Concluding remarks
I hope that from this review of the JUSTL programme, you can see that it had positive life- and career-changing effects on many of the JUSTL participants. Interestingly, the participants were inspired by different aspects of the programme.
For some, the JUSTL programme had a real career-changing effect. For example, Dr Tori Xiao was in the middle of her PhD training during the JUSTL programme. She had previously completed courses in dentistry and was aiming to continue her dental training after completing her PhD. However, after the JUSTL programme she decided stayed in academia and is now an Assistant Professor at the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry at the University of the Pacific.
Dr Raymond Leung also made a life-changing decision during his time on the JUSTL programme. At the time, he was struggling to decide whether to continue with a research career after finishing his PhD or stay in education and go to medical school. However, after a conversation with his JUSTL mentor, Professor Karen Crawford, he realised that he really wanted to be a doctor, and this is the career path that he followed on his return to Hong Kong. He has just recently started his Senior Residency training in Tai Po Hospital, specialising in Psychiatry.
Dr Katherine Qian also made a career-changing decision after attending the JUSTL programme, when she decided that she was more interested in the application of science rather than in basic research and so after completing her PhD, she made a move to industry and she is now a Senior Clinical Manager at Intuitive Surgical-Fuson Medical Technologies in Shanghai.
In some cases, JUSTL participants did especially well in their laboratory-based work and were subsequently named as co-authors on publications prepared by their mentors. The contributions of Dr Penny Lam, Ms Connie Lau, Mr Jacky Hung and Dr Jacky Kwok were all recognised in this way.
For a number of people, the JUSTL programme gave them the opportunity to learn a new technique. This was where Dr Jacque Ip was first introduced to the advantages of using two-photon imaging to visualise neuronal dendrites in vivo, and where Dr Ian Mo and Dr Tim Wong first learned histological techniques. Drs Ip, Mo and Wong are still using these methods in their research today.
Several people were inspired by the lectures and workshops they attended during the JUSTL programme. Indeed, Dr Cora Lai probably wins the prize for the most number of lecture attended – 55 – during her 8 weeks at the MBL!
Drs Helen Hao and Idy Ho were both inspired by the prestigious Friday evening lectures. Indeed, Dr Ho was so interested in the way that a world-class scientist could explain their research findings in language simple enough for even young children to understand, that she was motivated to participate in several STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses for secondary school students when she was back in Hong Kong.
While each of the JUSTL participants got something different out of the JUSTL programme, everybody seemed to be impressed by the number of world-class researchers who spend their summers in Woods Hole, and by the fact that they were all approachable and friendly, and they took a real interest in the students’ research and education. The JUSTL participants were also very impressed by the diverse and dynamic nature of the research environment at the MBL as well as the cooperation and collaboration between laboratories. Many of the people who I spoke to, told me that they had such an amazing experience on the JUSTL programme that, given the opportunity, they would like to go back to Woods Hole to experience the summer season once again.