Advice and Growth: Learn from Experience
Below, researchers give advice for developing good research questions.
Chris Gibbons, MD
“Link what your brilliant discovery is with what their (funding source) mission is. Ask how you can, sort of tantalizingly, give them the idea that your research is going to further that opportunity for them.”
Sharmila Dorbala, MD, MPH
“Strive for excellence. It’s very, very important to be really excellent at what you’re doing to be an expert in the area.”
Junichi Tokuda, PhD
“I think the Harvard community is a great environment. You’re surrounded by talented clinicians and scientists and lots of resources. You need to find a way to take advantage of them.”
Jonathan Williams, MD, MMSc
“Always keep the blinders off. You never know what’s going to come at you, and what’s going to be useful to you. Be a friend to everybody. You just don’t know who a person is going to be in the future to you.”
Osama Rahma, MD
“Start asking questions. Well, if this doesn’t work, how can you make things work? And you start to learn what the tools are, the other ways of thinking outside the box.”
David Sykes, MD, PhD
“Listen to people from the outside, who can look at you and say, ‘David, no matter what you think, that is not going to get you a grant, advance your career, help patients.”
Subha Ramani, PhD, MBBS, MMed
“Find passion, curiosity, humility, and a growth mindset.”
Resources
Career Pathways in C/T Research: Clinical Researchers
Panelists for this session include clinical researchers Mason Freeman, MD, Ali Tavakkoli, MD, Fran Grodstein, ScD, and Gina Kruse, MD, MPH. Play clinical researchers discussion.
Career Pathways in C/T Research: Basic Scientists
Panelists for this session include basic scientists Marsha Moses, PhD, Stephen Curtis, MD, Robert Stickgold, PhD, and Maria Kristiina Lehtinen, PhD. Play basic scientists discussion.