Marine Biological Laboratory Summer Visiting Faculty

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00:00:16.09 I first came in 1993,
00:00:18.14 but I've been coming ten years in a row now,
00:00:20.25 since 2003.
00:00:22.16 Well, since last century, really.
00:00:24.21 It's been a long time.
00:00:26.07 I started here as a graduate student working on squid
00:00:28.09 and doing electrophysiology.
00:00:29.17 And it's kind of evolved through the years,
00:00:31.09 to now we do... my wife and I come and do high-end imaging
00:00:33.19 and teac in the courses.
00:00:35.06 So, it's been quite a long time.
00:00:37.15 I have only been coming to the MBL probably since I was a postdoc,
00:00:39.11 so it's not as long... nearly as long as my husband Jim has been coming.
00:00:42.12 And I started coming more with him
00:00:44.09 because he was coming during the summers.
00:00:45.28 So, we tried to find a way to come and bring our family.
00:00:48.01 So, I took the physiology course back in 2005.
00:00:51.13 And I've been back every year ever since. Yeah.
00:00:54.25 So, this is my eighth year here.
00:00:56.14 I think this is my fifth year.
00:01:00.12 The first time I came to the MBL was 1989,
00:01:02.11 to the New England Society for Electron Microscopy meeting.
00:01:06.09 I was a master's student,
00:01:08.20 and I saw Keith Porter give a talk
00:01:11.05 on the stage of Lillie Auditorium.
00:01:13.13 So, I don't know how many summers...
00:01:15.09 and I think I've been here at least for a couple days
00:01:17.13 every single summer since then.
00:01:19.07 I think this is around my seventh year.
00:01:20.29 And it's... it's really an incredible honor to be here.
00:01:24.08 It's something where I know lots of people
00:01:26.17 that are knockin' on the door and hopin' to get here,
00:01:29.00 and I count myself incredibly lucky.
00:01:30.27 Well, I fell in love with the MBL as a physiology student in 1998.
00:01:35.13 So, I spent six weeks here,
00:01:37.20 and had it in my head that I really, someday, imagined coming back.
00:01:40.21 And then, serendipitously, through really a chance conversation
00:01:44.08 with Tim Mitchison at an ASCB meeting,
00:01:48.04 the opportunity arose to start collaborating and coming...
00:01:52.02 collaborating with scientists at the MBL who are resident scientists.
00:01:54.25 And then, basically, I had the opportunity to start coming
00:01:58.28 in the summer.
00:02:00.11 And now, I'm... I'm having a hard time imagining life
00:02:02.28 before I came to MBL in the summer.
00:02:05.15 I took the course ten years ago, now,
00:02:08.19 and still maintain collaborations
00:02:11.05 with the people that I met here
00:02:13.01 because, in this environment with so much science,
00:02:15.00 so much excellent science going on,
00:02:16.18 and the development of new techniques,
00:02:19.11 cutting-edge techniques,
00:02:20.23 you really get ideas, you know, with the people that...
00:02:23.20 that are here,
00:02:25.19 who are sharing this special summer time,
00:02:27.13 and... and those relationships persist,
00:02:29.11 and that really has a powerful impact
00:02:31.13 on my research and the research of many others.
00:02:33.13 The level of interaction is way higher
00:02:36.12 than it is in the research labs.
00:02:38.00 So, it's nonstop,
00:02:41.05 fully saturating human, scientific interaction.
00:02:46.07 And it's like the probability of...
00:02:49.10 the higher the interaction level,
00:02:51.06 the higher the probability that
00:02:53.22 you'll get more than one inspiration.
00:02:55.01 I like coming to teach because I remember for this short period each year
00:02:59.22 what fun it is to do research.
00:03:01.22 I get to block everything out and just think about science.
00:03:04.21 I think that the courses are a great opportunity
00:03:07.07 to basically interact with students.
00:03:09.01 You basically get input from students.
00:03:10.15 And a lot of times, you know, their ideas are...
00:03:13.03 they spark new ideas with you.
00:03:15.05 And it's a great opportunity to just get more feedback.
00:03:18.08 I know how cool it is to take the course
00:03:20.28 from first-hand experience,
00:03:22.24 and it really, really...
00:03:25.05 I do strongly believe that it changed the way I do science.
00:03:28.09 I came here to learn more about biology
00:03:30.15 and ended up falling in love with cell biology,
00:03:32.21 and in particular the cytoskeleton.
00:03:34.23 So, I came to learn a little bit, and I left
00:03:38.04 having completely changed my life.
00:03:40.19 If my life was a mathematical function,
00:03:42.20 the two summ...
00:03:45.00 two months that I spent in the physiology course in 1993
00:03:47.28 was a... was a discontinuity, or a singularity,
00:03:52.14 that left the shape of my life being completely different after the course.
00:03:55.25 I've been coming down to the MBL for three summers
00:03:59.06 as a co-director of a course,
00:04:01.07 and that's been an amazing experience.
00:04:02.15 So, the thing I really love about these courses
