Interview by Heidi Molga, CLB Undergraduate 
(under the supervision of Professor Amy Ralston)
October 9, 2013

Heidi: Would you mind starting us off with an introduction to your personal life?

Anna: I’m currently a postdoc in Camilla Forsberg’s lab. I am married with two kids. I have a five-year old son and a three-year old daughter. I had my son at the end of my Ph.D., when I was almost done, and I wrote my dissertation while I was on maternity leave.

Heidi: Impressive. How did you accomplish that?

Anna: It is funny actually, I just found my dissertation, and in the acknowledgements, I thanked my son for sleeping three hours a day so I could write the bulk of my dissertation during my maternity leave. I could have graduated before I had him, but I had a really supportive thesis advisor, so I took an extra semester. I did not have to officially take maternity leave. I just stayed at home and wrote my dissertation. I defended and we moved to California, and I spent a year as a postdoc at UCLA. Then my husband got a job at UCSC, so we moved up here. I interviewed at UCSC when I was thirty-four weeks pregnant with my daughter. I interviewed with several investigators and was lucky enough to find a postdoc with Camilla.   After interviewing with her, I arranged to start in three months after I had my baby.

Heidi: It seems fortunate that you were able to interview with all women, too.

Anna:I didn’t intend for it to be that way, but they were just the people who I was most interested in working with. And they are all women with families too.

Heidi: How did you make the decision to choose Camilla’s lab?

Anna:  I interviewed with some great labs, so it really came down to the project and the fit for research interest. It was the best fit with what I had learned at UCLA, the skills I had acquired, so I was able to get moving really quickly on a project in Camilla’s lab. I think it worked out for the best  and it has been a really exciting project and a great research experience.

Heidi: What does your husband do?

Anna: He is a scientist in the METX department.

Heidi: Do you feel as though having children when you did was the best time?

Anna: I think so, because I spent more time in lab as a graduate student, when I needed to be in lab learning all the time, and was able to be more efficient at work and spend less time in lab when my children were infants. Now that my kids are a little older, I am able to get back to working a little more, and I think I will need that time and flexibility when I am at a tenure track position. Personally, I think it has worked better for me, but I think it is tricky at any time.

Heidi: Has being a parent changed your approach to work and to research?

Anna: I am way more efficient. I was always an efficient worker -- I learned in grad school how to be really efficient, but now I’m a freak. I have my schedule for experiments planned a month to six weeks in advance. I run from room to room if I need to. I don’t mind working some days longer than others, but I do not want to be in lab late every night, because I want to see my kids.

Heidi: What kind of support do you feel would be most helpful to postdoc parents?

Anna: I guess what I find helpful in my lab is to have a P.I. who is understanding of the fact that productivity is not necessarily determined by time spent in lab. I am a very productive person, and I am not in lab eighty hours a week. I know plenty of P.I.s that think that you are only productive if you are in lab all the time, and I think that is very family unfriendly. I think that is a big deterrent to people who want families, because that is impossible. I think your PI has a big supportive role.

Heidi: What do you feel is the best way to increase the number of women in STEM tenured positions without compromising excellence?

Anna: I think that having more women in those positions helps. Those are the women that have made it and can share their stories and their support.   Of course greater access to resources like childcare, lactation rooms, etc helps too.   

Heidi: What do you feel are the most important goals of graduate school and postdoc?

Anna: As a graduate student, you need to develop independence.  On paper, to be a successful graduate student and postdoc, you have to publish. But you still need to learn to think for yourself. I also think getting your name out there and giving talks is really important. These days as a scientist you also have to be a social being and get connected in order to get funding.

Heidi:  What is the hardest thing about being a scientist?

Anna: Things take way longer than you think they are going to take, and 95% of the time, things do not work the way you think they are going to. One of the first things I was taught when I was doing my Master’s was that most of science is troubleshooting. You have to be really patient.

Heidi: What is your next big career goal?

Anna: The big one is to get a faculty position. Before that, I am trying to publish my paper in the next few months.

Heidi: What is something about you that would surprise others?

Anna: I have managed to get where I am without ever having taken a molecular biology class or a cell biology class. I have done all my coursework in neuroscience and psychology. I have never taken so much as a high school level physics course.  So I am truly a believer in hands-on learning.

Heidi: When you are in a rut, how do you inspire yourself?

Anna: I think I am overall a really overly positive person. Scientifically, I try to remind myself that it is temporary, and that everyone goes through this. I just always try to keep my eye on the prize. I know what I want to do, and I try to remind myself of recent successes. I think having a family is really great, because I have other things in my life that brighten my day. If I have a bad day at work, I can go home, and shut it off, and be with my kids. I think that is really powerful. Forced balance is really good. I have to go home most days at five, and shut it off, even if it is only for two or three hours. I think that is the trick, to get that balance. It makes me a better scientist and mom.

Heidi: If you could do it all over again, is there anything that you would change?

Anna: I don’t know if there is anything I would change. I am pretty happy to be on the course I am on. Maybe, I would not have done that short one-year stint at UCLA.