Life as a Clinician-Scientist

Here are my 17 key takeaways from the 2022 Victorian Life as a Clinician-Scientist Symposium hosted by Monash University and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences:

1. Clinicians make the best researchers. Researchers make the best clinicians.
2. To succeed in medical research, you must clearly define the clinical or public health need for your work.
3. Do what is needed, not what is convenient.
4. Increase the scope of your work by collaborating across disciplines, institutions and borders.
5. Publish quality, not quantity.
6. Do not stay in your silos. Create an interdisciplinary research institute without any boundaries.
7. Insecurity, ignorance and imposter syndrome are here to stay. So embrace them.
8. Just because people agree with you doesn't mean you're right.
9. Just because people disagree with you doesn't mean you're wrong.
10. Invention is 1% inspiration and 99% project management.
11. Your truly transformative and paradigm-shifting idea will initially be ignored by all of your colleagues. Then ridiculed. And finally accepted as if it were a fact all along.
12. Be a fox that does many things, not a tunnel-visioned hedgehog.
13. If your whole career is predicated on one erroneous hypothesis, your sunk emotional costs will lead to your demise.
14. Pursue your ideas with passion. But with gossamer lightness, do not be afraid to let them go if they do not pan out.
15. You can't be what you can't see. So search for as many role models as possible.
16. Find mentors and sponsors whom you want to emulate. Believe in them and make sure they believe in you.
17. If you want to leave behind a legacy, you need to have a blue sky vision for the impact of your research. Adopt that vision as the mission of your life and you will achieve it.

Today, I heard from and spoke with some of the most fascinating people in the world.

Thank you, Laureate Professor Ingrid Scheffer and Kevin Mao for chairing this fabulous event.

The symposium began with keynotes from Professor Sir John Savill and Professor Christobel Saunders about their journeys as clinician-scientists.

After a quick morning tea, we heard from Professor James Beeson about conducting high-impact research, Professor Helena Teede about creating a successful grant proposal and Professor Michael Berk about framing a productive research question.

Professor Flavia Cicuttini and Professor Jodie McVernon both gave brilliant accounts of their clinical and academic journeys and instilled in us the wisdom they have learnt along the way.

Finally, we were joined by Associate Professor Trisha Peel, Associate Professor Daniel Steinfort, Associate Professor Kristen Palmer and Dr Sindhu Viswanathan for an insightful panel discussion.

Also present were representatives from WEHI - The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and The Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA). Thank you for making possible this gathering of brilliant minds.