Science with a Side Order of Art...or Literature...or...

Not long ago, students who excelled in science were largely herded into careers in engineering and medicine. (Actually, as a girl, you were mostly directed toward medicine but that’s a different entry...)

But like the rest of science, which has advanced in ways many could not have predicted (genetic clones, mapping of the human genome, the development of handheld computers/phones/cameras to name a few), careers in science have broadened tremendously. Today, scientific careers merge interests and disciplines that previously had about as much in common as quartz and quarks.

Take Don Bliss, a medical illustrator whom I interviewed a few years ago for a book on careers in health published by Sally Ride Science. Don loved drawing as a child but didn’t think it was something that he could make a career out of. He drew throughout high school where he developed an interest in biology (he embellished his lab reports with drawings, naturally.) He drew throughout college where he took pre-med classes, sneaking art classes in on the side. He was on his way to becoming a doctor when he spied a poster for a medical illustration program and it clicked: he didn’t have to choose one interest over the other. Today, Don is a medical illustrator for the National Institutes of Health where he uses his background in science and his skills in art to turn complex research into illustrations and images that can be easily understood by wide audiences.

I’ve interviewed numerous people who, like Don, found ways to successfully combine their passions into a career. Among them:

• a neuroscientist who put his love of scuba diving to good use by searching coral for potential medical compounds
• an astrobiologist who devoured science fiction as a kid and wanted nothing more than to look for “cool, weird creatures” when she grew up. Today she journeys into caves in search of extremophiles – rare (cool, weird) organisms that can survive in extreme heat or extreme cold
• a baker who blended her love of food and science into a career as a flavorist for a major food manufacturer
• a science star and talented soccer player who became a physical therapist for the gold-medal winning U.S. Women’s Soccer team
• a forensic scientist whose desire to solve crimes became reality – all within in her lab
• and more...

As students explore their career options, it might help them to know that the days of having to choose one interest over another are gone.  Students today can combine their interests – and do it in the name of science.