Jill Venton, an analytical chemist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, received the 2011 Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry Young Investigator Award in March for her efforts to develop sensors able to probe neurotransmitters in fruitflies.

As an analytical chemist, do you find neurochemistry messy?

Analytical chemists develop methods to quantify the composition and structure of matter, and I definitely think like an analytical chemist — I like precise measurements with small error bars. But life does not take place in a beaker, and I knew early in my career that I wanted to apply my skills to biology. I did my PhD in analytical chemistry with a neuroscience focus and found that I liked the field, so I followed up my degree by doing a postdoc supervised jointly by a chemist and a neuroscientist. By comparison with chemistry, neuroscience is messy. It's more exploratory, which often doesn't lend itself to nice, neat experiments, because we know so little about the brain — but it has been fun and challenging to use my talent for precision to help develop ways to measure brain functions.

How do you get your research ideas?

Some come from colleagues. For example, a neuroscience colleague wanted to measure neurotransmitters in the fruitfly brain and challenged me to help him find a way to do it. I had never thought of it before, but I was exploring techniques to measure fast changes in neurotransmitters in the mammalian brain, so I thought I could tackle it. Other ideas come from the need to keep pushing technology further and exploring the boundaries of what new methodology can tell us about neuroscience.

What's your strategy for winning early-career awards?

I have applied for a lot of young-investigator awards, and certainly have not won them all. When I started out, I applied indiscriminately for any funding or award. I was lucky to get a US National Science Foundation career award early on, which helped to give my lab a foundation. Once I got that, I became pickier in terms of which awards to seek, because I didn't have infinite amounts of time to apply to them. At the moment, I rely on national funding agencies for my bread and butter, and apply for awards that have a certain level of prestige to supplement that.

You are awaiting a decision on tenure now. Was the tenure process what you expected?

I knew that the tenure committee would look at grants and publications, and that there would be significant emphasis on letters written on my behalf from people outside this institution. Many people do what's called a 'tenure tour' in the year or so before they go up for tenure, working to raise their profiles and build a reputation in the field to ensure those positive tenure letters. I had a baby a year and a half before I went up for tenure, so my ability to travel was limited and I was more selective about where I went. For example, rather than presenting at single universities, I went to a Gordon Research Conference — an international gathering of scientists to discuss the frontiers of research. Before getting pregnant, I spent time networking by meeting people at conferences and organizing workshops or symposia.

Analytical chemistry is a male-dominated field. Does that pose challenges?

Yes. I'm one of only three women in a department of about 30 — and the only woman with a child. But it is very typical in chemistry for women to hold only 10% of the academic positions. Still, this department has accommodated my efforts to set a flexible schedule to balance work and life. The biggest challenge is that there weren't — and still aren't — many role models, successful female researchers. I had to look to biology and neuroscience for those.