Assistant Professor, Columbia University

Jonathan Dworkin

"Being a principal investigator now myself, I really appreciate how special the Rockefeller experience is. The freedom you're given as a student makes the whole experience more open and challenging. Learning to work and think independently is an extremely important part of a research education, and it's a great confidence builder when you're finished."

Jonathan Dworkin knew more about Rockefeller University than most prospective students: He grew up here. When he was a young child, Jonathan's father, Barry Dworkin, was both a student and a junior faculty member at the university. "I grew up feeling that the lab is a fun place to be. I still like working in labs." Appropriately, Jonathan, a 1997 Rockefeller graduate, now runs his own laboratory, in the microbiology department of Columbia University Medical Center, where he studies spore-forming bacteria, including those that cause anthrax, botulism and tetanus. His current research goal is to understand the process by which bacterial spores are formed and how they interact with various host organisms.

A s a Rockefeller student, Jonathan worked with Peter Model and Marjorie Russel, experts in bacterial genetics. His dissertation was on the transcriptional regulation mechanisms of Escherichia coli. "Being a principal investigator now myself, I really appreciate how special the Rockefeller experience is. The freedom you're given as a student makes the whole experience more open and challenging. Learning to work and think independently is an extremely important part of a research education, and it's a great confidence builder when you're finished."

Jonathan encourages his own students at Columbia to work and think independently, but he notices one missing element. "Rockefeller has much more of a family feel about it, and that isn't just because I grew up around there. During Convocation, the ladies from the Purchasing Office came to the room where we were putting on our regalia and they fussed over us like mothers. It's just another thing that is unique to Rockefeller."

Postdoc, Columbia University

Vanessa Ruta

"I had concerns about progressing forward with an academic career while starting a family. But I encourage other women in science to look toward fulfillment in both their professional and personal lives."

Vanessa Ruta is living proof that science and art are not mutually exclusive, and neither is family. When Vanessa, a 2005 Rockefeller graduate, decided to become a scientist, she put all her energy into it, even garnering the university's prestigious David Rockefeller Fellowship in 2003. Before her interest in science ever began, however, Vanessa was a professional dancer. "There are many parallels between the way dancers and scientists work Ñ methodically and passionately. However, I felt better suited to the analytic challenges of science."

A t Rockefeller, Vanessa's work in Roderick MacKinnon's Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics helped solve the structure of the voltage-dependent potassium ion channel. Now she is a postdoc in the lab of Richard Axel at Columbia University, researching olfactory neural coding. "Chemical odorants from a flower, for example, get transformed into a brain signal that says 'this is a rose,' or 'this is a lily.' My goal is to identify the neural connections and electrical pathways of this transmission, to find out exactly how these signals are being read by the brain."

V anessa's transition from Rockefeller to Columbia has underscored the uniqueness of her Rockefeller years. "Rockefeller's environment is very different from Columbia's, and having experienced both has helped me grow as a scientist." Vanessa is not finished with new experiences, however; she recently began a new odyssey as a mother Ñ her son Luca was born during her first year at Columbia. "I had concerns about progressing forward with an academic career while starting a family. But I encourage other women in science to look toward fulfillment in both their professional and personal lives."

Section Manager, High School Science Research Program, American Museum of Natural History

Cate Starr

"I got into a rhythm of explaining my research to the people around me. My father is a scientist and there are many engineers in my mother's family, so they were always interested."

She did not follow the usual academic track, but Cate Starr teaches genetics. Cate works at the American Museum of Natural History as the genetics section manager of the High School Science Research Program. Every year, she guides a group of students through a behind-the-scenes view of the museum's researchers. They learn advanced molecular biology techniques including DNA isolation and sequencing.

I t's an unusual track for a graduate of A. James Hudspeth's Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience, but an entirely natural one for Cate. "I got into a rhythm of explaining my research to the people around me. My father is a scientist and there are many engineers in my mother's family, so they were always interested." At Rockefeller, she was central to a study of genetic deafness in zebrafish. While tracking 25,000 individual fish and devising tests that identified more than a dozen mutant genetic lines of interest, she also participated in Rockefeller's Science Outreach Program, mentoring precollege students. She also began volunteer teaching at the museum.

These projects were so successful that in her last semester at Rockefeller, she collaborated with a postdoc to create a cell biology class for Bard College. "We created the class from the ground up, and Dr. Hudspeth was very supportive." It seemed almost fated that Cate would move on to a permanent position at the museum. And her sphere of influence hasn't ended with her high school students. She also participates in professional development workshops for teachers and is assisting in the development of a course for students at the School of Visual Arts, to focus on the visual aspects of science.

Franchise Integrator and Vice President, Merck Research Laboratories

Andrew Plump

"Being at Rockefeller full-time was a wonderful immersion. The environment really made it easy to focus on my work, and my years there were undoubtedly the most exciting of my professional life."

Ask Andrew Plump what he does for a living and you'll have a lively discussion. A 1993 Rockefeller graduate, Andy works at Merck Research Laboratories as the cardiovascular disease franchise integrator. Hired in 2001 as an associate director in clinical pharmacology, a self-evident position, his now senior-level position generally requires an explanation. "I bring together the bench and clinical arms of pharmaceutical research and development. I coordinate the work of people all over the world into a cohesive effort to forward the goals of drug development. It's an entirely novel position, shaped to fit my diverse background." A ndy began his education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied virology, political science and urban studies. The University of California, San Francisco, Medical School was his next move. "MIT was a very experiment-driven place, but in medical school the learning is very memory-based, very lectureheavy. It wasn't long before I knew I wanted to get back into the lab." He enrolled in a summer study program with Jan Breslow, head of Rockefeller's Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, and later took an official leave of absence from UCSF. "Being at Rockefeller full-time was a wonderful immersion. The environment really made it easy to focus on my work, and my years there were undoubtedly the most exciting of my professional life." A ndy has always found time to pursue interests outside the laboratory as well. While a student, he played on Rockefeller's short-lived but very successful softball team Ñ The Scientists Ñ coached at the time by Jeffrey Friedman, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics.