Denis,
It’s ironic that when facing a problem like this – being asked to write a piece about the way you affected us in the labs we share – our first instinct would be to come and talk to you, to get the best advice about how to solve the problem. You were a sounding board for life’s daily struggles, as well as for hard problems to solve, and this is a hard problem.
Most of us likely got into science for similar reasons: we are fascinated by biology, we like asking questions purely from curiosity, and we find pleasure in dealing with like-minded people every day. But, it can be easy to lose sight of this at various stages in one’s career. Early on there are all the stressful hurdles of acceptance into the scientific fold, then how to get settled into a career, and eventually to try to...