PART I
In this two-part series, we chat with Fanuel Muindi, Ph.D., on bridging the gap between science and society, to bring about positive change. We also learn about his dynamic roles as the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at Harvard University, and the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the STEM Advocacy Institute (SAi).
Q: Tell us a little about yourself. What was your journey like, how did you get here and what you do.
F.M.: Long story short, I was born in Tanzania, did high school in the U.K., and came to the U.S. for an undergraduate degree from Morehouse College. I then joined Stanford University for a Ph.D. in Biology with a focus in neuroscience. After about five-six years there, I faced a decision – to do a postdoc or not? Finally, I decided to pursue a postdoc at M.I.T. After my postdoc there was another transition where I had to decide – do I stick it out as a postdoc to become a professor? As fate had it, another opportunity opened up at Harvard University where I am now, as the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies. It turned out that it was what I was looking for, as this position has captured all my interest in one space.
Fanuel Muindi, Assistant Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Harvard University; Founder and Chief Executive Officer, STEM Advocacy Institute (SAi)
Q: Can you describe your role as the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at Harvard University?
F.M.: I work with the program’s leadership, the two faculty directors or the co-directors of the program. My role there has been to help in the program development, program management, and strategy. We are constantly thinking about building a better graduate program and creating initiatives to help graduate students. We have to think strategically and ask what we should be doing for the next generation of scientists? What kind of training should they have? What do they need to succeed? What new trends are coming down the pike? Looking back, I never really thought I would be in a position to be thinking about these things and be a contributing force in bringing about change.
Q: What were the turning points in your life that brought you here? Did you plan where you will end up?
F.M.: No, this was not planned, and I think that was the beauty of this: it was organic. You learn as you go through the process; you learn about yourself and then you make the decisions based on the choices you have. But there are so many uncontrollable variables in life, so you have to choose what’s important in that moment. Looking back, I can say there were many points and not just one massive turning point that completely changed everything. Things build up all the time and even a small decision that you make today can suddenly start shifting you slowly into one direction. I like to give the analogy of pilots flying from L.A. going to Boston. They make slight course corrections along their way to keep them on track and avoid making drastic turns along the way. Of course, they are prepared to make drastic alterations in their path if the situation calls for it.
I like to give the analogy of pilots flying from L.A. going to Boston. They make slight course corrections along their way to keep them on track and avoid making drastic turns along the way.
If I look back, from my days during my undergraduate degree, I was definitely gung-ho about doing medicine. But then my mentors insisted I try my hands at research, which is important for applying to medical school. I wasn’t thinking about a Ph.D. then, but to my surprise, I enjoyed doing research. For all the wrong reasons, I wanted to pursue a combined M.D./Ph.D. degree. I wanted to do both but being a medical doctor was what I really wanted to do. I just liked the idea of working from the bench to the bedside and such programs were and still are incredibly difficult to get into. So, of course, I accepted the challenge. But fate had other ideas. Surprisingly, I ultimately found myself getting accepted into a Ph.D. program. Now, doing a Ph.D. wasn’t what I had in mind (remember I wanted to do medicine) but when the opportunity arose, I didn’t think twice. I was ready for it. What sealed the deal for me was the faculty members who reached out to me encouraging me to attend. One of them became my advisor whom I keep in touch with to this day. I think I was lucky that things worked out despite dropping the whole medical thing. But I do think that my prior preparation played a significant role too. I thank my undergraduate advisors for that.
I’ve made many small decisions along the way – lots of tiny course corrections if you will – which have led to big transitions that have brought me to this point in my developing journey.
Every time you make a transition, there is a possibility of new opportunities. After my Ph.D. I had a two-body problem, my then fiancé now wife was in Boston, and I was in San Francisco. When the opportunity arose in Boston to do a post-doc, I took it. It was a great three years at M.I.T., and then it was time for another transition. The voice inside me said, if I’m going to do anything else outside this path then the time is now, or to forever hold my peace. That pushed me to try different things which I did, and it’s been quite a journey since then, and I have no regrets. To summarize it, I’ve made many small decisions along the way – lots of tiny course corrections if you will – which have led to big transitions that have brought me to this point in my developing journey.
Q: What other factors are important for success?
