Humans of Science

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HoS

Everyone has a story to tell. Humans of Science is a project that showcases the stories and perspectives of people within the scientific community. It was started by Matt Arvedson and Cuyler Luck within ImmunoX at UCSF. But in the spirit of the project, we would like to allow others to share their visions. If you have great content to share, please send it to ‘ImmunoX@ucsf.edu

Miqdad

“Growing up, my older brothers were always my guardians. I was tiny as a kid, so I got bullied sometimes. My brothers would play-fight with me, but if someone else tried to mess with me, my brothers were always there. When I came to do science in the US, I felt lost and alone at times because I’m the first person in my family to do something like this. A lot of the successful people in this field have some sort of background in science. They have a brother, or a father, or a relative. I had nothing. And I not only decided to do a PhD, but I decided to do a PhD on another continent. So I often found myself lost. I learned a lot, but I started thinking that it was unnecessary for people to struggle like that. There are a lot of simple things that I didn’t know when I started, but wish that I had, and I wanted to pass them on to others. It went back to what my brothers had done for me growing up. I felt like I needed to protect people who were like me, who came in with their eyes wide open. I wanted to help get them prepared, or if nothing else just be there for them. It’s a running joke in the lab that if someone is waiting at my bench, it’s because they’ve had a bad day and need someone to talk to.”

Molly

“One big challenge I’ve had throughout my life is dealing with cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis was initially super exciting to me, because it was how I learned about biology and I felt like I was my own case study. I spent a lot of time learning about immunology and how it influences the lung. Eventually, I had that ‘Ah-ha!’ moment of ‘Ok I get it, that makes sense,’ but on a day-to-day basis, I don’t want that to define my life. I think there’s a lot of benefit of being able to compartmentalize this piece of who I am with my daily life, in terms of work, or what I do for fun. Studying cystic fibrosis would be such an all-encompassing thing, that it would be really difficult for me to see it for the piece of my life that it is, and not the defining factor of who I am as a person.

It was harder at first, but there’s a lot of pride that comes with being able to have a conversation with someone very frankly about the experience of examining your mortality throughout your life. I think most people have some big challenges not easily seen from the surface and it’s important to be able to talk about the times when it’s hardest. Being able to step back from it and come to terms with adversity in a way that helps you be a resource for other people going through it, is a really cool feeling and is probably the thing I’m most proud of myself.

Right now, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do with this education that we’re getting and the value of this experience. We don’t have to pay for this, and we’re in a very protected little bubble for the next six years. I’ve been trying to rationalize the privilege of getting that, while also thinking about how to use it to improve things for other people. I’ve been focusing on the challenge of making this experience worth it, not only to myself but in a way that gives back to other people.”

Jackie

“I danced competitively as a kid in elementary school, but hated it and I quit. I played basketball and other sports for a while, but in middle school everyone got into America’s Best Dance Crew and popping. So I taught myself from Youtube and just did it for fun on the side, and then in college I joined a dance team.

During my gap year, I choreographed this project piece with my friends my old team and then another friend approached me about filming a concept video for it. We filmed it in Santa Cruz the month before I came to grad school. We had to get there super early around 5 AM to catch the good light. We were scared as we were driving there because it was gross and foggy at first, but it worked out perfectly. We got there and the fog had parted completely, there was a beautiful blue sky and sunny weather, and we were filming on the edge of a cliff. It was just a good process, hanging out with some of my best friends, filming this thing that we really cared about. It was a great day.”

Jay

“I had this really elaborate plan to propose to her. We were on vacation in the Bahamas, staying in a small cabin near the beach. There was a sunken boat offshore I had known about for years, and I had gotten a small treasure chest that I put the ring in. My plan was to sneak away and quickly plant the treasure chest in the wreck, and then go back and swim out with her to “find” the chest. It was an overly ambitious idea. I’m sure she wasn’t fooled when I mysteriously vanished for thirty minutes and returned with mask marks on my face. But it also turns out that she was very scared of the water. We swam out a little ways and she was not having it. She was trying to play along, but I was realizing this was not going to be the place to propose, with her looking over her shoulder for Jaws. So I swam back out, got the treasure chest and did the whole thing on shore. Fortunately, she said yes anyway.”

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