YOU WANT TO BE A NEUROSCIENTIST? ASHLEY JUAVINETT
1 Why Did You Pick Up This Book?
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ven without knowing who you are, I can say it’s very likely that you picked up this book because your brain is incredibly full of itself. “A career about me? Well, that sounds absolutely perfect. Let’s do that.” Of course, brains are also really skilled at devising explanations. “I mean, Inception was a great movie, right? Don’t we want to know if neuroscience could ever actually implant ideas in people’s heads? Or, uh, that weird cultish ScarJo movie, Lucy? Although let me assure you, I use way more than 10 percent of my mass at any given time.” Or maybe this book caught your eye because at some point you thought, “BRAINS ARE SO COOL.” In which case, yes, welcome home. It’s also possible this book was gifted to you, without your brain’s mischievous scheming. Maybe some wellintentioned older mentor gave this to you because they heard that neuroscience was all the rage with the kids these
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Why Should You Study the Nervous System? days. They heard you were doing research or that you took a neuroscience class and thought they’d give you a leg up with a sleek new look at the field of brain science. Perhaps they’re even starting to get a little bit concerned about the health of their own brains and would like you to fix it. Or maybe this mentor has confused neurosurgery with neuroscience (this is highly likely, speaking from personal experience) and thinks you’ll make the big bucks if you take up neurosurgery. This is not a book about neurosurgery, at least not in the medical sense. This book isn’t about the big bucks either or about what your eager elder would like for you. This book is about a field that has been attempting to define itself for more than a century, and it is about your possible place in it.
■■■ Over a hundred years ago, legendary neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal wrote such a book of wisdom, called Advice to a Young Investigator. Ramón y Cajal was a remarkable Spanish neuroanatomist who convinced a torn field that neurons were indeed crucial, separate components of the nervous system.1 He was also a talented artist who left us with beautifully intricate drawings of neural circuits. One of my earliest research mentors gifted me Ramón y Cajal’s book at the end of my summer research internship at Columbia University. I absolutely reveled in it. Ramón y Cajal writes with the cadence of a poet, the vocabulary of a philosopher, and the passion of a vegan. In his book, he comments on the qualities that scientists need to succeed and reflects on the state of his field. He also gives practical advice—for the turn of the twentieth century—on how to conduct experiments and communicate your findings.
Why Did You Pick Up This Book? Ramón y Cajal was also a man of his time. He lived in a world where only men were educated, and therefore only men could be scientists. This was the context in which our field was born, but it is not representative of neuroscience today. So, his advice provides many useful tidbits, but it’s also outdated and, at moments, incredibly sexist. As in, “So many careers have been thwarted because of feminine vanity or capriciousness!” or “at time society and even humanity as a whole suffers because of the scholar’s wife.” Very charming, Santiago. Don’t get me wrong, Advice to a Young Investigator is certainly worth reading. I would just skip “The Investigator and His Family”—the chapter in which he gives martial advice—unless you’re feeling completely self-assured about the current sociopolitical climate and would like to have a good laugh. I hope this doesn’t disappoint, but I won’t be disseminating marital advice here. Instead, I’d like to show you the scope of our field and share some advice if you care to join us. But let’s tackle some important orders of business first.
Choosing a field and career path Ultimately, no one can decide your career path except for you. And realistically, it won’t even be just you; it’s you, plus the multitude of decisions you’ve made up until this point in your life, all orchestrated by that endless stream of neural activity in that head of yours. Ay, there we go with the neurocentrism again, sorry. I let my brain get the best of me. At these crossroads in your life, there are a few useful things to keep in mind, especially if you’re considering a career in science.
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Why Should You Study the Nervous System?
Putting passion ahead of training This idea comes from the Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist Edward O. Wilson, and I couldn’t agree more. When our environment gets competitive, it’s tempting to go for more degrees or more prestige with the hope of landing a better job. This isn’t necessarily a bad strategy—people with higher degrees do make more money—but it’s not the best way to tap into the things you’re passionate about. In E. O. Wilson’s words: Feel out in any way you can what you most want to do in science, or technology, or some other science-related profession. Obey that passion as long as it lasts. Feed it with the knowledge the mind needs to grow. Sample other subjects, acquire a general education in science, and be smart enough to switch to a greater love if one appears. But don’t just drift through courses in science, hoping that love will come to you. Maybe it will, but don’t take the chance.2
This last point is important: it really helps if you’re open-minded and actively tuning into the subjects that intrigue you. Picking up this book already means you’re a person who’d like to figure out what to pursue in the next chapter of your life, but reading it isn’t the whole deal. Ultimately, finding a good career fit is about intentionally listening to your own responses and emotions. The process of listening can be as simple as asking yourself questions after relevant moments in your life: Did I enjoy that course, or was I just in it for the grade? Was that experiment difficult but ultimately rewarding? Would I be happier doing something else? If you follow your gut feelings and passions, you’re more likely to land in a fulfilling career.
Why Did You Pick Up This Book?
Falling in love with science may take time There’s an archetypal story we often tell about scientists that’s similar to the traditional love-at-first-sight story, in which some threeyear-old is already questioning the nature of reality and is dead set on becoming a scientist. E. O. Wilson was catching and identifying snakes as a fourteen-year-old Boy Scout. Wildlife biologist Frances Hamerstrom was the kind of kid who’d go out and dissect dead birds and bring them inside, to the dismay of her wealthy Bostonian mother. And I’m sure you’ve heard about Albert Einstein—too good for math classes but clearly a genius at a young age. Clearly. For many—dare I say most—scientists, there isn’t such an origin story. Most of us don’t have singular passions in this world, and all of us are impacted by our surroundings. Falling in love with science—better yet a subfield like neuroscience or the very specific topic of your dissertation—takes time and dedication, just like a marriage.3 And like any long relationship, you’ll inevitably find things you do not like about neuroscience along the way. Every career path has highs and lows as well as joys and challenges. It’s the long hours you’ll spend thinking about neuroscience that will make you appreciate it all the more.