00:04:04.08 is that we have a mixture of students, postdocs, and faculty
00:04:07.24 who come from around the world
00:04:10.27 and they spend three weeks here,
00:04:12.18 where they interact with each other
00:04:14.16 and learn a lot from the faculty who pass through,
00:04:17.23 from a course,
00:04:19.18 but learn a ton from each other.
00:04:21.15 And we learn a ton from them too.
00:04:23.05 It's not just about, you know, the everyday interactions,
00:04:25.20 you know, with the speakers.
00:04:27.03 It's not only about, you know,
00:04:29.02 talking to other faculty, talking to people about their research.
00:04:31.03 It's also the fact, you know,
00:04:33.13 you get to teach in an environment
00:04:35.07 where people really think hard about what they're doing,
00:04:37.18 and they force you to think even harder.
00:04:40.23 So, I... I guess it's also a personal belief
00:04:42.27 that through teaching one also gets to think harder
00:04:46.03 about the problems that one is thinking about
00:04:48.24 and try to make connections that you maybe didn't make originally.
00:04:52.13 I always learn something new every year.
00:04:55.03 I always learn things I never imagined that I would learn.
00:04:57.12 I especially love teaching
00:04:59.17 because I learn a lot from the students.
00:05:00.29 I learn more from the students than from anyone else,
00:05:02.17 just from hearing the research that they're doing back home
00:05:07.00 and interacting with them on a day-to-day basis,
00:05:08.20 when we're trying to do experiments together...
00:05:10.28 they always surprise me with their ingenuity,
00:05:13.04 and I come away with a... completely energized, in a...
00:05:17.10 with a totally new perspective on my work.
00:05:19.10 I mean, I like coming here because I don't think I've ever come here
00:05:23.05 and not gotten a new idea.
00:05:24.29 I... you know, there's so much going on here.
00:05:27.19 I bounce off ten million people,
00:05:29.19 and I bounce a million ideas off of people.
00:05:32.08 I don't get anything done in a concrete sense,
00:05:39.00 but what I do get is inspiration and new ideas.
00:05:41.21 And that's... I mean, that's worth more than,
00:05:44.17 you know, a hundred uninspired experiments
00:05:49.10 for the rest of the year.
00:05:50.22 The reasons I come here are partly to do my own experiments
00:05:53.28 with my own hands,
00:05:56.03 which... once you become a PI of a lab group,
00:05:58.27 it becomes harder and harder to get out of the office
00:06:01.10 and at the bench.
00:06:02.22 And here, I sit behind a microscope
00:06:04.14 and I look at real cells growing.
00:06:06.03 I do experiments,
00:06:08.05 which gives me just the thrill for...
00:06:10.24 for why I fell in love with science.
00:06:12.25 And I get to rediscover that all over again, myself.
00:06:16.22 And just to come down and almost be a postdoc again.
00:06:19.06 To, like, sit in on seminars
00:06:21.10 and hear what other people are doing.
00:06:23.01 And... and I started a new collaboration before lunch my first day here.
00:06:27.12 So, I mean, just having those sort of informal interactions
00:06:30.04 with a new group of scientists
00:06:31.18 is really energizing and really recharging.
00:06:33.10 And... and it's been awesome.
00:06:35.26 I'm hoping I can do this, you know, every summer, if possible.
00:06:40.08 It's been really fantastic.
00:06:41.25 You have a critical mass of people
00:06:44.01 that you would never have access to anywhere else.
00:06:45.07 And also, everyone is very, very open.
00:06:47.07 Here... it's a very open, sharing community,
00:06:50.18 in terms of the ideas and the people.
00:06:52.12 You can go in anybody's lab and ask them questions.
00:06:54.08 You see seminars on things you wouldn't normally go to,
00:06:56.14 because they're right here.
00:06:57.25 And so, you get many more ideas.
00:06:59.16 So, I would say about coming here that's so amazing,
00:07:02.10 just... I can illustrate it with a story.
00:07:04.24 I got off the bus three days ago.
00:07:06.23 And between the time I got off the bus
00:07:09.06 and I got to my house,
00:07:10.20 I ran into three people and already had two meetings planned,
00:07:12.26 including a dinner meeting,
00:07:15.05 and met somebody I hadn't met before and we talked in...
00:07:17.15 really amazing science.
00:07:19.07 So, there's just so many people here that are available.
00:07:22.12 I really recharge my battery, scientifically.
00:07:24.26 Chance encounters with someone on the sidewalk
00:07:27.26 have completely changed, sometimes,
00:07:30.08 the course of my experiments,
00:07:32.21 and that sort of only happens at MBL,
00:07:34.03 where we get this critical mass of great people wandering around,
00:07:37.13 excited to talk about what problems
00:07:39.24 they're interested in.
00:07:41.08 And so, it's an addiction,
00:07:43.21 but I think it's a healthy addiction.
00:07:46.10 The MBL is some sort of magical magnet
00:07:51.19 that draws the best and...
00:07:54.24 some of the best and most interesting scientists
00:07:56.24 from around the world.
