WOMEN IN PLANT BIOLOGY

Succeeding in a Flat World
by Elizabeth E. Hood, PhD
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer, Professor of Agriculture and Professor of Biology, Arkansas State University

We all know that the world is not flat. However, the phrase strikes a cord and sparks a discussion about the fact that technology is shrinking the distance among communities. It is also broadening access to resources while increasing the competition for those resources. Information technology and the Internet are increasing our ability to easily collaborate with colleagues but concomitantly escalate the expectation that we will collaborate. Gone are the days of puttering around in the lab by oneself. However, born are the days of interdisciplinary approaches that produce unique and interesting answers to old and new questions.

A few years back, I wrote an essay for Science’s Next Wave on the ups and downs of my career. I entitled it “Riding the Waves,” because crests and troughs were driving my career into decision situations that I didn’t initiate but had to deal with. Sometimes a career is a straight path from graduate school to postdoc to professorial promotions. However, more and more often, one’s career is the stringing together of multiple opportunities that appeared along the way. One makes decisions based on the data at hand, just as in an experiment. However, unlike an experiment, one’s career must be interpreted not only analytically but also personally, because the interpretation affects the decision-making process, and it is life, not publications, that are the result. Mary Catherine Bateson called it “composing a life” in her book of that title.

I have been employed as an academic faculty member, as a research manager in a large company, as a founder of a small startup company, as a program director in a national funding agency, and once again in academia as a researcher and an administrator. I did not set out on my career with this path in mind, but obstacles at many points required that I change course. Although transition is difficult, each of these experiences offered growth opportunities that were valuable to my career, and I have no regrets about any of these choices.

I started college and was married during the 1970s, when Earth Day was established and The Population Bomb (by Paul Erlich) was popular. I became and still am an organic gardener, a recycler, a disease prevention advocate, and an environmentalist. Although I started out as a sociologist, the importance of these issues drove me to pursue biology, particularly plant biology, instead. Plant biology has been my passion for 30 years. Thus, the underlying theme in my career choices was ensuring my ability to stay active in research and make contributions to conservation, environmental issues, and renewable resources. These issues appealed to me because of the need for stewardship of the world we live in to promote our own health and that of future generations. My graduate school focus was motivated by these interests, as was my subsequent research. When I learned that we could genetically engineer plants with new traits, I was ecstatic about the opportunity to create new ways to protect the environment that were compatible with the efficient monocultures that had dominated agriculture for many decades since the green revolution.

One of the most exciting times in my career was when I was working in a plant biotechnology startup company, ProdiGene. We were doing all the things that made me happy—performing neat experiments, making products, collaborating on teams. I had the opportunity to work on a project to use maize as a biofactory to produce enzymes for industrial applications—green chemistry! What a perk—combining my love for plant biology with my motivation to improve the environment. It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to do what you love and get a paycheck to boot.

Research is very special to me. With each career change I have made, I have worked hard to maintain my program. Gaining knowledge about plants and their processes is very exciting and special. My ultimate motivation is finding a way to make life more livable through applications of the research work in which I am involved. The best advice I can offer new researchers is to do what you love and make choices that allow you to do so.

References
Bateson, M. C. (1990) Composing a Life. New York: Plume.
Erlich, P. (1968) The Population Bomb. Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books.