Science is often portrayed as a futuristic field, but every major discovery is predicated on the work that came before it. Progress relies both on good data, as well as good training of new leaders in the field. Mentorship has always been, and continues to be, central to academia. Just as every great breakthrough is built on the foundation of others’ contributions, every great scientist has developed with the support of key mentors.
Zhaoxia Sun, Associate Professor and Co-Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Genetics, knows a lot about the importance of mentorship in shaping career development, both as a mentee herself and a mentor for others.
After finishing her undergraduate and master’s degree in China, Dr. Sun moved to New Haven to begin her Ph.D. at Yale. David Stern, her thesis advisor, played an important role in her transition. She says she had limited research experience, but “Dr. Stern was encouraging, patient and accessible. He provided ample room for me to enjoy science and independent thinking.”
As a postdoc at MIT, Dr. Sun gained another impactful mentor: Nancy Hopkins. “Dr. Hopkins is a visionary and a role model,” Dr. Sun explains. “She was able to identify important challenges both in science and scientific Institutions.” Dr. Hopkins, an accomplished virologist, implemented a pseudotyped retrovirus as an insertional mutagenesis tool to address the bottleneck of gene cloning in zebrafish. Dr. Sun says that “My research project in her lab shaped the direction of my own group when I came back to Yale as a faculty member.”
In addition to her contributions to genetics, Dr. Hopkins has elucidated gender inequality in science, using a scientific approach grounded in data. Dr. Sun says that “her pioneering work in women in science directly leads to increased effort in gender equality in many institutions. No doubt this has had a positive impact on my career.”
Both her mentors helped shape her approach to science. Dr. Sun explains that her “current research centers on the role of cilia in vertebrate development and disease, with a particular focus on renal fibrosis and kidney cyst,” using zebrafish and mice as model systems. She describes her lab as driven by curiosity, much like her mentors. “Both David and Nancy are thinkers motivated by questions,” she says.
Dr. Sun describes her own approach to mentorship as founded on “respecting and encouraging the inner drives of people around me.” She focuses on the potential of the people she works with, recalling the opportunities she had as a graduate student.
Mentorship will always play a crucial role in academia, she says. It provides the experience of learning by doing. Just as important as new discoveries are the people behind them, Dr. Sun believes. “We need new generations of original thinkers.”