Qin Liu on Part-Time Staff Supervising Phd Students Or Applying for Funding

CAREERS

part-time workers. You will need a manager who can appreciate your contribution and nurture your development. Find out TURNING POINT about the presence and status of other part- time scientists; schemes that support career re-entry; and whether there are limitations Qin Liu on part-time staff supervising PhD students or applying for funding. A good manager will recognize that your worth is unlikely In July, Qin Liu began her tenure as an

to be directly reflected in metrics that have associate professor of biostatistics at the Wistar WISTAR been developed for and by full-time aca- Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She demics. Be sure that your institution, direc- explains how she has combined a medical tors and manager will allocate part-time degree with graduate research in epidemiology teaching and administration loads fairly, and biostatistics to focus on cancer research. and are willing to adjust metrics and mile- stones to account for career stage, part-time You set out to be a clinical doctor. What status and other duties (such as teaching). sparked your interest in biostatistics? If you are in a tenured position, take the I expected to become a clinical doctor when I initiative and find solutions that will work completed my MD at Shanxi Medical University for you and your department. Negotiate in Taiyuan, China. I got a job offer at a hospital for all your teaching duties to be in one in Changzhi, my parents’ current residence. semester, so you can dedicate the other Then, during the last year of medical school, to continuous research. Collaborate with I did an internship at the Center for Disease opinions or discuss topics with them. When or join a research team in which your Control and Prevention in Shanxi Province. I I taught, I talked for the entire 45 minutes of expertise is valued, your part-time status is wanted to use population-based data to get use- class. But here, they use half their time to lead accepted and you can work with established ful public-health information. I thought I would a discussion and ask students questions. It researchers. This may require compromise do a graduate programme in epidemiology, but makes the students feel active. I was nervous and concentration on one key research area. the principal investigator wanted a man. He felt at first as a student, because my English was Recognize where part-time work pro- it wasn’t safe for a woman to travel alone col- not good and I couldn’t organize my thoughts vides an advantage over more conventional lecting data in the countryside. Biostatistics was to reply. But I learned to focus my energy to be employment. A part-time postdoc, research similar, without the travel, and a good fit. I did ready when the teacher called on me. fellow or contract researcher can adapt to a survival analysis of people with lung cancer. workloads that vary with the cycles of grant Do you think you will eventually return to China? funding, and provide continuity and man- How did you end up in the United States? Several people have contacted me, and I know agement in a lab group. At the same time, the After completing my PhD at Shanghai Medi- there is a lot of funding from the Chinese part-timer can maintain and build their own cal University and working there as a lecturer, government to attract good researchers back expertise so that they can embark on more I was chosen, from 30 applicants, for the one to help develop public-health projects. But so ambitious projects if they return to full-time opening in a biostatistics postdoctoral training far, I haven’t thought about going back. work after a few years, or even decades. programme at the Cancer Center of the Uni- You need to be brave to undertake an versity of Massachusetts (UMass) in Worcester. How have funding ups and downs affected unusual career path. You may be unsuc- your career? cessful according to the metrics used by What was a pivotal point in your early research? I worked at the cancer centre at UMass for administrators, and your performance may I found that women who get pregnant have an seven years, until our funding ran out. Almost be judged poorly against that of full-time increased risk of developing breast cancer for everyone in our group had to look for another scientists. Maintaining confidence in your several years after pregnancy — but later in position. It was very hard. This is a challenge abilities will be difficult under these condi- life, their risk decreases. My team and I inter- in our field: there are few independent grant- tions. Wise mentoring, and acquaintance preted this as evidence that the risk might be ing sources, so biostatisticians have to either with others who have worked part-time or associated with hormonal changes. That was collaborate with other people to analyse their follow non-traditional career paths, can help a big paper for me. Several years later, using a data or work in a group that provides statistical you to negotiate the system. similar statistical model applied to the same services to faculty members. You must be patient with your ambitions, Swedish population data, we found the oppo- I was lucky that the UMass Biostatistical and with your managers and colleagues site trend for ovarian cancer. We need more Research Group, which provides statistical as they adapt to working with part-time data to understand this phenomenon. services to the entire department of medicine, researchers. Above all, enjoy your time with had an opening and chose me. I worked with your children. Your full-time colleagues Why did you then pursue a master’s degree in all different types of researchers, conducting will be promoted ahead of you, but there epidemiology? everything from clinical to policy studies. But will be time to focus more on your career My mentor was an epidemiologist, and I felt I realized I really wanted to return to cancer once your children have grown. ■ that I needed more knowledge for population- research when I saw this opportunity in the based studies. At the time, UMass employees oncogenesis programme at Wistar. Luckily, Kate O’Brien is a part-time lecturer in got a 50% reimbursement for work-related the hiring committee saw me as a potential chemical and environmental engineering at degrees, so I thought, ‘Why not?’ I was also bridge between the basic science and the the University of Queensland in Brisbane, curious as to how US university teachers teach. clinical research being done there. I hope Australia. Karen Hapgood is a full-time the position will afford me more research associate professor in chemical engineering What are the biggest differences between independence. ■ at Monash University in Melbourne, Chinese and US teachers? Australia. In China, teachers seldom ask students’ INTERVIEW BY VIRGINIA GEWIN