F.M.: Another important factor is to use your mentors. I like explaining this idea through a diagram (see below). Essentially, I tell people that your path will have many opportunities (dots) and lots of turns (arrows), small turns, and big turns. But you have to find mentors (squares) that will help you make those turns along the way. As you can see, this reality is very messy, and you know what, that’s totally fine. So don’t worry about the path, but make sure to find good mentors to guide you along the way.
A model of navigating decision-making in one’s career
Mentors are important, and it’s truly magical when they reach out and advocate on your behalf.
Q: What are your suggestions and/or advice to build a good rapport with your mentors?
F.M.: I always say you can have mentors and advisors. For me, mentors are those who are your advocates. When you are not even asking for help, they help you anyway. Advisors can do that too, but I feel more often than not, that advisors tend to wait for you to come to them before they do so. I consider myself very lucky to have found those kinds of people who were willing to advocate for me. They saw my potential and said, okay, I want to help advocate for this young man. Someone must have helped them, and so they’re mentoring me. And, I’ve done the same thing by mentoring others. But to answer your question explicitly, I think what it boils down to is communication. You really need to learn how to communicate. But it’s really hard and the current education system doesn’t really emphasize its importance as much. My one piece of advice for trainees is to improve their communication skills. Learn the how, when, what, and why of communication. It really matters.
Learn the how, when, what, and why of communication. It really matters.
I learned this along the way very slowly. Initially, I was very, very shy. But then over time, I knew that I had to break out of that shell and reach out to my mentors and say I’m struggling with x, y, and z. The key is to practice. Practice because you are not going to be excellent on day one. For example, practice talking to people by saying: Hey, I would love to talk to you for 20 minutes next week. I would like to tell you a little bit about what I’m thinking about this decision point I’m trying to make and get your thoughts. Once you have 20 minutes to chat about this, and as you do it over time, even people who are not directly your mentors will become part of your network. You can also just ask people you admire. Invite them for an informational chat. Many won’t respond but some will. Be ready with some questions, but never be shy to reach out, as you need to take that first step. It is important to get out of your comfort zone and not be afraid of the no’s, as you will get a lot of no’s. Once you have mentors, it is important to keep the channels of communication open. Keep them engaged. Tell them what you are doing and keep them updated. That’s how I manage to maintain a connection with my mentors.
As I mentioned before, you will also have mentors who will reach out on your behalf, or they’ll reach out to you and say, I want to talk to you. I want to see what you’ve been up to. Of course, those are rare and hard to find but they do exist. When you find them, keep them. I think it’s also important that mentors be trained in how to mentor, and there are some programs for that too. In summary, mentors are important, and it’s truly magical when they reach out and advocate on your behalf.
Diversify your took kit.
Q: As a leader in strategizing the graduate study program, you can guide prospective students. What advice do you give them to build a successful career in biology, considering there seems to be a surplus of biology Ph.D’s?
F.M.: We say to our students you can go and become successful in a variety of careers. There’s no such thing as an alternative career. There’s just a career. Whether you go into an academic crowd or non-academic crowd, we think there’s value for your training because we need an infusion of science in multiple domains. We try to encourage students to diversify their training by taking workshops outside of their comfort zone. They should be trained in communication, in management, in mentoring, in finance, skills that actually will be valuable whether you go into academia or even if you decide not to go that route. Such skills are equally important in multiple trajectories whether in business, policy, or communication. So by knowing how to write well, you can be good at writing grants, and translate the skill a bit and use it in policy writing for example. Of course, there may still be some additional training that you need to do, but you have the foundations in place. So, what I tell students is diversify. Diversify your took kit. You never know what you will need in the future. Even that art class you didn’t think was useful might turn out to be important. I see this all the time. Thinking about 10 to 20 years from now, the programs that can be really successful are the ones that can integrate these very diverse training packages for students.
There’s no such thing as an alternative career. There’s just a career.
Q: You are the founder of the STEM Advocacy Institute (SAi). What was the inspiration behind starting it?
F.M.: It started very organically, and the story goes back to grad school at Stanford University. I wanted to give back, I wanted to use my science and increase access to science. So, I created a group called Run for Education. There, we literally ran. We ran half marathons, marathons, 10k, 5k to raise money for local schools in East Palo Alto to support their educational programs that included science. This was a great idea, but the problem was finding people willing to run those long distances to raise money! After a while it became tricky. In addition, I needed to finish my Ph.D., so that group sort of took a pause. But looking back, I realize that what I was itching to think about was the connection between science and society. When I started my postdoc, I took another stab at it.