There isn’t just one career for you This might be a moment where you’re wondering: What am I supposed to be doing with my life? I firmly believe there isn’t only one thing you should (or could) be doing. Your career won’t be everything to you and it doesn’t define you as a person. Most people
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Why Should You Study the Nervous System? have a few primary needs, or boxes that they’d like their career to check—things like geographical restrictions or work/life balance. For me, I like to be independent and intellectually engaged. I also enjoy having a diverse set of tasks that I do on a daily basis. There are many careers that could match those criteria beyond being an academic. Take some time to think about what your top five items are. Consider the following:
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Do you want be independent and make your own choices at work? Do you need to be flexible on where you can work? Do you prefer team-oriented work? Do you need to be intellectually stimulated? Would you rather be detail oriented or think about the big picture? Do you like planning and organizing?
A bit later on, we’ll talk about what various career paths look like in this regard, but the first step is identifying your own needs. We wouldn’t want you too swayed by our field’s relentless fascination with the brain. We’re here to figure it out what it is that you want.
Getting advice from well-meaning strangers You are the only person who lives in your body, who feels the world the way you do, who knows what you want. Parents, friends, experts, and a semirandom book you found are all good sources of advice, but they’re limited. The best way you can make a decision about anything—be it which flavor of milkshake or a career path—is to get in touch with what you want. Sometimes that’s
Why Did You Pick Up This Book? hard. Sometimes it means laying out your values on the table and setting one against the other. Sometimes, there’s no clear winner. (And in that case, you can’t go wrong.) Your mentors may have strong feelings about your choices. Most people give advice based on their own singular set of experiences and the experiences of the people they know. Folks that are further along in their career trajectories have made their own decisions, and that will inevitably shape the way they see the world that the choices they feel others should make. They don’t represent the entirety of human experience or the array of possibilities for your life, and neither does this book. Here’s the thing, dear reader. No one but that stunning face that greets you in the mirror each morning should tell you what to do with your life. I’m certainly not here to tell you whether or not neuroscience is the subject for you or what you should do after you take the dive into our lively, tumultuous field. But I am hoping that some facts and invitations for self-reflection might help you narrow it down or at least decide on the next step.
The organization and scope of this book Neuroscience has come a long way since Ramón y Cajal first wrote Advice for a Young Investigator. These days, neuroscience is a diverse, challenging field, and you deserve an updated self-reflection on the field and how to succeed in it. As our first step, we’ll take a candid look at the field of neuroscience—both of times past and present. It’s just you, looking at neuroscience, looking at itself. And you’ll be invited to look within, to see if you can picture yourself in our field. Lots of looking, here. The second part dives into graduate school in neuroscience. We’ll explore how to prepare for a graduate degree, what a PhD
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Why Should You Study the Nervous System? even is, and what you should know before you get one. I’ll also try to shed some realistic light on thesis committees as well as dissertation writing. In part 3 we’ll tackle the tough nitty-gritty of doing research: how to navigate research collaborations, how to communicate your research, and what it means to do research with different types of model organisms. Lastly, I’ll introduce you to some of the professions that individuals with a neuroscience background tend to pursue. We’ll have a heart-to-heart about what it means to be an academic, and I’ll try to convince you that there are a bazillion other things in the world that are worth doing. You’ll also meet a handful of really fascinating folks with windy career paths of their own. Throughout, I’ll try to keep the spirit of Ramón y Cajal, who wisely said, “This advice is aimed more at the spirit than the intellect, because I am convinced . . . that the former is as amenable to education as the latter.”4 Figuring out what to do with the next stage of your life is hardly an intellectual pursuit. In summary, this book runs the whole gamut—from why you’d ever want to spend your life poking brains to what you can do with a neuroscience degree. Along the way, I hope you’ll take some time to think and reflect—so do you want to be a neuroscientist?
A candid insider’s guide for aspiring scientists of diverse interests and backgrounds “A wealth of practical wisdom and cordial wit fills this book. Every lab will want to have a bin-full ready for all, from undergraduates to graduate students, postdocs, techs, and, yes, faculty. Ashley Juavinett has a faultless and streamlined take on the entire range of the neurosciences, as well as a winning insight into the convoluted social and ethical customs shaping lab life.” —Patricia S. Churchland, Salk Institute and University of California, San Diego
“You might not know it yet, but you do want to be a neuroscientist, and this compelling book will show you why and how. A wonderful, entertaining, yet eminently practical guide to joining the quest to solve our deepest, richest scientific challenge—understanding the brain.” —Mark D. Humphries, University of Nottingham
“So You Want to Be a Neuroscientist? is an invaluable resource for those applying to graduate programs. Juavinett’s conversational style and wellplaced humor demystifies the process while also reducing the anxiety that comes with taking on such a task. Anyone, at any stage in their neuroscience career, would be better for reading this book.” —Nikki Keisler, prospective graduate student and University of California, San Diego alumna
“So You Want to Be a Neuroscientist? is an absolute must-read for any aspiring neuroscientist and should be a rallying call for our field.” —Steve Ramirez, Boston University
ASHLEY JUAVINETT , PhD, is an assistant teaching professor of neurobiology at the University of California, San Diego. Her research and writing on education and careers in neuroscience aim to broaden the field and encourage underrepresented students. ISBN: 978-0-231-19088-6
Cover design: Lisa Hamm
Columbia University Press / New York
cup.columbia.edu
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.