Talk by Dr. Yewdell

I just attended a motivational talk by a scientist at NIH. Smart guy, MD-PhD forward-thinking, hip scientist. What was his talk on? On the importance of science, of the importance of nurturing a generation of scientists and preaching the gospel of science. I believe he is right though. Whatever our mixed feelings about the advancement of technology and our increasing dependence on all things scientific and technological may be, I do believe that we as a society must go forward in making more scientific discoveries and advance scientific knowledge. We can not go back, we can not stagnate, thus, we must go on.

I really enjoyed his speech for two reasons. For months now at NIH, I’ve been attending dry seminars delving into the nitty-gritty of scientific and genomic research. Most of the information seriously goes right over my head and I merely sit there, daydreaming about the day all this will become comprehensible, my day of enlightenment. Today, I got to listen to a talk that made complete and utter sense to me. Every word, from beginning to end, made sense. My level of enjoyment of a given talk is directly proportional to my level of understanding. However that is no big surprise, I’m sure it’s a common enough phenomenon.

The second reason I really enjoyed the talk was because it achieved what it set out to do. It motivated. The irony is I don’t even plan on becoming a scientist. Fortunately however, his talk on becoming a good, successful scientist can be applied to being a good post-bac intern (as I am now) and a good premedical student and a good medical student and ultimately, a good doctor.

Some of the contents of his talk are directly related to the field of science. Other parts of his talk focus on more universal principles and can be applied to any field. It is the language of success and how to achieve it. He keeps it real though. He admits that there are too many graduate students that come out of grad school every year to become PI’s, principal investigators. Not everyone has to be a PI however to have a successful scientific career and that’s the good news.

In the end, his basic point for people hoping to enter the scientific research field is, this is a noble career but a difficult one. There are things you can do to maximize or enhance your success at it and you get what you put in. Even when the going gets tough, scientists can take consolation and pride that they are part of the greater international scientific community, working to advance the collective knowledge of mankind.

Oh and he poked some jabs at the Bush administration, at the Intelligent Design jabberwokkees and some other foolish policymakers. Good fun.