Kirstin R.W. Matthews

Sally Ride’s reach for the stars

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Over the past eight years at the Baker Institute, I have had the honor of meeting presidents and presidential candidates. I have heard speeches from foreign dignitaries and high ranking governmental officials. But nothing was as exciting for me than meeting astronaut Sally Ride. In a nutshell, she was my hero. I never really considered being an astronaut as a child. I always had my sights set on going into biology and research. But Sally Ride was a role model in space and on Earth. She proved to me as a young child that I could do whatever I wanted as long as I worked hard. Continue Reading →

When the courts make science policy

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Over the past two years, scientists working on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have been waiting for a court decision that would decide the fate of their research. In the case Sherley v. Sebelius, two stem cell researchers — James Sherley, M.D., Ph.D. and Theresa Deisher, Ph.D. — filed a case against the U.S. government and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reviewed whether federal law prohibits the funding of hESC research or just funding the creation of the cells. This is not the first time science and research was decided in the courts — and unfortunately, it probably will not be the last. Continue Reading →

SOS from young scientists

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Biomedicine is prematurely going gray. Despite soaring funds for biomedical research over the past few decades, new and young investigators are finding it increasingly difficult to begin academic careers in this field. From 1980 to 2010, the average age of a new investigator funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. government agency that funds the majority of biomedical research, rose from 36 to 42. Some of this increase can be attributed to the length of current graduate school programs. However, the majority is a result of the significant amount of time that young scientists spend as postdoctoral researchers or in nontenured research and lecturer positions — jobs that lack the independence or prestige of tenure track positions. Scientists take these jobs because they are available, and because of the lack of better-paying, longer-term positions in their specialties. Continue Reading →