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2min chapter
05 - Jennifer Doudna, PhD - Giants of Gene Therapy
ASGCT Podcast Network
The Journey to Science: Early Influences and College Choices
This chapter explores the speaker's formative experiences that sparked their passion for science, including their family background and absence of scientific role models. It also highlights the key mentors they encountered and discusses their decision to attend Pomona College for its strong liberal arts and biochemistry programs.
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Speaker 1
And
Speaker 2
of course, we've heard about, you know, when your father, you know, gave you a book by James Watson, you know, that's, I think how it started out, or at least there was some of the initial time. Is there any other science in the family? Your sisters?
Speaker 1
No science in the family. No, I've got my family as preachers, lawyers, and teachers.
Speaker 2
Okay, so how then did you, I mean who encouraged you then to pursue this career in science? What were the next steps for you? I
Speaker 1
don't know if anyone really encouraged me in the beginning. It was really own thinking that would now I kind of remember thinking in early years of high school that it would be exciting to be a scientist someday. I couldn't quite imagine. I didn't quite know what that even was, but sounded interesting. I imagined being able to spend my career figuring things out. And it just sounded like an amazing line of work. And then, of course, I did end up having a number of people who encouraged that interest once they became aware of it. So my dad was one of them, for sure. My high school chemistry and biology teachers were both encouraging. And then of course, when I got to college, I, you know, ended up with a number of mentors who gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to pursue my interest.
Speaker 2
So how did you pick your college Pomona College?
Speaker 1
Well, I know my parents had gone to Oberlin College in Ohio, that was immediately off my list. I couldn't imagine quite going to Ohio from Hawaii. On the other hand, I did like the idea of a liberal arts education. My parents were in very, you know, supportive of that pursuing that kind of a college experience. And we had family friends who had gone to Pomona, both of them. And they said, you know, they said great things about Pomona's program, especially in science. Both of our friends were medical doctors. And so when I looked into Pomona's program, especially in chemistry and biochemistry, they were one of the very few undergraduate programs back in the early 1980s when I was applying to college who had a program for undergraduates in biochemistry. So that was one of the factors that was very important in my choice.
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