Last two years was my transition from a graduate student to a postdoctoral researcher. So it was kind of busy. You know, wrapping up experiments, writing dissertation, looking for jobs, job interview, Ph.D. degree defense.....
Now I've been working as a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University for one year. I am studying the molecular mechanism of aging foe. Although it is kind of different from insect development and metamorphosis, I still use insect as my model. This time the model is fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster.
The whole scientific career just likes the life cycle of an holometabolous insect (complete metamorphosis). Undergrad and graduate study are the embryonic and larval stages. Postdoctoral training is the pupal stage. Faculty is the adult stage where next generation young scientists were 'produced'. The graduate study are the tough time. Some take longer time, others take shorter time. Eventually we make through the graduation, 'the metamorphosis', it is a bit of success. Just like the former lab mate, Alan said after he graduated from Brown,''Pupa here I come". ....
