After completing her PhD at Oregon Health Science University and doing postdoctoral and associate researcher work in neuroscience at Rockefeller University, Elizabeth Waters transitioned to a position in science outreach there. She describes her move to science education.
What do you do as lead scientist at the university’s outreach programme?
We offer lab classes to NYC high school students. This was something that was previously run twice a year and now it is run twice a week. We introduce kids and their teachers to the molecular biology skills that were so important in Rockefeller’s discoveries, and to the idea of how scientists choose what scientific questions interest them. We ask: do you like top down questions or bottom up questions? Even in science, you have to discover what kind of scientist you want to be.
When did you first consider careers outside of research?
I always enjoyed training people in lab and mentoring them. It was not until I was doing my postdoc that it occurred to me that the career I was preparing for did not actually have all the parts of science that I enjoyed. I started talking to lots of other people: people who were non tenure-track faculty, lawyers, and people at foundations. It was after that that I chose science education.
What advice do you have for others transitioning from the bench?
Take as much time as you have to find something that matches your personal skill set and your personal mission. Your next step away from the bench doesn’t need to be what you’ll do forever, but it should be something that moves you in the right direction.
If you know that you want to move away from working at the bench full time, at some point you probably have to sacrifice a bit of productivity to get the skills and network that you need to make that transition. Of course you need to coordinate with your PI. I started modestly, volunteering during my evenings and weekends to plan outreach events and do adjunct teaching.