This time around, the journey started with conversations. Being in global health, my wife helped me to think deeply about the connections between science and society at the global level. Our conversations led to the very first set of publications that explored the idea of creating a global STEM fund (Muindi, F., & Guha, M. (2014). Nature, 506 (7489), 434). We thought to ourselves: why not? And just like that, the earliest seed for what would eventually be known as the STEM Advocacy Institute (or SAi) was planted. If you look at our publications, our very first correspondence was just 300 words in Nature. The article was a success and created a bit of buzz. We were encouraged to follow up and build on that idea. The point here is that we started small with just an idea. And that is my advice for people: start small.
We started small with just an idea. And that is my advice for people: start small.
The first publication was followed by another piece and another one after that. I then convinced my friends (Dr. Jessica W. Tsai and Dr. Joseph Keller) to join me in this new venture. Suddenly we were publishing ideas left and right. Long story short, the organization started to take shape because I found people that were passionate about what we were trying to do (even though it wasn’t fully clear then). As the years went by, we started to also build tools and programs in addition to publishing ideas. So, what do we actually do? Well, our organization focuses on characterizing and building new pathways between science and society. Specifically, we want to increase access between science and society.
Our organization focuses on characterizing and building new pathways between science and society.
In an effort to be an active participant in the field, we are structured as a hybrid think-tank/incubator. Our motto is to build, experiment, and explore. This is the charge given to all members. We are still relatively young with lots of work ahead of us. I encourage those interested to visit our website (https://stemadvocacy.org) and explore our growing body of work!
Author and Editor:
Sumbul Jawed Khan is a Ph. D. in Biological Sciences and Bioengineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, where she studied the role of microenvironment in cancer progression and tumor formation. During her post-doctoral research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she investigated the gene regulatory networks that are important for tissue regeneration after damage or wounding. She is committed to science outreach and communication and believes it is essential to inspire young people to apply scientific methods to tackle the challenges faced by humanity. As an editor, her aim is to simplify, translate, and excite people about current advances in science.
Editors:
Saurja Dasgupta is originally from Kolkata, India. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, where he studied the structure, function, and evolution of catalytic RNA. He is currently doing his postdoctoral research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, where he is trying to understand the biochemical milieu that could have given birth to life on earth (and elsewhere) and reconstruct primitive cells. One of his scientific dreams is to observe the spontaneous emergence of Darwinian evolution in a chemical system. When not thinking about science, Saurja pursues his love for the written word through poetry and song-writing (and meditating on Leonard Cohen’s music). His other passions are trying to make science easier to understand, and fighting unreason and pseudoscientific thinking with a mixture of calm compassion and swashbuckling spirit.
Roopsha Sengupta is the Editor-in-Chief at ClubSciWri. She did her Ph.D. at the Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, and postdoctoral research at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, UK, specializing in the field of Epigenetics. During her research, she was involved in many exciting discoveries and had the privilege of working and collaborating with a number of inspiring scientists. As an editor for ClubSciWri, she loves working on a wide range of topics and presenting articles coherently, while nudging authors to give their best.
Illustrators:
Disha Chauhan did her Ph.D. in IRBLLEIDA, University of Lleida, Spain in Molecular and Developmental Neurobiology. She has post-doctoral experience in Cell Biology of Neurodegenerative diseases and is actively seeking a challenging research position in academia/industry. Apart from Developmental Neurobiology, she is also interested in Oncology. She is passionate about visual art (Illustration, painting, and photography) and storytelling through it. She enjoys reading, traveling, hiking, and is also dedicated to raising scientific awareness about Cancer. Follow her on Instagram.
Saurabh Gayali recently completed his Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (JNU, New Delhi). Currently, he is DBT RA at IGIB (New Delhi), and his research focuses on finding binding associations of Indian plant metabolites with human pathogen proteins, creating a platform for future plant extract-based drug discovery. He has a keen interest in data analysis, visualization, and database management. He is a skilled 2D/3D designer with a specific interest in scientific illustration. In leisure, Saurabh plays guitar and composes music, does photography, or practices programming. Follow him on Instagram.
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