Each summer, eager students flock to research labs to pursue their scientific curiosity and find out what life in research is all about. On July 10th, three members of the Centre of Excellence for the Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF Centre) team presented to summer students at the Centre for Heart and Lung Innovation’s Career Day. Below, Dr. Bruce McManus, CEO of PROOF Centre, Dr. Scott Tebbutt, Chief Scientific Officer at PROOF, and Dr. Don Sin, lead physician for PROOF Centre’s COPD program and Head of the Division of Respiratory Medicine at Providence Health Care, share and expand upon some of the advice given to young investigators.
What do you love most about your job?
Dr. McManus: I love the privilege of working with others to frame tough questions and then formulate a path to possible answers. I love the curiosity and creativity of people with whom I work. I love the fact that we might be helping patients and people in general.
Dr. Tebbutt: The combination of working with, teaching, and learning from, bright, enthusiastic and hard-working students, on medically-related biological questions. Continued learning about biology (from concepts through to specific molecular mechanisms), and being in a position to be the first to discover new things. Using and developing new technologies and endeavouring to translate our research discoveries to equitable public good.
Dr. Sin: I enjoy the diversity of being able to do different things throughout the day (see patients, work on a manuscript, supervise students, administration, etc.). I also enjoy the fact that my research is and will continue to make an impact on patient care.
What advice would you give to emerging scientists wanting to do what you do?
Dr. McManus: I would always suggest a flexible approach to careers. That flexibility relates to the final direction, the time it takes to reach various milestones, and in terms of what one calls success. Never be in a hurry, just live the dream of discovering and occasionally being lucky enough to have one’s science reach medical or public health impact. Focus on being, not becoming!
Dr. Tebbutt: Always know the operational limitations and assumptions of the technology and/or biological samples you are using. Keep an open mind, and read widely and often. Focus, focus, focus.
Dr. Sin: 100% commitment to your job.
What was the take home message from your Summer Student Career Day 2013 presentation?
“What is it Like Being a Physician Scientist?” Dr. Sin
There is no job like being a physician scientist. Every academic institution in the world is looking for bright, promising physician scientists. However, it is also a very difficult road to be good at it (that is why there are so many great opportunities), so it requires 100% commitment, no less.
“Research and More –Careers in Science” Dr. McManus
There is a limitless need for innovation in the human life sciences given the magnitude of human ailments and what we do not yet understand about how to prevent them, treat them, or adjust to them. We are in an amazing era with a dazzling number of tools and technologies which can be our route to new insights or a hurdle to understanding in their own right. Harnessing these tools in an effective and efficient fashion is one of the real opportunities and challenges we face as we try to understand the mysteries of life sciences. The quest to understand begins and ends with the patient! Each of us has different skills, aptitudes and drivers, and thus we are fortunate that there are many possible career paths to bring value to life sciences and positively impact human health. This diversity of careers is often forgotten, but if considered, opens doors for creativity that otherwise remain closed and wanting.
Dr. Tebbutt, who spoke on the topic of “Giving an Effective Oral Presentation,” summarized the importance of outreach and the impact of research by providing the following quote from Dr. James Stone (Alberta):
“Entertain to engage. Engage to educate. Educate to empower. Empower to enable.”