“CV Talk”

Philip E. Bourne PhD

pbourne@ucsd.eduhttp://www.sdsc.edu/pb

http://www.sdsc.edu/~bourneTen Simple Rules PLoS Comp Biol Collection

“I Am Now Officially Old”

The Life of One Scientist – The Early YearsSo That You Might Not Make the Same Mistakes

• My high school teacher Mr. Wilson said I would be a failure at chemistry

• My PhD is in chemistry

• The opportunity to live in different places shaped my life

• What you like when you are a kid may shape your future

40+ Years Later

• Good friends are forever

BSc (Hon)It was About Then I Began to Understand Myself – But I

Still Made Mistakes

PhD – The Molecular Basis of Cancer Treatment

• I thought I was at the center of the scientific universe

• I later discovered I was actually in deep space

• I defined my own projects that interested me in the broad lab framework

I Love Computers

Circa 1974

• Your head will tell you stuff• Your heart will tell you something different

• Follow your heart

Postdoctoral Work – The Molecular Basis of How the Body

Works

• Regrets: never learnt another language

Studying Iron Metabolism

Some Things Stay with You Your Whole Life

I Got Involved in Open Source Software

• Look for the signs that will shape your later life

Senior Scientist – Columbia University New York

• Driven not by career but wanting to live in New York City

The IT Years

• Thought more about money than science• Paid the price in later years – only now

catching up• Do I have regrets? - Nah• Stated another way – science is for the long

haul and it is about establishing a reputation• May have “wasted” the most productive years

2011 Ten Simple Rules for Developing and Maintaining a Scientific Reputation PLoS Comp. Biol., To appear shortly

2007 Ten Simple Rules for Doing Your Best Research, According to Hamming PLoS Comp. Biol., 3(10): e213

The Authoring Years

• Make the most of every day

• Don’t sweat the small stuff

Got Involved with the The Human Genome – Was Only Possible by Applying Computers to

Problems in Biology

• Realized what was coming and leveraged the possibilities

• Built on existing strengths

• Was prepared to move• Picked the best place

1995 – Went to UCSD to Apply Computers to Big Biological Problems

• Possibly the best place in the world to do computational biology

www.sdsc.edu/pb

Num

ber

of r

elea

sed

entr

ies

Year

RCSB PDB 1998 -

The RCSB PDB was a Big Plus

• Money talks even in academia

• Satisfied my needs – that engineer again

• High visibility

• Used it to leverage my research

ISCB Involvement 1998-

• Local chair ISMB 2000• Secretary 2001-2• President 2002-3• Program chair ISMB

2006• Program chair RECOMB

2005

• Important to give as well as take

• Great way to network – this is a major key to success

• Teaches you important skills eg management

• Balance it – It is only a very small part of your legacy

PLoS Comp. Biol. 2005-

• Why? - Was disenchanted with where bioinformatics was headed

• Why? Had tenure already

• A distant second – though open access was a good idea

• Outcome – very pleased with what we have accomplished

• A true team effort• Been able to express

myself in new ways• Some recognition, but a

lot of work• Get to see a lot of good

and bad papers

Today - Big Research Questions in the Lab

1. Can we improve how science is disseminated and comprehended?

2. What is the ancestry of the protein structure universe and what can we learn from it?

3. Are there alternative ways to represent proteins from which we can learn something new?

4. What really happens when we take a drug?

5. Can we contribute to the treatment of neglected {tropical} diseases?

August 14, 2009

Student of Many Things – Master of None

• Work with others who can fill the gaps, which implies:

– Management– Delegation– Self confidence

Motivation

There Have Been a Few Ah Hah Moments

Current Career Goals

• Crowd source the twenty first century printing press

• Make a significant contribution to peoples lives as a result of work on a neglected disease

• Inspire young minds

A Few of Life’s Lessons

• Manage by doing not by saying• Treat people well always – you will feel good

and it pays off• Being a successful scientist is about (in ~

order): innovation, papers, communication, management, networking

• Every day ask yourself if you are content – if the answer is no do something else

Life Is About Balance – Easy to Say Hard to Do

More Information

• Lab: http://www.sdsc.edu/pb

• Google – PLoS Collections – 10 Rules

• Great Motorcycle Journeys of the World: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/OFL