Geneticist: Katie Peichel

Katie Peichel, Ph.D.

How did you choose your career? Was this an easy or hard process for you? If you struggled, how did you overcome these struggles?

I don't think I consciously chose my career, I think it chose me. Even before I was exposed to working in a lab or an academic career, I thought I might like to be a professor — the academic lifestyle simply appealed to me. Then, I blindly started graduate school because I really was interested in science, but did not have much research experience. Luckily, as soon as I got into the lab, I absolutely loved it. Since then, I have simply pursued the questions that I found most interesting and exciting. And, I have put in the long hours to find the answers to these questions. More than making a conscious set of decisions, following my passion has been my guide throughout my career.

What kind of training, both formal and informal, did you receive to prepare you for your career? If applicable, how did you select where to attend graduate school? How did you choose your postdoc? How about any additional training? How did you choose what additonal training to pursue and how did you choose where to do it?

I learned how to rigorously read and evaluate a scientific paper through our first year of courses in the Molecular Biology Graduate Program at Princeton — Prokaryotic Genetics, taught by Tom Silhavy, and Eukaryotic Genetics, taught by Mark Rose and Shirley Tilghman. From my thesis advisor, Tom Vogt, I learned a very rigorous and thoughtful approach to science. From both Tom and my postdoctoral advisor, David Kingsley, I learned how to give a talk. And from my high school English teachers, I learned how to write. These skills have served me very well throughout my career!

I selected Princeton for graduate school because of the strong emphasis on graduate student training and absolutely made the right decision. I then chose to do a postdoctoral fellowship with David Kingsley at Stanford because I recognized that he was one of the smartest people I had ever met and everyone in his lab had nothing but absolute respect and admiration for him. Again, I absolutely made the right decision.

How competitive and/or rigorous was the training for your career?

My training was very rigorous, requiring both long hours at the bench and a lot of time expanding my brain too. Getting an academic position is quite competitive — sitting on search committees now, I realize how competitive it is! I have seen searches in which several hundred people have applied for one position; many of these people have excellent credentials. Now I realize how lucky I am to have a job!

In general, how much did the training cost? Was the investment worth it?

Since most graduate programs pay their students a stipend, the cost was mostly in time and energy. I ended up deferring a lot of other things in my life for my career, but for me it has all been worth it.

How long did it take you to train? Was it shorter or longer than anticipated? If you had any setbacks, how did you deal with them?

It took me six years to finish my Ph.D., then I was a postdoctoral fellow for five years. This is about how long I thought it would take, particularly given that I am a vertebrate geneticist. Experiments just take a long time!

What was the process like to apply for your first job after your training was over? Was it easy or difficult? How did you cope with any difficulties? Did that differ from subsequent jobs you've had?

Since I was following an academic research path and already in this environment, it was easy to get advice from my postdoctoral advisor and others on how to successfully apply for an academic position. I was very fortunate and had a successful search in which I was able to choose among great places. I am still in the same position that I got straight out of my postdoc and plan to stay here, so hopefully I won't have to apply for jobs again!

What advice would you give to someone interested in following a similar career path?

To succeed in running an academic research lab, you absolutely have to be passionate about your research and love what you do. The hours are long and the tangible rewards are few and far between. But, the daily rewards are great if you love the science and training the next generation of scientists — the days when you have a student come to your office with a good result or see a formerly shy student give a great talk at a national meeting are pretty cool.

What would you have done differently in preparing for your career?

All of your training prepares you to be a scientist, but doesn't prepare you to manage people or budgets. But as for many things, the best way to learn is by actually doing, so I am not sure I would have appreciated learning about any of this until I actually needed the skills.

How much do you like what you do? Why? Is it what you imagined it would be? If not, how have you adapted?

I love most of it, except that it is much harder to get grants than I thought it would be. So, I just keep trying to do good science and keep writing grants!

How do you achieve career-life balance? Is this easy or hard to do? How many hours do you typically work per week?

This is still hard for me to do. I usually work between sixty and seventy hours a week. But you just have to choose what is important in your life and let go of other things that are less important to you. I feel most balanced when I feel like I am in control of my decisions. So, once I remember that I am choosing to work because I enjoy it, I feel much better. I also put a big priority on making a time for myself every day (usually this involves exercising), and this also helps me immensely.

What strategies have you figured out over time to help you succeed?

I have tried to figure out how to work more efficiently. I am constantly trying to prioritize tasks and focus on those that are most important. I also try to organize my daily schedule to maximize the times when I can be most effective — for example, I write best in the mornings, so I try to keep mornings clear for writing papers or grants, then have meetings in the afternoon when it's harder for me to focus.

How do you see your field changing in the next 5–10 years?

I am an evolutionary geneticist — in this field, we are starting to see genomic resources and data generated for a lot of organisms that have not traditionally been model laboratory organisms. This is a really exciting time, and right now it seems like people are focused on generating these genomic datasets. So, in the next few years, we will be able to start thinking about biological diversity and processes like speciation in unprecedented ways.