd changed so much...
He's starting to develop a Hanta virus project with collaborators in New York, maybe the military. I may ask to work with him. It would probably be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. This is the stuff I've dreamed about working with for so long, and it's finally right here, and unlike my first mentor (I'm currently on my second), who had ebola projects going on, this guy seems to want to help me, to educate me, to be a real scientist and realize that educating the next generation is just as important, if not more so, than your own research.
He may be too idealistic- bringing kids from foreign countries, educating them, and sending them back may not be exactly what THEY have in mind, but hopefully he'll find a few- but the fact that he doesn't just stay at his computer all day looking at data, that he has enough passion to make this more than just a 9-5 job is just the kick in the ass I've been waiting for.
I hadn't realized it until recently, but the people in this lab have very little passion for their work. My boss is an Acura-driving, cologne-wearing metrosexual jerk, my former mentor was an arrogant, self-absorbed, incredibly depressed genius who wouldn't take time out of his week to do anything for the next generation... so many people just don't seem to care. For so many people this is just a job. Just like accounting, just like bagging groceries. I've finally found some passion, and it's incredibly motivating and revitalizing. It's inspiration to keep studying, to keep working. I've been joking more and more lately about opening up a bakery/coffee shot/bed & breakfast when I burn out on science. It had been becoming less of a joke. Now, it's just a joke again. Thanks Cristian.
There were Dengue Fever outbreaks and Hanta virus outbreaks, and no one ever knew about them because the village was so remote. He trapped small animals to test for virus, he took blood to try to figure out which diseases these people suffered from. He watched people die, he saw the effects of these unbelievable "jungle" viruses first hand.
He started going more into his personal life afterwards. How, when he came back, he decided to try to get his Ph.D in America, to do everything he could to try to get his own lab, to recruit students from impovereshed countries so that he could educate them and then send them back. How, when he came to New York for grad school, his wife filed for divorce and stayed behind because he'd changed so much...
He's starting to develop a Hanta virus project with collaborators in New York, maybe the military. I may ask to work with him. It would probably be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. This is the stuff I've dreamed about working with for so long, and it's finally right here, and unlike my first mentor (I'm currently on my second), who had ebola projects going on, this guy seems to want to help me, to educate me, to be a real scientist and realize that educating the next generation is just as important, if not more so, than your own research.
He may be too idealistic- bringing kids from foreign countries, educating them, and sending them back may not be exactly what THEY have in mind, but hopefully he'll find a few- but the fact that he doesn't just stay at his computer all day looking at data, that he has enough passion to make this more than just a 9-5 job is just the kick in the ass I've been waiting for.
I hadn't realized it until recently, but the people in this lab have very little passion for their work. My boss is an Acura-driving, cologne-wearing metrosexual jerk, my former mentor was an arrogant, self-absorbed, incredibly depressed genius who wouldn't take time out of his week to do anything for the next generation... so many people just don't seem to care. For so many people this is just a job. Just like accounting, just like bagging groceries. I've finally found some passion, and it's incredibly motivating and revitalizing. It's inspiration to keep studying, to keep working. I've been joking more and more lately about opening up a bakery/coffee shot/bed & breakfast when I burn out on science. It had been becoming less of a joke. Now, it's just a joke again. Thanks Cristian.