We recently caught up with one of our students, Judy Choi, to give you an insight into the life of an early career scientist. Judy is completing her PhD with the support of a Bright Sparks Scholarship, which assists our brightest young researchers at the very start of their careers.
Tell us a bit about yourself
I’m 26 and currently doing my PhD in the Cardiovascular Inflammation and Redox Biology laboratory. I work as a teaching associate at Monash University alongside studying. I regularly serve at my local church and have been playing piano since I was 16 years old.
What inspired you to pursue a career in science?
I have a family history of heart disease which ignited a passion to understand and protect my family from experiencing its negative effects. I pursued my study at the Baker Institute because it is dedicated to researching heart disease and diabetes. Here, I get to work with an amazing calibre of researchers and scientists and am given the unique opportunity to find answers to unanswered questions.
What does your research involve?
People with diabetes have higher risk of an acute myocardial infarction, commonly known as heart attack. Heart attacks weaken and change heart structure, increasing the risk of heart failure. My research involves exploring drugs that aims to lessen inflammation after a heart attack. Through my work, I hope to improve cardiac function in diabetic hearts by using drugs to inhibit cell death after a heart attack.
How has the Bright Sparks program assisted you?
The program has been, and continues to be, a great support in allowing me to focus on my research without financial stress. It is also wonderful to be recognised for my achievements which make me strive to do better and further excel in my research.
What is your favourite inspirational quote and why?
‘Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.’ — Dale Carnegie (Author and Lecturer)
Science is a mix of success and failure. Experiments don’t always go as planned or as expected. However, we find answers from our failed experiments to get our next experiment to work. I think life is the same, we shouldn’t be discouraged by failures but rather use our failures to learn, try again and reach success in all aspects of life.
For more information about supporting one of our young scientists, please contact:
Annie Kaufeler
Philanthropic Relations Lead
E: annie.kaufeler@baker.edu.au
M: +61 419 737 424