OCT. 5, 2009

Lesson for new graduate students: Failing to succeed

BY TRACIE WHITE

Take chances, be creative, and above all, remember, failure is an option.

This was the message from Philip Pizzo, MD, dean of the medical school, to welcome this year’s new group of PhD students on a warm, breezy afternoon on the green lawn outside of the Clark Center Sept. 21.

“When someone says to you ‘failure is an option,’ it can be shocking,” said Pizzo, acknowledging that this might be a particularly difficult concept for the crowd of bright, highly successful college graduates to grasp. “The view was shocking to me when I first heard it too,” he said. “We’re mixing you up at an environment that asks you to take chances. If you don’t fail along the way, or at least stumble, you’re probably not asking broad enough questions.”

Pizzo spoke together with John Pringle, PhD, senior associate dean for graduate education, at an informal orientation dinner ending the first day of classes for the 93 new PhD students who have arrived at Stanford medical school. They hail from 59 different universities around the world and were selected from 1,423 applicants.

The dinner marks a transition of sorts. Once students enter the world of the laboratory research scientist, things change. It’s a significant step, said Pringle in an interview following the orientation dinner. And one that often takes some adjusting to. “They’re changing from being a ‘student’ to being a ‘scholar,’” said Pringle. “They’re transitioning from doing what they’re told to, to asking their own questions. A lot of the greatest research scholars weren’t particularly good students.”

Fortunately, most of the new PhD students have already had some research experience prior to starting graduate school, taking summer internships and working in laboratories during their undergraduate days as well as in their first years out of college, Eleven have advanced degrees. Students seem to understand, that a certain amount of failure as a researcher is inevitable.

“You can’t get stuck on a certain idea,” said Kristen Earle, a 24-year-old Tufts University graduate entering the microbiology and immunology department. Earle studied stress physiology at a field site in the Mojave Desert, in 114 degree weather watching Chukar, a bird in the partridge family, during her undergraduate days.

“Having done research for a few years, I realize it would be impossible not to fail,” said Earle, who also worked at the National Institutes of Health two years following graduation, studying malaria and host/pathogen interactions.” Once you accept that’s the way things tend to go, it forces you to think outside the box.”

After all, that’s what is exciting and fun about science, said Orly Wapinski, a Brandeis University graduate from Mexico who chose to pursue a career in research science after plenty of advice about its frustrations and disappointments. She comes from a family of scientists.

“They say that in science most of the time it is failure,” said Wapinski, who is entering the cancer biology field. “But the failure pushes you to ask better questions, to think in a different way. It’s something that I enjoy, the process.”

The graduate students will devote much time in the coming year to studying their respective disciplines and doing work to advance the knowledge in their fields. The faculty will guide them in their work, but will also be teaching them what it takes to be a scientist.

“Nobody, I don’t care how famous a scientist they are, gets all their grants funded,” said Ben Barres, MD, PhD, professor and chair of neurobiology “Nobody has all their experiments work. You win some, you lose some.”

So you better enjoy the process.

“Being in a lab should feel like you’re at summer camp,” Barres said. “If it doesn’t, find another lab. Doing science should be fun.”

James Ferrell, MD, PhD, professor and chair of chemical and systems biology, who currently has seven PhD students working in his lab, advises his grad students that endurance is also a key to success. “I encourage our students to never fail, if at all possible, but the fact is the best ideas in science are more likely to be wrong than right,” he said. “Being able to persevere in the face of failure is something they’re going to have to get used to. In the face of a stultifyingly, boring lack of progress, or what can seem like eternities on end, persevere.”

It was while working in a lab during the Stanford Summer Research Program in 2007 that “something clicked” for PhD first-year student Trisha Stan, 22, a graduate of William Jewell College in Liberty, MO. And she knew she wanted to be a research scientist.

“I’ve always loved science, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to be a scientist because I imagined research would be too tedious for my rather creative nature,” said Stan, a native of Hugoton, Kansas, population 3,411.

“That summer I learned how creative and exciting research really can be,” said Stan. “I was doing research full time in a lab that had working equipment that generated quality results and overflowed with exciting ideas. At some point in that summer, I knew I had to be a scientist—to do research—to learn something new and share it with the world.”

The buffet dinner came at the end of the first day of classes for the new students, ending several days of orientation activities. The highlight for many was a student-organized camping trip to Big Basin Redwoods State Park Sept. 18-20 that had just ended the night before. “Anytime you cram five scientists into one tent you’re bound to create some memorable stories,” Stan said.

The orientation activities were one of the few times that the group of students will come together from each of the 13 difference biosciences departments for activities meant to encourage collaboration across disciplines. The message at the dinner was clear from the deans: Don’t disappear behind your microscopes; talk to your colleagues; look for new ideas; and don’t be afraid to take chances.

“Graduate school is a time for exploring and finding out where your passions really lie,” said Pringle. “Work hard, work with passion but don’t work all the time. Some of my most creative days as I scientist were when I took time off.”

Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical education and patient care at its three institutions - Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For more information, please visit the Office of Communication & Public Affairs site at http://mednews.stanford.edu/.