Volume 1, Issue 1July 2007
El Faro Staff
Liliane Cambraia Windsor, Ph.D., M.S.W., Editor
Sheila Kaupert,
Newsletter Coordinator
National Office
Jane Brooks, M.Sc., C.M.P.
Website Coordinator
This Month's Contributors
Melissa Alvarado, M.A.
Jason Burrow-Sánchez, Ph.D.
José Cañive, M.D.
Antonio Cepeda-Benito, Ph.D.
Evelio Escamilla
J. Bryan Page, Ph.D.
Juan Peña, Ph.D.
Ulises M. Ricoy, M.A.
Avelardo Valdez, Ph.D.
Liliane C. Windsor, M.S.W.
María Luisa Zúñiga, Ph.D.
National Steering Committee
José Szapocznik, Ph.D., NHSN Chair
Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, M.D., Ph.D.
Hortensia Amaro, Ph.D.
Ana Mari Cauce, Ph.D.
Joe Martínez, Ph.D.
Patricia Molina, M.D., Ph.D.
Humberto Nicolini-Sanchez, M.D., Ph.D.
Bryan Page, Ph.D.
Rafaela Robles, Ed.D.
Avelardo Valdez, Ph.D.
Bill Vega, Ph.D.
Volume 1, Issue 1
Nuestra Voz-First Person Column
"Science as a Calling" by Ulises Ricoy, M.A.
I recently had the opportunity to have dinner with a world-renowned scientist. I was impressed by the humility and friendliness of someone I would like to refer to as my friend; at least it felt like a friend. With many years of wisdom, he commented about the troubled granting era of today’s budget. He then made a comment that I will probably remember for the rest of my life -- it was one of those moments that just “click” and enlighten your tunnel-vision. He said that just like with priests and artists, being a scientist is a calling. This statement struck me profoundly, especially as we were also talking about how I had just lost my federal fellowship due to major cutbacks.
As I sat there during dinner with my wife next to me, I experienced a moment of gratitude in which I realized how fortunate I was. In an instant, I played the history of Western science in my mind, going back to the philosophy of the ancient Greeks, and to Volta and Galvani’s “low-tech” classic frog experiments of the late 1700s that used thunderstorms as electrical stimuli. Then I thought of Ramón y Cajal in his laboratory, using low-cost histological techniques and spending long hours in observation before stating principles that would revolutionize the future of neuroscience as we know it.
As hundreds of years passed by me in seconds, I acknowledged how fortunate my wife and I were for being able to leave our four-month-old daughter at a friend’s house so that we could both attend this dinner. In an instant I reviewed the past year, in which I had faced numerous slippery slopes in trying to finish my doctoral program. I remembered the many sleepless nights and the desperation of trying to please all my committee members and feeling that it would never happen. I thought about the classic Murphy’s Law, that says everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and about the associated impotence when computers or equipment in the laboratory fail. During this time our daughter was diagnosed with acid reflux, which made things a little more interesting (for lack of a better word). My wife, who is from Mexico City, was going through the classic residence petition bureaucratic process with immigration offices. Then I remembered lying in bed in 1998 in Nigeria, ill from Malaria, and again lying in bed in 2000 in Mexico City from a Malaria relapse. At times, it would be so incredibly overwhelming that I would start to repent on the idea of getting a Ph.D.
As all these memories played somewhere in my brain, I started forgetting about myself and started wondering about “where” in my brain that could be, or “how?” In an instant, I totally related to the comment my “friend” had made about how being a scientist is a calling.
Now, as I sit in the laboratory, about to embark on the last set of experiments towards completion of my dissertation, I realize that the easiest thing in life is to complain and point fingers. As a father, husband, and scientist, it is actually easier to take things one day at a time. And I have no doubt I will complete my Ph.D. and move on to a Postdoctoral research position. Thank you, John.