Why did you join the Coon group?

Josh Coon has great energy and vision. His level of excitement for research was very persuasive. Also, mass spectrometry research was an area I wanted to learn more about, so it seemed like a good fit.

What did you find most valuable about your time in the group?

Josh Coon was a great mentor—he always had my best interest in mind. The lab environment pushed me to grow not only as a scientist, but also as a writer, a public speaker, a team member, and as a mentor myself.

I also had opportunities to develop relationships with many top scientists in the field, which have proven invaluable as my career has progressed. I am currently an adjunct assistant professor at the University of California at San Francisco. In this position I am working both as the co-director of a mass spectrometry core, and as a leader on a Cancer Cell Map Initiative, which is using affinity-purification MS approaches to understand protein-protein interactions in different cancer types. You can see how my PhD training in MS-based proteomics provided me with direct experience to take on role.

I also learned a lot about what type of work makes me happy, and I made some great friends along the way.