Weili Sun, MD, PhD, traveled to Memphis from China in 1998 to pursue a PhD in pathology at UT Health Science Center. She had not been back to the university since leaving in 2005 for her postgraduate medical training, until she was invited to be the keynote speaker at the 17th Annual Winter Postdoc Research Showcase last month.
Dr. Sun, senior medical director for oncology clinical research at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, offered advice to the postdoctoral audience for pursuing a career in the pharmaceutical industry. She also had kind words for the alma mater that helped shape the career she has today.
“I think all the mentors, the things I learned, also the skills I learned as a PhD really, really helped me a lot,” she said. “I’m still using those things at my daily work.”
Dr. Sun reminisced about her time as a graduate student working at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the lab of James Downing, MD, who is now the president and chief executive officer at St. Jude. Her task at the time was to build a leukemia mouse model.
“I spent a lot of time at St. Jude,” she said. “My mentor really helped me to understand the field and who I am, not just for the project, but for my personal career growth.”
Understanding her personal career path took time, she said.
After completing her postgraduate medical training in pediatric hematology/oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and subsequently serving as a faculty member at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles/University of Southern California and City of Hope National Medical Center for nearly 10 years, she decided her passion was for research, and she transitioned to the pharmaceutical industry.
“I think a lot of graduate students, we all know about academia, but then Pharma is also another area that includes job opportunities,” she said. “I think Pharma is a great industry to work with.”
Jobs are plentiful for PhDs in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in research and development (R&D); the industry has a major impact on the overall economy; and jobs pay well. Many R&D jobs are not lab-based and require the skillset developed through PhD training, including a willingness to learn new things, critical thinking, analytical skills, strong communication skills, and resilience. “These are all of the soft skills PhDs learn,” she said.
Dr. Sun offered specific points for the postdocs to keep in mind, as they consider their futures.
- Research is hard.
- Most experiments fail.
- Be patient and persistent.
- Don’t fall in love with your project, fall in love with the skills and the process of the research.
- Enjoy discovery.
She urged them to get input from mentors, recognize their strengths, be open minded and flexible, and start writing their CVs early.
Dr. Sun said she is grateful to UT Health Science Center for more than her education and early training.
She met and married her husband, Jean-Hugues Parmentier, while she was at UT Health Science Center. He was a postdoc in the lab of Kafait Malik, DSc, PhD. Dr. Malik, whom she called “another father figure for us,” proudly sat beside Dr. Sun at the luncheon prior to her speech.