Dianne Newman is awesome

So, yesterday I had breakfast with Dr. Dianne Newman, who is a professor at Cal Tech, and OMGOSH SHE'S SO AMAZING!!

I think her science is pretty cool, but really I like her just because she is such a nice person. I and the other students at the breakfast were asking her a bunch of questions about the usual, how did you become a professor, how do you choose post-docs, how do you feel about the funding climate, etc. Her answers were definitely helpful, and they gave a lot of insight into what kind of person she really is. One thing she said regarding how she chooses post-docs that resonated with me was (paraphrasing), "It's not enough to be intelligent, you have to be nice, too."

Yes!!! Yes! All of my yes! This is so true, especially in this context. Honestly, almost everyone in grad school was at the top of their class in college. We are all smart, and that is not special. It seems like so many professors choose post-docs because they have 5 first author papers or they got a Nature paper or they got this award or that, and completely disregard their character. Along those lines, she also said that she expects her post-docs to help other students in the lab and really be a mentor to other people. Also fabulous. Many, many post-docs are going to look for a faculty job at some point, and the whole point of these positions is to have your own lab, which means you're going to have to mentor people! I just think it's silly when post-docs focus super hard on their research and don't give a sh*t about their labmates.

AND (seriously love this woman), another thought she expressed reminds me of my undergrad advisor, Antje Almeida (who is also awesome and will probably be featured in a future blog post). One thing that I really loved about Antje was that her door was always open--not just for help with research or classes, but also if I just found a funny cat video and wanted to share. Since then, I haven't met a professor that I felt I could ever be friends with. Friendly acquaintances, sure, but not an actual I-send-you-Christmas-presents-and-invite-you-to-my-wedding friend. I was getting that same friendly vibe from Dr. Newman. In fact, she explicitly said that she wants to be a part of the group in her lab, and have people stop by her office just to say "hi" sometimes instead of always for business.

Of course I also respect her so much for being a successful, tenured professor at a respected university and having a family at the same time. You hear so much on the interwebs about gender discrimination; it's nice to see a success story now and then.

I almost want to do a postdoc just so I can work in her lab...