178 NATURE | VOL 433 | 13 JANUARY 2005 | www.nature.com/nature

When I began graduate school more thanfive years ago, graduation and what laybeyond it seemed a long way off, and Ididn’t feel forced to choose a speciality. Inthat first year, I switched from focusing oncancer immunology to wanting to do morebasic research on fruitfly genetics. As eachyear passed, I remained convinced thatthere was still plenty of time to decide whatto do once I had my degree in my hand —and that I could possibly do a postdoc toexplore new options. But the years seemto have gone quite quickly, and I can nolonger tell myself that I still have time.

Looking at friends and colleagues,I see that a lot of people have chosen aspeciality and never looked back. Theyseem to be heading towards postdocs inareas that are familiar and comfortable.And professors seem keen to hire post-docs who can jump into a project with aminimal learning period.

But with my dreamed-of endpointlurking and a lot of uncertainties about myfuture, there is one thing I am sure about. I know that I do not want to continue doingwhat I am doing now. For most of mygraduate career I have been a fruitflygeneticist with a little molecular biologyand technology development thrown in themix. I’m done. I’m over it. I’m ready tolearn something new. ■

Anne Margaret Lee is a graduate student at

Harvard University.

GRADUATE JOURNAL

Over-specialization?

Naturejobs Career View

The idea for a regionalsymposium washatched at the US

National PostdoctoralAssociation’s annualmeeting in Washington in 2004.

Members of theUniversity of Pittsburgh’spostdoc associationreturned home from themeeting wondering howthey could help theircolleagues to take part insuch career-developmentforums — especially asfunding was scarce. Theydecided that if somepostdocs couldn’t afford to travel to the nationalmeeting, then a meetingshould be brought to them.

Joan Lakoski, assistantvice-chancellor foracademic careerdevelopment at theuniversity’s Schools of theHealth Sciences, offered thesupport of her office andadvised the postdocs tobroaden their scope and

include administrators andpostdocs from regionalinstitutions. The NationalPostdoctoral Associationendorsed the event, whichgrew into the first regionalpostdoctoral symposiumfor Pennsylvania, Ohio andWest Virginia and was heldlast October at Pittsburgh.

Pooling resourcesresulted in several pluses.It yielded a larger audiencethan if the university hadgone it alone, includingpostdocs, faculty membersand administrators from 12 universities and postdocorganizations. It drew ahigh-level keynote speakerin Kathie Olsen, associatedirector for science at theUS government’s Office ofScience and TechnologyPolicy. And it encouragedinstitutions to partner with one another, forprofessional developmentand for policy purposes.

Participants at thesymposium focused onadvancing best practices incareer development fromthe perspectives of a

postdoc, an academicadministrator and anational advocate, withmentoring as the mostimportant area.

They considered whatlocal, regional and nationalpostdoc organizationscould do to see these bestpractices put into place.And they decided thatnational organizationscould set standards,regional ones could arrangecollaborations, and localones could educate facultymembers about mentoringroles and expectations.

Several participatinginstitutions are nowinterested in hosting afuture regional gathering.Postdoc institutions inother areas and countriesmight consider adaptingthis model to develop aregional postdoctoralcommunity of their own. ■

Darlene Zellers is the director of the

office of academic career

development, University of Pittsburgh

Schools of the Health Sciences.

➧ www.health.pitt.edu/oacd/postdoc_community.html

&

Biologists are used to life cycles,and David White can look back onsome of his own. “My life goes in

seven-year spells,” the new director ofthe Institute of Food Research notes. “Atthe end of that time I feel I’ve doneeverything I’m going to be able to do.”

An early change came as soon as hecompleted his physics BA at Oxford: abursary from the Nuffield Foundationhelped him swap to zoology. Why the

change? Growing up on the edge of acountry town, he had been fascinated bybiology and butterflies. But he noticedthat ‘high flyers’ at his school tookphysics, mathematics and chemistry. Sohe did, too. “That turned out to be auseful background for biology,” he says.

Inspired by John Pringle, head ofOxford’s zoology department, he turnedhis interest in movement into a DPhil oninsect flight muscles. Meanwhile, hiscolleague, John Thorson, taught him“most of what being a scientist is about”,not only in the lab but during eveningswith colleagues, when the conversationflowed over every aspect of science.

White continued to work oncontractility and motility at York, but hisinterests were shifting. “I was drying upby the end of the 1970s,” he says. “I wasgetting invited to all the right conferences,but it wasn’t going anywhere.”

So he began a series of collaborationsusing physical tools to study biological

phenomena. A phone call in 1990persuaded one of his former students,Justin Molloy, back from Vermont to useoptical tweezers to study moleculesinstead of whole muscles. They went onto develop a molecular-force transducer.

“It’s easier to take risks later in yourcareer,” White admits. “When I went intooptical tweezers, I thought it would bethe last thing I’d do scientifically, and if itfailed it wasn’t a disaster.”

A seven-year stint as head of biologyat York ended when White joined the UKBiotechnology and Biological SciencesResearch Council. Due to retire last year,he moved on instead to head the council’sInstitute of Food Research, a chance hefound “too much fun to resist”.

It also meant a move to the fens ofNorfolk, nurturing his passion for wildlifephotography, which he’d once thoughtof making “more than a hobby”. Whenthe urge to move hits again, the nextcycle may be ready to begin. ■

MOVERS David White, director, Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK

1997–2004: Director of science andtechnology, UK Biotechnology andBiological Sciences Research Council.

1997–: Honorary chair in Department of Zoology,University of Oxford, UK.1971–97: Department of Biology, University of York,UK (starting as lecturer, rising to head of department).1967–71: Demonstrator, University of Oxford, UK.1962–67: Research, Department of Zoology, Universityof Oxford, UK.1959–62: BA in physics, University of Oxford, UK.

CV

Building a regionalpostdoc community

SCIENTISTS SOCIETIES

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