Dr. Kenneth Poss is the Principle Investigator of the lab that I have the wonderful opportunity to work in this summer. Through our interview, I really got to witness the fervor Dr. Poss has for new discoveries, life questions, and the dedicated processes of research. While many of his words have been inscribed into my mental journal, here is a snippet of my intriguing interview with Dr. Poss.
In his undergraduate studies, Dr. Poss attended Carleton College, a leading liberal arts school, and majored in Biology. He did not become involved in research until his junior year he was given an opportunity to start research in biochemistry and studied interactions of RNA, to name a few. As an undergrad, he thought about going to medical school but became more interested in graduate school and research.
C: “What is it about research that interests you?
P: “You search for something that you really like.” Dr. Poss explained that really discovering what one enjoys is important, especially in identifying a career. For him, he really enjoyed the challenge of working backwards that research entailed. He was interested in following discoveries and adding to the history of science. He desired to stumble upon new discoveries and to make an important finding that could impact science in a profound way.
Dr. Poss also became very captivated with big life questions. At the end of his graduate studies at MIT, he became very interested with questions in developmental biology, especially regarding limb regeneration and in aging. These key fundamental questions that science had no answers at the time (and still don’t) are what drew him into research. As he exclaimed to me, “There’s a career’s worth of studying in these fields where we’re trying to answer big life questions.”
He also detailed to me that “research is not about being smart or having a great memory, but it’s about decision making.” As he explained to me, research is involved in building of knowledge, growing of a field. “When you run out of questions, then those weren’t good questions.” Research is about making decisions. The process is most important – the steps and the accumulation comes together into a beautiful culmination that is research.
When asked who or what were big influences on his research and career, Dr. Poss replied that everyone has model discoveries and people that they look up. His role models were people who were fearless about what they would study.
As my last question, I asked Dr. Poss what advice he would give to someone who was interested in research. He replied earnestly, “It is difficult, but if you put everything into it and you’re ok with challenges, there are still so many life questions that we don’t understand and are still unanswered. There are so many opportunities in research. One just has to see it as a journey. When I look back on my journey, I always find myself saying ‘”I can’t believe they pay me to do this!‘”
Thank you Dr. Poss for your time! While there’s many things I have taken away from our conversation, your passion, excitement, and continuous amazement that you get to do something you love every single day have left a deep imprint on my perspectives on research.
