What aspects of your graduate training have been most valuable for you?

The Coon group provides unique exposure to top-notch instrumentation and research opportunities. I got to go to a major conference in Sweden where I made some top connections and got to do an internship in San Jose, for example. Day to day, doing real hands-on work on the best instruments helped me gain a deeper and broader understanding of our work. Because the group does a lot of different kinds of research within MS-based proteomics, there’s a lot to learn from your peers within the lab.

As Proteomics Project Scientist at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Research Institute, I coordinate projects with other PIs doing high-throughput proteomics. The combination of gaining extremely deep proteomics knowledge and having well-rounded professional experiences at the Coon lab helped me get to this position (and I imagine will continue to help me)!

What was the most rewarding part of graduate school?

I was involved in some really neat, high impact projects while I was at the Coon lab. If you had asked me at the beginning of my grad school career, I never would have thought that was possible. In my experience, graduate school is a multi-volume story. In the first year or two, it might feel like nothing really works. Then at a certain point something clicks and you figure out how to do really amazing science. You almost don’t realize it while it’s happening, but looking back now, the most rewarding part of graduate school is just learning how to be a professional scientist. And, looking ahead, I get to do more rewarding research for the rest of my life.