The series of seminars I have had the privilege of partaking in this summer have been very interesting and enlightening. The science was exciting and the presenters offered thought provoking ideas and concepts. It was very interesting to see people from different fields and explore areas of science I never would have sought out on my own.
One of my favorite things about this summer was having the opportunity to hear about people’s career pathways. One of the seminars that I found very interesting was by Dr. Brian Coggins who works in the department of biochemistry at Duke. The science was interesting, but one of the things I liked the most about what he said was that curiosity drove his career path. It was inspiring to hear a story of someone who was not entirely sure about their scientific path going in, but was shaped by their experiences during education. I also found it odd that I really enjoyed seeing the connections between different scientific fields. He connected physics, chemistry, and biology in ways that made all of the fields seem interesting and less divided. It was cool to see the scientific fields presented together, instead of in categories from which you can only like one and must hate the rest.
I think my favorite quote from his talk was the following:
“There’s more to life than science.”
