Doing the Things that Interest You
BY PHYLLIS FROSST
When I arrive at my office every
morning, the plate outside my
door reads “Senior Science Policy
Analyst.” I work at the National
Human Genome Research Institute,
one of the 27 institutes and centers
that make up the National Institutes
of Health. I never anticipated having
my current job (well, maybe a little
after the interview), but it’s a great
fit for the things that I like and the
things that I do well. How do you
arrive in such a place? You do that
by liking what you do every day;
by using the scientific understanding that you worked so hard for in a
new way; and by finding a job that’s
a fit for you. I can tell you how I
transitioned from the lab bench to
a policy job with my name outside
the door, and I can share the wisdom
I’ve gained from the view on this side
about how to get here.
I never really knew what I wanted
to be when I grew up, but I could
easily describe the kinds of things that
I liked. When I was young, I liked
animals; I liked learning new things,
and I liked reading books. Working
toward undergraduate and master’s
degrees at McGill University, the
things I liked became more refined:
molecular biology, human genetics,
and cell biology.
In graduate school while getting
my Ph.D. at The Scripps Research
Institute, my career list changed
again, from things to the more
important “things I would like to do
in a job.” These included reading and
learning about science, writ-
ing and presenting science
for lay audiences, learning
new things, taking a step
back to look at the bigger
picture, and having every
day be different. Similar to
many young scientists who
decide that the bench is not
the place for them, I had a passion for science but not really
for hands-on research.
I had the good fortune, at this
time, to have been a long standing member of the Scripps Society
of Fellows (SOF) executive committee. When the president of the
committee got a job, I was asked to
take over as president. I had to make
a hard decision about undertaking a
time-consuming position that I really
wanted but would take time away
from what would theoretically be best
Phyllis Frosst
Phyllis Frosst is a science policy
analyst and the acting Branch Chief
of the Policy and Program Analy-
sis Branch at the National Human
Genome Institute at the NIH in
Bethesda, Maryland. She received
B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees with honors
from McGill University in Montreal and
earned a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular
Structure and Chemistry from the
Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla,
California.
for my career, spending more time
in the lab. I decided to follow what
was really drawing me and accepted.
I was president of the SOF until I left
Scripps, and this decision in large
part led me to the policy job I have
now.
Being president of the SOF let
me do two important things: 1)
engage with the administration at
the institute on behalf of the postdoc
community, and 2) make our new priority helping postdocs and graduate
