{"id":3109,"date":"2018-06-24T15:05:01","date_gmt":"2018-06-24T20:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/?p=3109"},"modified":"2018-06-24T15:05:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T20:05:01","slug":"an-interview-with-dr-michael-boyce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/?p=3109","title":{"rendered":"An interview with Dr. Michael Boyce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Boyce has enjoyed science since as early as elementary school, however, he was not sure about a career in science until later on in his life.\u00a0 As an undergraduate student at Harvard College, he saw the biochemistry major and thought the courses were interesting.\u00a0 In addition to courses required for the biochemistry major, Dr. Boyce found another interest, art history.\u00a0 At this point, he realized he liked both art history and biochemistry and he asked himself, “Do I want to stick with biochemistry, or do I want to switch to art history.” To answer this, he pictured himself in both situations, as an art historian, and as a scientist.\u00a0 He did see himself as a scientist, but he could not picture himself as an art historian.\u00a0 He joined a lab at Harvard, and decided to get a PhD. with the idea of , “if this does not work out, I will pursue something else”.\u00a0 Therefore, he was able to go to Harvard Medical School for his PhD. in molecular biology, he enjoyed graduate school, made great connections with students and his Principal Investigator (he even stays connected with them to this day using social media!).\u00a0 With this experience, he decided that having his own lab is something he might enjoy, so he decided to do a post-doc with the same mentality of, “if this does not workout, I can do something else”.\u00a0 Therefore, he went to UC Berkeley to do a post-doc in a Chemistry lab.\u00a0 From the differences of research topics, he met many great friends, and learned new techniques.\u00a0 Finally, he applied to faculty positions, where he is now an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

As a Principal Investigator in the School of Medicine, his primary role is to keep the lab running (through grant writing and mentoring students), to advocate for his science (by attending and presenting at conferences), and to serve the scientific community (by participating on committees, and specifically, by promoting diversity in STEM at Duke, the School of Medicine, and the American Society of Cellular Biology). Dr. Boyce enjoys his students, and he enjoys mentoring. This can be seen in his lab, where his door is always open for students to stop by to ask questions and to chat.\u00a0 Finally, he feels very lucky for the freedom offered in his position.\u00a0 He is able to ask his own questions, and if his project does not work out, or if the results lead to a different question, he is able to follow up.\u00a0 He believes that his position is as close to a blank check as you can get.<\/p>\n

After learning about his path, and what he does, I asked him if he had any advice for people interested in pursuing science. He answered “Stay open minded”, he says that there is a lot to learn, so go to more research seminars (even outside of the realm of expertise!).\u00a0 Additionally, he recommends to read things that sound interesting, and try to be curiosity driven (because that is what science is about!).\u00a0 Finally, he explained the importance of forming a network, with people in your lab, your peers, or your professors, because you never know what will happen fifteen years from now.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dr. Boyce. An awesome mentor and scientist. Original photo was posted on the lab page<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am thankful to have had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Dr. Boyce about his path, and profession.<\/p>\n

On next weeks blog, I will talk about my daily life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Boyce has enjoyed science since as early as elementary school, however, he was not sure about a career in science until later on in his life.\u00a0 As an undergraduate student at Harvard College, he saw the biochemistry major and thought the courses were interesting.\u00a0 In addition to courses required for the biochemistry major, Dr. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35730,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[658424,79109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bsurf-2018","category-week-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/35730"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3109"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3125,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3109\/revisions\/3125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}