What are your primary job responsibilities?

I serve as co-Principal Investigator for the BioPlex project, along with Professors Steve Gygi and Wade Harper. I'm personally responsible for all aspects of quality control as well as data organization. I also oversee all computational analyses of the BioPlex network and am responsible for mining our data for biological insights and for disseminating our results to the scientific community through custom websites, public repositories, publications, presentations, and so on.

What is a typical work day-in-your-life like?

My work day is a mix of meetings and individual work.  I regularly meet with colleagues, collaborators, and students, both in person and on zoom, to talk about projects we're working on together and troubleshoot issues that might come up.  When I have time for individual work, I spend it sifting through the results we're generating, writing scripts and software to analyze the data, and preparing the results for publication.  I also spend a lot of time writing papers and reports and preparing presentations that I routinely deliver to colleagues, industry sponsors, and other audiences. 

How did you find your first job?

After I finished my PhD, I e-mailed PI's whose work I admired and asked to meet with them at a conference I was attending. Based on those conversations, I was offered multiple postdoc positions. My current position grew out of my postdoctoral work, so it was a natural transition.

What level of education (Bachelor's, Masters, PhD, etc.) is required to do your job? 

My job requires a PhD and postdoc experience. 

What is your work schedule like? Do you ever work weekends or nights?

When I was in grad school and a postdoc, I tended to work nights and weekends, not because I had to, but because I enjoyed it.  Now that I'm older and have a family, I keep a more standard work schedule.  It's pretty rare that I do substantial work on weekends these days, though I do occasionally work from home in the evenings once the kids are in bed. 

Do you travel for work? If so, in what capacity, and how often?

I do travel for my work a few times each year, mostly to attend conferences where I give talks on my research and learn about the work that others in the field are doing.  I enjoy that I have the opportunity to travel throughout the US and abroad to present my work and meet colleagues around the world.

What is your work environment like? Do you work mostly with a team or mostly independently? Do you stand, sit, or move most of the day?

These days I spend most of time time sitting, either at my desk or in meetings. I'm almost always working with teams of other researchers. One fun thing about my job is that I get to be a part of many different teams as I work with different people on a variety of projects.

What do you like most about your job?

I'm excited about everything we've been able to learn by mapping human protein-protein interactions in such great detail. And it's very satisfying to see other scientists around the world using our BioPlex network as a resource to advance their own work.  I also really enjoy the opportunities for creativity that arise in scientific research. It's also a fun challenge continually learning new things as my research takes me in new directions.

What are some tools or skills that you can't live without? These can be technologies, soft skills, hardware, or anything else you can think of.

Certainly, having a firm understanding of chemistry and biology is key to my work. In addition, I've had to develop strong computational skills - writing scripts and software - so I can organize and analyze all of the data we have generated.  I also depend heavily on my writing and graphic design skills when I prepare papers, grants, and other reports describing my work. And I've had to develop strong teaching and public speaking skills so I can present my work effectively to diverse audiences. People skills are important too, since science research is highly collaborative. 

What skills, traits, talents do you have that you think make you a good fit for your job?

Probably the characteristics that most directly help me in my work are that I'm persistent and I'm creative.  I'm also comfortable learning new things, even when I have to teach them to myself. 

What's your best productivity trick?

When tackling a big task, the most important thing is just to jump in and get started.  It's also helpful to break big tasks down into smaller pieces. And it's important to recognize when you should reach out to others for help to keep the project moving smoothly.

Do you have any habits that are essential to your professional success that you wish you started earlier?

It's good to spend time planning - not just your experiments, but your career plan as well.  It's important to check in on your progress toward your goals periodically and think about what's going well and what you might want to change so you can pursue the opportunities you want. 

What's the best career advice you've ever received? What career advice would you give to someone starting out in your field?

My biggest piece of advice would be don't be afraid to try new things and to follow your research in unexpected directions. Change is inevitable as your career progresses, and it can bring with it lots of interesting opportunities.

How do you build community in your career field? Are you part of any professional organizations?

I definitely believe it's important to build a professional network. I'm a member of several professional organizations, including ACS, though I've been most active in the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, having attended their annual meetings for 21 years and counting!  Attending conferences is useful, but it's also important to be proactive and reach out to other scientists in both formal and informal settings. National and international meetings are good, but it's also a good idea to look for local meetings/groups as well.  This kind of networking is good for finding professional opportunities, and it also makes scientific research more fun when you actually know the people whose papers you're reading!

Do you have a favorite memory from your time at the University of Minnesota?

I enjoyed my undergrad years a lot, hanging out with friends in Middlebrook Hall, playing trombone in various ensembles in the music department, and enjoying life in Minneapolis. I also look back fondly on my time doing undergrad research with Mike Bowser in the Chemistry department. Before I started working with him, I was a pre-med major. Once I experienced scientific research in his lab, my career goals changed and led me to where I am today.