Grad School is Just Chess with Pipettes
Lessons learned from 10,642 chess games that also applied to my PhD
In grad school, I learned how to play chess—and got addicted to it. At first, it was just a fun distraction from experiments and papers, but over time I realized that many of the lessons I was learning over the board applied just as much to my PhD. Strategy, patience, resilience—the same principles that helped […]
Time is ticking for the creative art industry?
An AI newbie’s experience organizing and participating in the MIT AI for Filmmaking Hackathon.
What would you do at 7:30 am on a 30 degree, rainy Saturday morning? If it also happened to be Lunar New Year’s Eve? While my roommate was still waking up and getting ready to wish his family a happy New Year, I was carrying a box of T-shirts and running to the MIT Innovation […]
Grad school is like high school for adults (in the best way)
Letting go of the worst qualities I developed in college and re-embracing the best qualities I lost from high school
Since I started my PhD in 2023, I’ve felt like I’m in high school again—I’ve ditched my hyper-focused mentality from college and allowed myself to let loose like a teenager.
A scientist’s guide to French macarons
What baking things that I don't actually like eating taught me about the purpose of my PhD
I do not consider myself a baker. I couldn’t tell you the difference between baking soda and baking powder. Do I know the basic ingredients that go into a cake or chocolate chip cookie? No. But do I have a big sweet tooth? Also no. For some inexplicable reason, though, I have become obsessed with […]
Stop sprinting towards your future
What my time in industry taught me
I always knew I would come back to academia. It didn’t matter that I would be taking at least one year off to work a flashy new job in Seattle biotech. It didn’t matter that the position would be a lot less stressful, and have a lot more benefits, than graduate student life. My mentor […]
