Why get a PhD?
Author :
Jennifer Reineke Pohlhaus
I may be a bit different than most people who get a biomedical PhD. I didn’t even approach the degree thinking that I would do bench science. What was typical was that I always loved science and figuring things out. Actually, in some ways, I loved math more. Even today, when I am working on a spreadsheet and everything checks out, or I figure out a new formula, or I build a few nested IF statements and don’t get a syntax error, I get a rush of dopamine. My neurons light up. It is a bit harder to get those dopamine moments in science. They happen for sure, but there is a long time of exploration to get there, and even when things click, there is still so much more unknown. It can be hard to feel “done”.
