Science AMA Series: I am Joanne Kamens, Executive Director of nonprofit Addgene. I speak to 100’s of scientists each year about tackling problems in research. Women in science? Mentorship? Turning your PhD into a career (academic or not)? Ask me anything!

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Hi reddit!

I did my PhD at Harvard Medical School in Roger Brent’s lab. Roger was the first scientist to fuse 2 parts of a protein together and show that both worked. I still love “molecular technology”. Ours was one of the labs that developed and used the yeast two-hybrid system. I married a rocket scientist and had a baby in grad school. I had an awesome advisor (but didn’t know how lucky I was until many years later). He helped me transition directly to pharma by referring me to my first job right after grad school at BASF Bioresearch Center. I worked there for 15 years in 4 different roles. I had another baby. We were bought by Abbott in the middle of my time there, so I left Abbott (now AbbVie) as a Group Leader in Molecular Biology and made the leap to biotech for new challenges. I learned a lot.

I still loved molecular technology so the biotech was an RNAi company called RXi started up by Craig Mello and other RNAi luminaries. I started there as the Director of Discovery (evoking an explorer on the prow of ship for my parents) and left 4 years later as the Senior Director of Research Collaborations, a business development role. This position gave me many of the key management skills I now try to instill in others.

Then, through a series of lucky connections, I heard about the (never advertised) position to lead Addgene. Addgene is a fantastic nonprofit and, while I did a lot of nonprofit work in my career, this was the first time it was my day job. I learn a lot about communication, planning and teamwork from the Addgene founders and all the talented Addgenies.

Meanwhile, after a solid week of meetings at Abbott where I never saw another woman (and was asked to take the minutes many times) I founded our local chapter of the Association for Women in Science and got involved in much women in science rabble rousing. I helped create, run and promote mentoring programs because that’s one way to move the needle for under-represented groups. I started doing career talks and now I speak regularly all over the world on diverse subjects such as networking tactics, work/life negotiation, open science, mentoring, management skills, transferable skills, and transitioning out of academia. I’ve served on many nonprofit boards and most recently I am newly excited about a few organizations working to promote science and science education (especially for girls) in Africa.

I'll be back at 5 PM EST (2 PM PST, 10 PM UCT) Ask me anything!

">Science AMA Series: I am Joanne Kamens, Executive Director of nonprofit Addgene. I speak to 100’s of scientists each year about tackling problems in research. Women in science? Mentorship? Turning your PhD into a career (academic or not)? Ask me anything!