The Microscopists is a podcast from Bitesize Bio and ZEISS Microscopy that takes you into revealing, entertaining, and personal meetings with the great microscopists of our time. Your host is Dr Peter O'Toole. Peter will help you understand what drives great, successful scientists, what really inspires them and what they enjoy most in life.
This set of candid, fun, and engaging interviews serves not only to help inspire upcoming scientists but to show how career tracks and work-life balance are managed by some of the best. Not only are they great at work, but they have some amazing stories to tell about their lives outside science.
Browse all The Microscopists episodes here:
http://bit.ly/the-microscopists-pds
The Microscopists BiteSize Bio
Petra Schwille (Max Planck Institute)
#11 Petra is a dedicated high flyer that simply loves her work (and her music, for which there is little she cannot play to concert level!). We chat about how she was given very little PhD supervision but encouraged to simply explore.
We also discuss her time in the USA before returning to Germany where she has become a Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry.
Not only high flying at work, Petra also has a head for heights that she reveals as we talk about raising and balancing family life, her hobbies which include climbing and yes…music! Watch/listen to this 'classical' podcast.
Browse all The Microscopists episodes here: http://bit.ly/the-microscopists-pds
Jeff W. Lichtman (Harvard University)
#10 From Cajal to Google, networks to solve networks! Jeff is another person who simply does not stop innovating and exploiting new technology. In this podcast, he talks about the very first time he saw the Brainbow image, in a step by step manner that simply blew him away, through to his past inspirations and today's motivations.
New technologies come with larger and larger data sets, and he chats about how is now working with Google to help with the analysis.
With an equal passion for teaching as well as research, Jeff does not slow down, although he does have fun outside of work, and enjoys the simple pleasures of morning dog walks and good Italian food.
View all episodes of The Microscopists here: https://bitesizebio.com/the-microscopists/
Dan Davis (The University of Manchester)
#9 What a time to chat with an immunologist! It makes a change to hear Dan talking about himself, how he developed his career, including the real motivation to becoming a Professor at Imperial at such a young age.
Starting out as a Physicist, Dan made a remarkable and fast switch in careers to which he attributes much of his success. Sometimes a passion coupled with early naivety can be the perfect starting point.
As well as being a passionate communicator and Dan also discusses balancing being a father, husband, scientist, and popular book author. I wish I had asked him what he preferred, starring in book festivals or headlining science conferences! One thing is for sure, his sense of humor is not as good as his science or writing. Make sure you watch/listen to the end to realize just how bad his jokes are!
Lucy Collinson (The Francis Crick Institute)
#8 Lucy Collinson has been at the forefront of 3D volume and correlated electron microscopy since setting up the internationally renowned facilities at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute and now the Francis Crick Institute.
In this episode, Peter O'Toole discusses not only Lucy being a leading light in her field and her motivations, but uncovers some of Lucy's more obscure passions. Not to give too much away, but surfing and being a dedicated Eurovision fan are just elements worth listening for.
While the episode isn't just about work, it was great to hear about how Lucy's career developed and how she became so successful (while still liking the Eurovision song contest!).
Listen to all the Microscopists episodes here: http://bit.ly/the-microscopists-pds
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Hari Shroff (NIH)
#7 Young, successful and still so disarming. In this episode, Hari Shroff reveals what it was like to work in the exciting area of Super-Resolution microscopy during its infancy, and discusses working in the early days of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus.
Hari discusses his latest work and the efforts that go behind such a high impact publication while also talking about the advice and patience he needed when setting up his own lab. Unwittingly, Hari and Peter O'Toole's paths came very close as Hari spent some of his youth in Peter's city of Birmingham in the UK, which unfortunately was not the place that it is thankfully now.
Thank you, Hari, for taking the time to chat, especially as he is juggling work with a young family, as well as his work family, which is evident from the interview.
Scott E. Fraser (University of Southern California)
#6 - It would be fair to say that Scott Fraser has influenced the microscopy community more than most. As the person behind the Meta detector, he made a massive impact on the microscopy community and is now seeing these adaptations being adopted in other fields again. But how did Scott find himself in such a position? It appears as though his coffee machine is the answer behind most inventions!
This episode reveals just how personable Scott is, along with his natural humility. Scott also shows his softer side, as he is joined by his new kittens in his Rudolf Schindler house (worth tuning in for itself!). He also discusses how he has had to improvise and invent new gadgets to protect his home-made amps from his new kittens.
© BiteSizeBio / Science Squared Limited 2020
M_Hennessy92 , 03/09/2020
Really enjoying this series
Great to listen to on the commute or while setting up samples for imaging 🔬
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