On the value of working with other scientists and researchers: “One of the joys of academics is the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues, whether it’s within your institution or outside your institution. I’ve been certainly very blessed in that regard. These collaborations are ones that I look back on with a great sense of joy.”
On a lesson of fortitude provided by former NIH colleague and immunologist Dr. Ann Sandberg: “The first six months, I don’t think I had an experiment that worked. It was pretty devastating. And Ann would continually pat me on the back, and say, ‘Keep at it, keep at it. The experiments will start to work. Try this, try that.’ The lesson of perseverance. And finally experiments did begin to work. I think that it’s a lesson I never forgot…the importance of sticking to something you think is important.”
