Zi Yan Chen
What is your name?
Zi Yan Chen.
What is your role in the department?
I am a 3rd year PhD student in the Mortha Lab, investigating what role(s) the transcription factor, Zbtb7b, plays in regulating gut macrophage turnover and antimicrobial functions. Outside of my research, I am a teaching assistant for an immunology course, and this year's Career Development Representative in IGSA, helping to coordinate professional development events and workshops for fellow trainees.
What is one lesson you have learned along your academic/career journey that you would share with aspiring scientists?
I’ll compromise by sharing two because I have so many. My first lesson is to develop a consistent routine early that is aimed for the long haul. Coming from undergraduate education, we may be familiar with or even dependent on pulling all-nighters for studying for midterms or completing a late assignment. This grind is important and necessary for the short deadline-oriented sprints whether it be preparation for PhD qualification exam, a manuscript or abstract submission, or a scholarship deadline. On the contrary, completing your graduate degree (particularly if you’re in PhD) and building a career in research is a marathon. Motivation ebbs and flows and cannot be relied on as a “driver” to build your foundational knowledge. Therefore, I would recommend in your early weeks of your graduate degree, regardless of if you’re in Master’s or PhD, to keep up with the “mundane” tasks essential for keeping on top of your project and craft a routine that facilitates you to show up to lab every day. Even if it is just checking your mice colonies for weans, cell culture confluency, or chatting with your supervisor. Even if you are just analyzing data on your laptop. This helps you to find opportunities to surround yourself with people who may help you. This leads to my second lesson which is to not work in isolation. Team up with people in your lab, department, school, even national/international collaborators to collect some inspiration, learn techniques, to push your project forward.
How have your perspectives on science and research been influenced by culture, community, and personal values?
I recently watched the movie “Frankenstein” in theatre. There, they picture a lone “mad” scientist laser focused on his project, keen to conquer death at all costs. While this may be overly exaggerated, it struck me that the truth may not be far. When we work on a singular project over many weeks, months, and even years, it is natural to become attached to it, to “baby it”, to want it to succeed badly. But it shouldn’t come at the cost of alienating yourself from others with respect to both personal health, values, and constructive criticism. I also think it’s important during our graduate degree to learn how to effectively communicate our research to the public/non-scientific community. Not only is most research being funded by taxpayer’s dollars, but it also helps us zoom out of our own narrative to freshly evaluate the broader scientific, socioeconomic, and even philosophical impact of our research.
What personal values or experiences have helped shape the way you conduct and/or how you mentor students? This question resonates with me particularly because I am in the early stages of learning how to be a mentor for an undergraduate research project in my lab. My approach to mentorship (in research) is inspired by my supervisor, Dr. Mortha, and senior lab members. What I learned is that it’s important to be flexible in how we mentor because students come from different walks of life – some students are more independent and mature and require minimal guidance, while others may need more supervision and time to adjust. Regardless of learning style, bottom line is that as mentors, we have to be on top of the project and “show” rather than “tell” our interest and investment in the project. Having a stake in the project early on will have a profound impact on shaping the project and final product.
If you had to summarize your journey in a song title. What would you call it?
“Here I go Again”- by Whitesnake
For context, I interpret this as song as a willingness to keep on trying and learning even though we may be faced with "restarting" in new contexts.