Welcome to “3 Questions with …”, a recurring feature on the Career Center blog. We’re asking alumni of all graduation years and career interests to share a bit of their experiences and advice.
Minhee Lee, A’20, Biochemistry, Graduate Student, Columbia University
1. In just a few sentences, please tell us about your current job/graduate program/vocational endeavor.
Currently, I’m a 6th year PhD student in the Chemistry department at Columbia University in the Shah Lab. I study protein-protein interactions and how we can utilize what we know about these interactions to develop selective inhibitors.
2. How did your time at Tufts influence your career journey?
I think Tufts has a fantastic Chemistry undergraduate program and teaching faculty, both of which greatly influenced my decision to continue pursuing chemistry as a career path. All the classes I took were challenging yet the professors were inspiring, and really fostered my growing interest in chemistry at the time. I want to particularly thank professors Krishna Kumar, Diren Pamuk-Turner, Joshua Kritzer, and Yu-Shan Lin for their awesome classes and guidance. My undergraduate research experience with Prof. Krishna Kumar was also a huge factor, which introduced me to the field of peptide and protein science, as well as giving me insight into what scientists do for work, at least in academia.
3. What advice would you offer to a student who wants to pursue a career path like yours?
My main advice would be to really get as much research exposure as you can, whether through lab experience and/or reading literature so you can familiarize yourself with a particular field and think about the relevant questions and challenges from many different angles. Also talk to as many people as you can in the field to build up a network, which will only help you. Keep note of the different ideas that you may have from reading and discussions, since they may very well become projects you actually work on if you decide to continue into graduate school!
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