So many times when people interview a scientist, it seems like all they talk about is the work that they are doing in their field. You very rarely hear about the work life balance that they have to create to develop groundbreaking discovery. So, for my interview with Canan, I went a different approach than asking the typical questions you would ask a scientist. We had an opportunity to talk about her views on living and working in American versus Turkey. What events and groups she participates in when she’s not in the lab to stay connected to her culture and what everyone should know to be successful in their field?
Just to give you a little background on Canan; she from Istanbul, Turkey. She obtained her B.Sc. in Physics Engineering from Hacettepe University in Ankara. She was awarded full-scholarship throughout her M.Sc. studies in Materials Science and Engineering at Sabanci University in Istanbul. As being the top of the list in her field to be entitled to a Fulbright Doctoral Fellow, which gave for the first time in Turkey in 2009, she pursued her Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Canan's research experience focused on the applications of active piezoelectric materials and patterning techniques for 'unusual' electronic devices with an emphasis on bio-integrated systems. Her joint Ph.D. research has implications across a variety of sensors and energy harvesting components for self-powered cardiac pacemakers, multi-functional cardiac vessel stents, non-invasive/wearable/epidermal blood pressure sensors, and skin cancer detection bio-patches. The cool thing about this patch is they were able to see in 30 seconds if there a detection of skin cancer in the body.
She received her Ph.D. degree in August 2014. She is currently a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University and a postdoctoral research associate at The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research of MIT. She also is currently working to have a better understanding of Parkinson’s disease at McGovern Institute for Brain Research of MIT. Her passion in the lab is to make valuable contributions to medical science and advanced engineering devices. Now you may ask. How could she do all this and still have a life outside the lab? Well, she expressed to us that the key is you don’t ever just work on one topic stay diverse socially and academically to create a balance. Always create time for yourself. Remember dreams are always changing. It’s always good to question yourself. You know yourself the best. So, take the time to sit and talk to yourself and ask. What do you want to do? Where do you see yourself in the future? What kind of impact would you want to leave on the world? Then once you answer your own questions. Seek out guidance from a mentor in your field and develop a plan and work toward it every day. One thing that she likes about American is that it is full of different cultures and fast pace. The biggest adjustment for her was the gender inequality in the lab. In Turkey, none of her male counterparts question if she did her work on her own but, here she encountered that a lot working on her masters. She also, mentioned people in Turkey are more relaxed and personable not just in conversation but more so in meals and coffee time. She gets to have a taste of home once a month when her group Boston Turkish Biologists Colloquium get together for food and presented their work to the group. All in all, we can learn a lot from women like Canan. If nothing else remembers to take the time to ask yourself those life questions and aspire for that work life balance.
