Episode 06 - Kimberley Gibson

For this week’s episode, I interviewed Kim Gibson, a post-graduate research associate in Chuck Sindelar’s lab, here in the MB&B Department at Yale. She earned both her Bachelor of Applied Science and her Masters of Science degrees at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Afterwards, she spent several years at the Max Planck Institute studying and developing an incredible new method in the field of structural biology known as cryo-electron microscopy.

Kim and I nerded out longer than usual about how cryo-electron microscopy is slated to revolutionize how we do biology; her winding trajectory from an creative arts-focused high school to the delicate art of ultrastructural analysis of plant tissues; and how cultural differences between Canada, Germany, and the United States dramatically affected the dynamic at the bench.

Near the end of the podcast, Kim wrestles with defining the scientific identity—and how that identity interacts with and defines our other identities.

“When I was studying art in high school, one of the students posited the question: ‘At what point do you call yourself an artist?’

And you know, no one as a scientist ever really asks this. Once you finish your degree in general biology, most people would probably call you a scientist. But it’s one of these identity things that you kind of need to ask.

I could say 'I do science,' but at the end of the day I take that hat off.”

- Kim Gibson

Links

Sindelar lab website - https://www.sindelarlab.com/

Cryo-EM review - http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v13/n1/full/nmeth.3694.html