Animal Assets in Academia Germany with Pet Owners Willing to Pay Big $15,000 in Research Funds
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CAREER VIEW NATURE|Vol 453|8 May 2008 MOVERS NETWORKS & SUPPORT Karin Lochte, director, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Animal assets in academia Germany With pet owners willing to pay big $15,000 in research funds. “I was money for special operations, many never that interested in stepping out 2000–07: Director, Biological veterinary surgeons are taking up of clinics long enough to earn a PhD,” Oceanography Research Unit, lucrative specialist private practices. she says. Jesty, a trained cardiologist, Leibniz Institute of Marine Recruiting graduates into academia says that this experience will probably Sciences, University of Kiel, has become difficult. This could be steer her towards academia, ideally as Kiel, Germany detrimental, as graduates are well- a clinical professor spanning the gap 1995–2000: Director, suited to address animal-health between basic science and the clinic. Biological Oceanography crises, such as infectious diseases, as Last year, the University of Research Department, well as basic biomedical questions. Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Leibniz Institute for Baltic “We are losing a core of faculty that Medicine set up a similar programme, Sea Research Warnemünde, have taught students in the past,” says focused on translational research in Rostock University, Rostock, Michael Kotlikoff, dean of the College infectious diseases. It plans to offer Germany of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell fellowships in three other areas — University in Ithaca, New York. In comparative oncology, regenerative Karin Lochte thought that she would be content teaching response, Cornell has created a two- medicine and stem-cell biology — as biology and chemistry. But a marine-science training year clinical-fellowship programme as funding becomes available. “We’re course made her realize she preferred generating new a route for academics. Until now, looking for people who want to cure, knowledge as a scientist. Now a sought-after expert on the veterinary students with academic not manage, disease,” says Joan ocean’s role in global climate change, Lochte says her most inclinations have had only a handful of Hendricks, the school’s dean. recent move will demand that she continue to inform a joint doctor of veterinary medicine Kotlikoff and Hendricks say that contentious policy debate with robust scientific findings. (DVM)–PhD programmes to apply to. veterinary medicine offers unique As a postdoc at the Institute of Marine Science, Those who realize their academic biomedical insights, particularly into University of Kiel, Lochte examined carbon turnover in the calling during a DVM must follow up naturally occurring genetic diseases deep sea. To understand carbon-cycle dynamics relevant to with a PhD. Kotlikoff was inspired by that are also found in humans. And its climate change, it was important to understand how carbon programmes for academia-bound cutting-edge resources could benefit is biologically exported from the sea surface to the sea physicians eager to combine basic other fields. Cornell’s biobank of floor, effectively exiting the carbon cycle. “With this work, I research skills with clinical training. canine DNA contains a huge suite of unintentionally drifted into the climate debate,” she says. “Nobel prizewinner Harold Varmus tissue samples, and blood tests will Her work then took a southward turn. As a research followed this route — obviously with aid canine genetics and other research. scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and great success,” says Kotlikoff. Kotlikoff and Hendricks hope other Marine Research, Lochte went to Antarctica to study how Sophy Jesty, one of the first three schools will adopt similar approaches, bacteria cooperate with phytoplankton in sea ice. She fellows on the Cornell programme, and convince veterinary scientists this moved on to the University of Bremen in Germany, and jumped at the chance of a two-year is a viable career path. ■ then accepted a professorship in biological oceanography paid fellowship: $60,000 salary and Virginia Gewin at the University of Rostock, in the former East Germany, to see first-hand the changing former communist region — and help establish a competitive scientific-research POSTDOC JOURNAL institute. The move drastically altered her research. She began working on the nitrogen cycle in polluted coastal waters Going with your gut rather than carbon cycle in the open ocean. At the same The hummus in Israel is made from freshly cooked chickpeas yielding a creamy, time she was asked to sit on international scientific panels. delectably rich spread that complements fresh pitta and Syrian olives. I find Ultimately, Lochte decided to return to her first love: conversations flow easily with hummus — whether debating who has the open-ocean science. She focused on iron as an important best hummus in town or the best interpretation for a set of experiments. It’s ‘fertilizer’ of the ocean that can help to soak up carbon a wonder how simple things can be interpreted so differently. Yet, just as the dioxide from the atmosphere while at the Leibniz Institute quest for the ultimate hummus can lead to new destinations; so too a simple of Marine Sciences in Kiel. Happy there, Lochte admits she band on a gel can direct me to one experiment and my colleague to another. had to be coaxed into her current position at the Wegener Differences in interpretation that may initially seem trivial could have a crucial institute. But, she says, it’s the perfect place to strengthen impact on the direction and take-home message of a project. I think part of much-needed research in the Arctic, a region experiencing becoming a seasoned scientist is learning how to build confidence in one’s more rapid changes than any other ecosystem in the world. ability to interpret data independently and to defend those interpretations. She laments how a lack of funding for the ships and I experienced this recently while preparing a manuscript. I debated with my infrastructure needed in polar regions is crippling marine colleagues on how to interpret a key phenotype in a pepper mutant. In the end I research — a trend exacerbated by soaring oil prices. went with my gut — which, I am learning, is a wise move for a good scientist, and for a hummus aficionado. Now, when I discuss data with friends, it is at my Former colleague Carol Turley at the Plymouth Marine chosen restaurant. Who would have thought my ability to choose between Laboratory, UK, says that, with contentious issues such as hummus with a touch of cumin or a ‘shpritz’ of lemon would help me defend my climate change, it is important to have leaders such as experimental interpretations? ■ Lochte with integrity as well as an appreciation of the whole Zachary Lippman is a postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s ■ picture. “Karin won’t spin the facts,” says Turley. faculty of agriculture. Virginia Gewin 254.