TIBBS Career Blitz Career Profile Questionnaire

1. Please provide your name and employer: Duke University

2. What is your current title and how long have you worked in your current job? Manager, Virology Unity in the Duke Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (Human resource job classification: Senior Research Associate).

3. Where did you get your PhD and what discipline was it in? University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston TX.

Experimental Pathology

4. Did you do a postdoc? Yes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

5. What are your main daily responsibilities? As the Virology Unit manager I directly oversee all virus research performed in the Duke Regional Biocontainment Laboratory.

The Virology Unit provides comprehensive virology support assays, reagents, expertise, and training to advance a wide-range of virus research requiring up to and including enhanced biosafety level 3 containment in an environment dedicated to the highest standards of safety and compliance. This includes virus propagation, viral load assays, immune response monitoring, and in vivo challenge models.

6. What are the keys to success in your career field?  A diverse knowledge of the technical aspects of working with numerous virus systems; this includes expertise in both classic and modern methodologies  Expertise in infectious agent work requiring enhanced containment.  Detailed understanding of the safety, regulatory, and legal policies that govern work with infectious agents  Good writing skills for supporting the development of grants and manuscripts  Strong people skills/attention to customer service  Networking with specific content area experts

7. What were the most important factors in choosing your career path? I believe that as scientists we are the custodians of the integrity of science. A key aspect of this is the generation of unbiased results using properly designed experiments and quality methodologies with all necessary controls. As a core manager I am able to maximize my impact on the field by supporting numerous projects with quality controlled assays capable of generating consistent and unbiased results.

8. What activities (if any) did you participate in that helped you be successful in obtaining your job? Throughout my career I have always sought to broaden my knowledge of all aspects of virus research. In doing so I have As such I have an understanding of virus surveillance, classic and modern virology techniques, work with in vitro and in vivo models, expertise in numerous levels of biocontainment, knowledge of the regulatory, safety and legal policies related to infectious agent research, etc. I believe that I have been successful in my current position because of this diverse background.

9. What 1 or 2 pieces of advice do you have for people who want to land a job like yours? Learn any scientific technique that anyone is willing to teach you. I firmly believe that every scientist should have at least a working understanding of all aspects/assays related to the projects they are working on.

Value the intellectual input of everyone you interact with regardless of their job title or academic degree. Some of the best ideas I have heard have come from the people I was training/mentoring.