Jonathan Park’s scientific interests changed after caring for a cancer patient. He ended up bidding an amicable farewell to Mark Gerstein, a supportive supervisor who had taught him a lot.
Credit: Jonathan ParkI could feel the tension setting in. I had just pressed Send on a flurry of e-mails to my advisers in which I’d included lines such as “I was hoping to meet ASAP to discuss potentially changing mentors and graduate programme ….” And I couldn’t help but ask myself: was I making the right choice?
At first, I wondered whether I could fulfil these ambitions by staying in Mark’s lab. I really enjoyed working with him, finding him to be an encouraging and insightful mentor, and normally Yale’s PhD programmes match an adviser to a student through their entire course.
At this point, I felt informed enough to reach out to Sidi and discuss the possibility of moving labs. My friend had already put in a good word for me, so during our initial meeting we mostly discussed my potential research projects and career goals. I felt encouraged. Sidi was mindful of my graduation timeline and interest in using both experimental and computational approaches. We had a shared scientific vision and belief in the future of gene editing and cancer immunology.
Jonathan had joined my lab at the beginning of 2016, with an interest in learning computational biology. He quickly became an integral lab member, working on projects that involved analysing brain disorders and extracellular RNAs. During his two years in the lab, I could see his growth as a scientist and a computational biologist.
Advisers can’t push students to be interested in their projects; the motivation has to come from within. One of the best indications I’ve found of students being well suited to a lab at the early stages is that they read a lot about the field and come up with plenty of potential projects.
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