| Career
Profile: Dr Bryce Vissel
Rivqa
Bina Berger
Dr
Bryce Vissel is a scientist who believes that if you make
smart choices, you can guide your own destiny. Rather
than taking the ‘easy route’, he has consistently chosen
to work in the place where he felt he could do the best
science.
Dr
Bryce Vissel |
Vissel
decided to get into research after a year as a pharmacist,
mainly because he felt dissatisfied with the work, but
also, he says, because “I was not very good at wearing
a tie”. He completed his PhD at the Murdoch Institute
in Melbourne, which lead to major fellowships at the Garvan
Institute and the Salk Institute in California, where
he received the prestigious Hereditary Disease Foundation
Lieberman Award for his work in neuroscience. Vissel now
runs a lab in the Garvan Institute that conducts stem
cell research and research into synaptic plasticity, the
ability of neurons to modify their connectivity in response
to experience, which is important in learning, memory,
drug addiction, and thought to be significant in schizophrenia.
For Vissel,
his career is rewarding on both scientific and humanitarian
levels. Teaching is fun and it is always gratifying to
have research published in high-impact journals and recognised
by other scientists through citation. However, the best
part is the opportunity to interact with the community.
His work relates to people with spinal cord injury, stroke,
and Huntington’s disease and he finds it “rewarding when
you can tell them things that may have a real impact for
them in the immediate future”.
Nevertheless,
a research career also has its downside, particularly
when things do not work. A drawback is that funding depends
on good results. Often, the lack of results is no one’s
fault, but rather due to the tricky nature of science
itself. “Science is not something that you just do as
a job,” says Vissel. “It is a passion, and if you have
invested yourself in something personally, when things
fail, it is more personally frustrating and disappointing.”
Although those
times are daunting, “determination, hard work, commitment
and doing things a bit out of the ordinary can get you
through”. Once sufficient basic knowledge is gained, science
becomes a progression of thinking creatively about what
discoveries are needed to push a field forward and then
beginning to think laterally about what needs to be done,
rather than rushing ahead and doing the first thing that
comes to mind. “Doing that forced creative thinking can
save of time and get you through some great hardships,”
says Vissel.
Science in Australia
Many people travel overseas thinking that being at a top
institution will turn them into a great scientist. However
what they fail to realise is that people do better there
because they work harder. “The reality is that you will
be working 12 to 14 hours a day, six to seven days a week
and you will be exhausted and straining yourself. But
after three or four years of that, you will come out with
a major publication that will impact the field,” says
Vissel.
The same results
can be achieved in Australia provided the commitment and
conscientiousness is there. According to Vissel, funding
for research science in Australia is slowly improving
in response to public pressure and the quality of science
here is comparable to other leading countries. Often people
say that Australians “punch above their weight” because
they do so well with so little. Also many people here
put their social lives first, whereas “investment early
on and hard work pays off enormously”.
In any case,
the key to a financially rewarding career in research
science is being good at what you do, as in any career.
“If you are good at what you do, once you are at a more
senior level you will be asked to consult, or be on committees
or boards of pharmaceutical companies, and these things
add to your salary,” says Vissel.
Science Education
A key part of enthusing young people about science is
letting them know that getting to the truly exciting phase
of the field takes time. It is important to get the basics
in place first no matter how tedious compared to cutting-edge
research.
“Science is
first taught as a series of facts, and the truth of science
in practice is that it is a series of unknowns,” says
Vissel. There are many ambiguities and contradictions
in science, because no one knows the right answers to
any question. Although science is assessed with multiple
choice questions even at university level, experts in
the field are constantly debating what is the right answer.
Vissel believes
that students need to be taught that once they get past
the stage of learning the boring “alphabet” of science
(the basics), they can start “reading” by understanding
the scientific process of studying the unknown, and getting
involved in it. Once that stage is reached, science becomes
fascinating.
“Unfortunately,
many scientists do not transmit this excitement effectively,”
says Vissel. “But many of scientists don’t get to experience
the excitement of it – they get bogged down in the realities
of the day-to-day experiments. But I think it is important,
if you are going to be a scientist, to find people who
inspire you and who are inspired.”
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