He has shown me that it is possible to balance work and life well and how compartmentalization can help to achieve that. When I was born, my dad was pursuing his PhD, but even after he became a professor, he did not miss any important moment of my life. My mum trained as a paediatric nurse and has been working for almost 25 years as a nurse practitioner. My father is Han de Winde, a biotechnology researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Research associate at Amsterdam UMC location VU in the Netherlands. Credit: Fred Chang LOTTE DE WINDE: Learn to compartmentalize and prioritize Both have grown to be empathic and respectful humans.įred Chang (left) with his parents and two children. I would like to think that seeing me navigate my identity has had a positive influence on my children. My children have been an important source of support, and they fully support me and my partner. Although this was a challenging time for everyone in the family, we gradually adapted to the changes. It was an extraordinarily difficult process that took many years I regard my coming out as my most courageous act. My son is a mechanical engineer who enjoys the practicality of building structures. My daughter has always been fascinated by the history of Earth, and she’s now a geologist. Woods Hole also operates a science school at which my children learnt how to observe and explore the rich natural environments at the seashore. Woods Hole is like a summer camp for scientists, and my children got to see how much fun I had making discoveries while collaborating with friends and colleagues. They spent many formative summers with me at Woods Hole in Cape Cod, where I work as a summer investigator at the Marine Biological Laboratory. I am a cell biologist and my ex-wife is a professional musician, so my daughter and son grew up with both music and science at home. In my early 30s, I married and had two children. My parents placed a high priority on getting me the best education possible and gave me opportunities to broaden my education in maths and science. She introduced me to the environment of a biomedical lab and trained me to work in one. My mother, Helen Chang, worked as a staff scientist at a diabetes lab at Stanford University in California. My father, David Chang was a mechanical engineer who started a company in our garage, so my childhood was surrounded by electrical machinery and tools. My parents immigrated from Taiwan to the United States in the 1950s to pursue graduate studies in engineering. Professor of cell and tissue biology at the University of California, San Francisco. FRED CHANG: Respect personal choices and decisions But that can be tempered by intense workloads, temporary contracts, pressures to publish and time away from families.įour researchers share how their parents influenced their choice of a research career and how their own parenthoods have influenced their science. Their children can see at first-hand the highs and lows of a career in academic and industry research - the discoveries, collaborations and opportunities to live and work abroad. Scientist parents can be role models for their children and often provide early exposure through science-focused extracurricular activities. Credit: Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo/AlamyĬhildren whose parents have science degrees are twice as likely to pursue science degrees themselves than are those whose parents have degrees in other fields ( N. Albert Einstein and his son Hans-Albert both pursued distinguished careers in science.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |