Rising to the Challenges and Sharing Our Stories
Rising to the Challenges and Sharing Our Stories
By Mary Munson
Tough Times Continue
But know that you are not alone—you are part of an amazing international community of scientists, educators, professional development specialists, and industry colleagues who partner with us. Together, we will continue to rise to these challenges and will thrive.
I especially want to congratulate our newly elected ASCB President for 2027—Elizabeth Chen! And congrats to our new Secretary Andrew Ewald, and council members Christian Gonzalez-Billault, Iain Cheeseman, Sabine Petry, and Kandice Tanner. I look forward to working with you all next year.
What can we do now?
As tempting as it is to put our heads down and pretend that everything is fine, this strategy is not very effective. Everyone has a different strategy for coping, so my advice is to do as much as you can, while making sure you take care of yourself and those around you. Here are some ideas and action items:
- Continue advocacy and outreach efforts
Even a small act can be meaningful. You may have seen some of my emails that have been sent out to encourage you to advocate for science. Please keep up the calls and emails to your elected representatives—these calls/emails are being heard and counted, and even sometimes responded to. Our government leaders need to understand the impact of their decisions on the future of the scientific enterprise. As a reminder, check this policy page for the latest advocacy action alerts and read about our successful advocacy efforts during Virtual Hill Days across many different states. Volunteer to participate in these efforts. Join a protest or a rally, if you can so safely, and let your voice be heard. In addition, come together in your communities and keep educating your friends, neighbors, family members, students, etc. about the many benefits of a thriving scientific enterprise.
Keep doing awesome science and educating the next generations
Don’t let these challenging times keep you from doing the best science that you can. Remember your curiosity and passion for research, and spread that broadly through mentoring and teaching the next generations. Share your research with the world by publishing it (especially in ASCB’s Molecular Biology of the Cell and CBE—Life Sciences Education journals!) and by attending and presenting at the Cell Bio 2025 annual meeting in Philadelphia, December 6-10.
Do you have a favorite area of cell biology research? You will likely find it at the conference, as well as impactful educational and career development programming. Join us there to celebrate the many accomplishments of our diverse and amazing community! In fact, now is the time (before June 30) to nominate deserving colleagues at every career stage for one of the many prestigious awards.
I had the privilege this year of working with the 2025 Cell Bio Program Committee, who are putting together a truly fantastic program, check it out online! Spoiler alert—there are 4 exceptional Keynote speakers this year (two at the opening event, and two at the closing session)—don’t miss them! There will be outstanding member-organized Subgroup sessions on Saturday showcasing the hottest new findings, Symposia featuring top leaders across many Cell Bio fields, Minisymposia where most of the talks are chosen from the abstracts, special “Expert-led” scientific sessions, Awards lectures, oodles of awesome posters, as well as workshops highlighting the latest technologies. Holistic support of the people behind the science will be provided by a wealth of educational and professional development sessions, opportunities for networking, discussion roundtables, and many more events.
Take care of ourselves and support each other
To try and move forward positively, we need to be resilient. We need to take care of our own mental health, and those of our trainees and colleagues. Hopefully most of you have a good community, support network and/or therapist to help. Are you practicing some effective forms of self-care? I particularly enjoy hiking, gardening and sailing in the summertime! Sometimes you just need some quiet time away from the news and social media. Perhaps spending fun time with families and/or pets?
It is also important to have difficult and supportive conversations with our colleagues and trainees; junior scientists are particularly worried about their careers and futures in science. We need to support each other, especially those in vulnerable positions, such as the transition times as folks move from one career stage to the next. Particularly targeted and hard hit now are the junior scientists who had been supported by workforce development and training programs such as our MOSAIC and FRED programs. In our community and our labs, let’s plan to reach out to junior scholars to encourage and mentor them, perhaps even to set up new collaborations and write new grants. We are all stronger together.
Donate to support ASCB programming and our junior colleagues
With the loss of federal grant funding, it is even more important now that everyone consider donating funds to ASCB. In particular, we would love to provide increased funding for travel awards so that more junior scientists can attend the meeting and be part of our community. In addition, there are opportunities to volunteer for one of our many impactful committees, to engage and participate in carrying out critical programming and reviewing. Applications for most committees will be open in the fall.
Share your story
I want to hear from you! I want to share your stories broadly, to highlight our awesome communities! I want the general public, our elected officials, our colleagues, and potential donors, to understand the importance of cell biological research and the role of ASCB in supporting all of us.
I have set up a form here, to share (it can be anonymous) stories focused on any of several different topics:
- How has being a member of ASCB and/or attending the Cell Bio annual meeting helped you and your research? Your career?
- Why did you become a scientist?
- What is the focus of your research (in layperson’s terms)?
- How does your research impact understanding and/or treatment of human disease?
- How has your research and/or career been affected by the current challenges in the U.S.?
I want to share your stories on our website, on social media, with donors and prospective new ASCB members. It is now more critical than ever that everyone can understand who we are, what we do, and why.
In closing, here’s a challenge for you and your friends and colleagues (and please email me if you have a good answer, because I haven’t found one yet)—can you name one thing in your life that has not been improved at some point by science or technology?!?
Thanks for all that you are doing to keep fighting for science and scientists everywhere.
Be well and take care.
— Mary