The road less travelled

In the ever more competitive arena of biological research, there is a widespread perception that, if you haven’t got a firm foothold on the ladder by your late twenties, you’ll never make it. It’s tempting to believe this. Indeed, working at Cold Spring Harbor’s Watson School of Biological Sciences brings me into daily contact with biologists of all ages and stages, who are nothing if not highly motivated and focused. But there’s more than one way to skin a cat. My own route from the Gorbals in Glasgow, where I was born, to Long Island was circuitous, to say the least. I left school at the age of 16 and, with a handful of ‘O-level’ qualifications, it seemed like the world was at my feet — the world of banking, that is. A nine-to-five job for life, low interest rate loans and free banking — what more could anyone want? “If I don’t like it after the first year, I’ll go back to school then go to University,” I promised myself. Eight years later, almost dead from boredom, I finally went to Glasgow University to study molecular biology. That was an extremely difficult transition; the gaps in my knowledge seemed insurmountable at times, and constantly being referred to as a ‘mature’ student made me feel that my free bus pass wasn’t far off. But despite this, I was hooked. I developed an interest in research while working in the lab during the summer break, and a PhD seemed the logical next step. And so started one of the best times in my life. Under the guidance of Ron Hay at St Andrews University, I came to realize just how exciting research could be. I loved the uncertainty, the competitiveness, learning how to think about science and, above all, doing experiments. What I didn’t realize at that time was how different research could be outside the context of my PhD. My next move was fairly standard — postdoctoral research in the US. This transition was also hard. In part, the problem was cultural, even ordering a sandwich in New York City introduced me to a new language, but also competition was more intense in the lab and the atmosphere less collegiate.