04/30

My third interview was with Chansie Yang ‘22, an alum who majored in Biology and Environmental Studies (ES) during her time at Wellesley. She grew up in Taipei and is currently working in a research lab at Academia Sinica, with a special interest in plant molecular biology.

Chansie explained that she first decided to major in Biology and ES because of her interest in agricultural issues. Between these two majors, she found that ES focused more on describing and interpreting problems while Biology provided the tools to find a solution. Earlier while we were chatting, Chansie also mentioned that she’ll be heading to graduate school soon in the fall. When I asked her if graduate school had always been part of her plan, she said that it actually wasn’t something she originally planned to do. However, since she plans to move into industry or join international organizations relating to seed banks and crop research, she felt that graduate school would help her develop the skills to be more successful. While she’s enjoyed the detailed focus of academic research, the process requires a lot of time to achieve results, so she wanted to work more in applied settings.

To follow up on this, I asked Chansie about her thoughts on taking a gap year before starting graduate school. Based on her own experience, she said it was actually a great time to rest and recharge, but also gain some more work experience in the lab. In particular, she recommended working at more than one lab to broaden your experiences, since every lab uses techniques and approaches problems differently.

Discussing the differences between the U.S. and Taiwan, Chansie said it’s easier to have more connections in Taiwan, since the community is smaller and more tight-knit, but she appreciates how in the U.S., people tend to be more straightforward about their expectations and values, which helps everyone stay on the same page. With regard to research publications, she also observed that there’s a greater focus on details in Taiwan while the quality of ideas and story is more emphasized in the U.S. Another difference Chansie mentioned was the source of funding in Taiwan, which is largely from public administrations, leading to more regulations on research. As my internship this summer will be with a lab at National Taiwan University’s College of Medicine, I’m curious to experience these differences in lab culture as well!

I asked Chansie if there’s any moment that stands out to her as having been particularly challenging:

“I think research in general is challenging because you can spend a lot of time on the wrong path. To overcome this you have to stay open-minded about your hypothesis and learn to take a step back and consider alternative hypotheses to explain what you’re seeing. And this is hard, because you first have to learn to admit you were wrong.”

What she said was really encouraging to me as I’ve definitely found it difficult to push through when things don’t turn out the way I expected. As a process that involves a lot of trial and error, research can definitely be a challenging field!

Sharing a few last words of advice, Chansie emphasized how important communication is, both to make clear expectations and values, but also to engage with the people around you and learn to ask for help. Another piece of advice she had was to make sure to stay involved in your hobbies, which for her has included hiking and mixology!

It was really great getting to talk to Chansie and hear about her experience in research. Thank you so much Chansie for sharing such great advice! For my fourth and last interview, I’ll be speaking with Dr. Feng-Ming Tien, a hematology doctor at the National Taiwan University Hospital. Hope you enjoyed reading!