Resources

PhD Careers in a Clinical Setting

Invited Speaker on March 8, 2007:
Cynthia Morton, Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology and Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School; Editor of The American Journal of Human Genetics.
See slides from the event, “PhD Careers in a Clinical Setting”

Women in Cell Biology: Getting to the top, by FM Watt, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. 7(4):287-290 (2006):

Those who write about women scientists tend to treat us as a group, documenting our demise at each career stage and discussing measures to prevent this. By contrast, my approach has been to focus on individual women who have ‘made it’ in science and to ask how their careers have been affected by their sex. Some positive conclusions emerge, but the overall picture is disheartening.
Read the full article.

Women in cell biology: how personal lives shape careers, by FM Watt, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. 7(5):378-380 (2006):

For women scientists who have ‘made it’, there is no standard route to personal happiness and professional success, although a universal attribute is an enduring passion for science. Growing up, some scientists enjoyed parental support, whereas for others low expectations or a geographical disadvantage were a spur to achievement. Partners can be good, bad or indifferent, but having children is not a bar to success.
Read the full article.

Women in Cell Science: Penelope Jeggo, by FM Watt, Journal of Cell Science 117:5459-5460 (2004):

Penny Jeggo was born in Cambridge, England. She obtained a BSc Honours degree in Microbiology at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London in 1970. She then did a PhD in the Genetics Division at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), London, in Robin Holliday’s laboratory. Her first postdoctoral position was with John Cairns at the ICRF Mill Hill Laboratory. She then obtained a postdoctoral fellowship with Miroslav Radman at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. From there, she returned to the Genetics Division at NIMR as a scientific research officer. In 1989, she moved to the Medical Research Council’s Cell Mutation Unit (CMU) at the University of Sussex. In 2001, following closure of the CMU on the retirement of the director, Penny became a founding member of the Genome Damage and Stability Centre (GDSC), a new collaborative research centre established by the University of Sussex and the Medical Research Council… In the interview below, Fiona Watt, Editor-in-Chief of JCS, asks Penny about her experiences as a woman in science.
Read the full article.

Women in Cell Science: Janet Heasman, by FM Watt, Journal of Cell Science 117, 1617-1618 (2004):

Janet Heasman was born in Hartlepool on the north-eastern coast of England and attended University College Hospital Medical School in London. As a second-year medical student, she took an intercalated BSc degree in J. Z. Young’s Anatomy department and thus encountered Chris Wylie, whom she later married. After completing her BSc degree in 1974, and spending a year studying clinical medicine, she joined Chris for a year of research and teaching at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, an experience that made her decide on a career in academic research. Returning to London, she withdrew from medical school and registered for a PhD. She became a lecturer and, later, senior lecturer at St George’s Hospital Medical School, where she and Chris worked for 12 years. In 1988, they moved to Cambridge, to become founding members of the Wellcome/CRC Institute for Developmental Biology. The lure of the USA had always been strong, and, after many summer trips to teach the Woods Hole Embryology course, the couple decided to emigrate to positions in the University of Minnesota. After 6 years there, they moved to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation, where Janet holds the position of Professor in the Developmental Biology Division… In the interview that follows, Fiona Watt, Editor-in-Chief of JCS, asks Janet about her experiences as a woman in science.
Read the full article.

Women in Cell Science: Emiliana Borrelli, by FM Watt, Journal of Cell Science 118:3223-3224 (2005):

Emiliana Borrelli was born and grew up in Naples, Italy. She obtained a PhD in biological science at the University of Naples in the 1980s. After her PhD, she left Italy for postdoctoral training, first in Strasbourg, France, and then at the Salk Institute in the USA. In 1989, she returned to Europe, obtaining a permanent position at the INSERM in France and starting her own research group. She is currently Directeur de Recherche I at the Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire in Strasbourg… In the interview that follows, Fiona Watt, Editor-in-Chief of JCS, asks Emiliana about her experiences as a woman in science.
Read the full article.