00:07:58.13 And it's... so, in some sense, it's a crossroads,
00:08:03.09 but it's really a destination.
00:08:04.24 It's a place where lots of people come together from different places
00:08:07.26 and, just for the summer months,
00:08:09.10 assemble labs and interact as colleagues.
00:08:12.03 I like coming here because
00:08:14.20 it's a way to kind of just get away from the everyday things
00:08:18.10 that are pulling on you
00:08:20.22 and try new things.
00:08:22.08 And there are people here to try new things with,
00:08:23.25 and there's equipment here to try new things with.
00:08:25.14 So, it's a way to explore wild ideas.
00:08:27.26 Kind of spend a couple of weeks
00:08:30.00 and see if you can get them to work.
00:08:31.21 And you would never make the time to do that
00:08:34.25 in your everyday life, at your everyday institution.
00:08:37.29 Another thing is that this is a place to play.
00:08:39.29 And what I mean by that is that science really is about curiosity
00:08:43.16 and investigating things because you find them interesting.
00:08:45.22 And our lives at home are often colored
00:08:48.19 by completely different considerations.
00:08:50.09 So, every summer, we come here, and we try stuff.
00:08:53.05 It's an invigorating, exciting place.
00:08:55.10 It's got all kinds of great people, great equipment.
00:08:57.18 I'm reminded of a quote from Sherlock Holmes,
00:08:59.18 where he said that when you rule out the impossible,
00:09:02.21 whatever remains, no matter how improbable,
00:09:04.14 must be the truth.
00:09:05.26 And so, you come to MBL to try the impossible.
00:09:07.10 And it's a short time, sometimes, that you...
00:09:09.22 the impossible works.
00:09:10.28 And that's what's cool about this place, is that it... you can try it,
00:09:14.11 and then you can go away and carry on with other things,
00:09:16.08 or you get new ideas, and it's just...
00:09:17.27 it's just the place to try it and have fun.
00:09:20.06 But here, creative students, hard working,
00:09:24.08 loads of equipment, and lots of reagents
00:09:26.24 mean that you can try lots of things, iterate,
00:09:28.24 and eventually find a solution to the problem.
00:09:31.16 There's something really wonderful
00:09:33.29 about an atmosphere where you try to do things
00:09:36.27 just because you're curious about them,
00:09:38.25 just because you've been wanting to try something out.
00:09:40.19 You're not worried about whether or not it will "work"
00:09:42.28 or won't work, necessarily.
00:09:44.02 You just want to see what will happen.
00:09:45.19 You can you can easily get out of your comfort zone
00:09:47.13 and, you know, you can think of the craziest experiment,
00:09:50.04 and if... more or less, if you can put it together,
00:09:52.18 people will help you do it.
00:09:54.19 So, I think that really gave me a lot of confidence
00:09:59.19 and it inspired in me a little bit of the... of the...
00:10:03.13 of a spirit like, look, let's just go for it.
00:10:05.03 You know, it's like... I mean, when you have an idea... okay...
00:10:08.05 so, how can I get it to work?
00:10:09.20 Let's just give it a try.
00:10:11.10 I don't know of anywhere more magical.
00:10:13.06 And so, even though it's certainly true that people like me,
00:10:14.26 that are a little bit older,
00:10:16.11 should come here,
00:10:18.02 you know, I would say that the bottom line is that
00:10:21.00 this is a rite of passage, you know, for students.
00:10:23.07 Here's a test.
00:10:24.25 If you see anyone who has taken a course at the MBL,
00:10:27.29 or done summer research here,
00:10:30.07 taken the physiology course, say,
00:10:31.26 just mention the word MBL to them, or the word Woods Hole,
00:10:33.28 and see if they don't get kind of a misty, faraway look in their eyes
00:10:36.23 and start talking about the magic of the place.
00:10:39.04 They'll start to sound a little bit like maybe...
00:10:41.18 some sort of religious fanatic talking about a cult, maybe.
00:10:44.28 If you haven't been here, that might be what they sound like.
00:10:47.14 But if you have been here,
00:10:49.13 it will sound more like an expatriate
00:10:52.13 talking about their homeland,
00:10:54.09 you know, a place where they feel some deep connection to the...
00:10:58.25 to what they're doing.

This Talk

Speaker: MBL visiting faculty

Audience:

Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Researcher
Educators

Recorded: September 2012

Talk Overview

Many scientists return to the Marine Biological Laboratory summer after summer to teach or do research. When we asked why, their answers included words like “recharge,” “magical,” “ inspire,” “interact,” “connections,” “learn,” and “life changing.” Clearly the MBL, and similar institutions that bring scientists together, impact researchers’ lives long after the summer sun has set.

Speaker Bio

MBL visiting faculty

All of the speakers were visiting scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory during the summer of 2012. Many taught in courses, while others participated in collaborative research projects. Continue Reading