Throughout her scientific career, Dr. Zhiqing Huang has had to navigate international moves, her obligations as a wife and mother, and her own growing and changing interests as a scientist. At the beginning of our interview, Dr. Huang started by saying that her story was uninteresting because she became a research faculty later in her career than other professors, but I found her story to be the exact opposite of uninteresting.
Dr. Huang’s story starts in China. She began her journey in science by getting her medical degree. In China, unlike in the US, students do not need a bachelors to attend medical school. After attending medical school, Dr. Huang taught pathology at another medical school in China for eight years.
After her stint as a teacher, Dr. Huang found herself interested in pursuing research, so she went to another university to get her masters. Unlike in the US, students must get a masters before their PhD. By the time Zhiqing started pursuing her masters, she was already married and had one child. Zhiqing spent three years getting her masters in molecular pathology, however towards the end of her masters her husband was offered a scholarship and opportunity to work in Germany.
Zhiqing followed her husband to Germany where she continued her masters research and got her PhD in MCB after three years of research. She spoke incredibly highly of her experience in Germany. She described how she’s still in regular contact with her mentor from her PhD, Dr. Ralph Witzgall.
After completing her PhD, Dr. Huang and her husband faced an impasse. Zhiqing’s husband wanted to return to China and practice medicine, while Zhiqing wanted to go to America to pursue a research career. Their family decided to come to America. Zhiqing’s first job in America was as a postdoc in MCB at a lab within Baylor College of Medicine. After completing her postdoc, Zhiqing’s husband got a job at GlaxoSmithKline, leading the family to move to NC. Upon reaching NC, Zhiqing had her second son leading to her taking a bit of a step back from her research career. Zhiqing pursued a second postdoc in NC and following this postdoc, she became a research scientist which led to her then becoming a professor at Duke.
Zhiqing’s lab now focuses on ovarian cancer research. She began her career in pathology and her past work focused on reproductive cancers, primarily breast cancer. After Zhiqing took over her lab at Duke from the previous professor, she took up his work in ovarian cancer.