Atoms to Zebras (AZ): Thank you for taking the time to allow us to better know you and your work. Tell us about yourself.
Dr. Pete Jordan: I’m originally from Australia, where I pursued a degree in mechanical engineering at Queensland University of Technology. After graduating from QUT, I wanted to spend an extended period of time overseas, and fortunately I managed to find sufficient funding to study for a master’s degree in biomedical engineering at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. However, I left UBC after a year, and started working on a PhD at Cornell University in New York. My PhD research was in the field of cardiac arrhythmias and computational modeling. I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation in December 2006, and am now working as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD.

AZ: Explain to the readers your general area of research?
Dr. Jordan: I am currently working in the area of human metabolism and body composition. We are interested in determining the important factors regulating the long-term composition of the human body, in particular focusing on the sequence of events that lead to obesity. We are looking at these problems using mathematical models of human body composition regulation, as these provide us with insights that cannot easily be obtained experimentally.

AZ: What is your area of focus?
Dr. Jordan: I am currently developing a mathematical model of the way body composition changes during infancy, using data for infants aged 15 days to 2 years to calibrate the model.

AZ: What led you to your current position?
Dr. Jordan: I didn’t ever wake up one morning and think that I was going to be a human body composition researcher. As with so many things in life, it was a lucky confluence of events that lead me to be here. For both professional and personal reasons, coming to the NIDDK made the most sense as the next move in my career – my mentor here at the NIDDK knows my doctoral advisor very well, and thus I know that I am in good hands here; in addition, my fiancee lives here, and we wanted to live in the same city.

AZ: What do you enjoy most about your work?
Dr. Jordan: The eureka moments – those times when you “see” something that you didn’t see before, or when everything that you’ve been working on finally falls into place. The joy of discovery is a great motivator.

AZ: What is the most challenging aspect?
Dr. Jordan: The solitude. Being a researcher can be lonely, and I find that I don’t always have the motivation to keep going. Being part of a team can certainly help offset these concerns – it all depends on the nature of the work that one is doing at any point in time.

AZ: Any advice for students interested in your field and science in general?
Dr. Jordan: No matter what area of science you’re interested in, study as much mathematics as you can. Biology is becoming increasingly quantitative, and having a mathematical structure on which to hang all one’s biological knowledge is extremely helpful for organizing what can appear to be a very disorganized body of knowledge. Similar mathematical “themes” appear in a wide variety of natural phenomena, making mathematical tools a means by which one can study probably a wider array of phenomena than one can study with any other set of scientific tools.

Many thanks go out to Dr. Jordan. Stay tuned to learn more about his work and more chances to Better Know A Scientist (index).

——
Posted by Tim Roth, author of the political blog Think Anew and Act Anew

Explain to the readers what you research?
I’m currently working towards my thesis in David Christini’s Cardiac Electrodynamics laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, where I use a combination of mathematical modeling and more traditional experimental work to research the mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias.  Specifically, I am currently working to probe the underlying cause of a specific electrical rhythm disturbance, known as “alternans”.  Alternans is a precursor to potentially fatal arrhythmias including ventricular fibrillation, a major cause of death worldwide.  Understanding its genesis and dynamics will allow more insightful research into means of controlling its formation and progression.  Alternans could be controlled through pharmacological means, or through more effective implantable devices.  My research could contribute to advances in either of these approaches.

What led you to your current position?
Starting in this lab was a fairly big departure from my previous work.  As an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin– Madison, I studied molecular biology and neuroscience, working primarily in a neuroscience laboratory.  The brain has always been my scientific passion, and– for better or worse– until recently i have dedicated most of my work and energies solely into this field.  Following graduation, I began here at the Weill Cornell / Rockefeller / Sloan-Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD program, where I am now nearing the end of my third year.  In the first two years of this program, students complete the first half of medical school, and rotate through multiple labs of their choosing before deciding upon a thesis laboratory.  With the exception of my current lab (which I have declared for my thesis), all of my rotations were in neuroscience labs.  I was drawn to this departure by the power of computational research to answer a different kind of question than is possible in more traditional laboratories, and by the prospect of gaining expertise in computational research, which is becoming an increasingly important and powerful technique in biological research.  Though I retain my passion for the study of the brain, I could not be happier with my decision for this phase of my training.

What did you want to do when you were growing up?
Looking back, I can’t identify a particular job I looked towards, and in a way I find that telling.  I’ve always had diverse interests, and relished learning anything and everything available to me. Deciding to complete a dual degree program has allowed me continue to leave as many doors open as possible for my future, and continue on a path towards an uncertain, but promising future.

What do you enjoy most about your work?
In the right graduate school environment, learning is not only encouraged, but is essential.  My lab is an amazing forum for scientific discussion and education, and I find this both personally satisfying as well as motivational.

What is the most challenging aspect?
As I think any researcher can tell you, science can be a harsh mistress.  Research has been a continuous lesson in perseverance, but fortunately the successes (even the modest ones of my experience) far outweigh the failures.

What’s on the horizon in your line of work?
As I mentioned, computational research is an increasingly powerful and essential tool in research, and I believe as it continues to mature it will become mainstream in more and more fields of research.

Any advice for students interested in your field and science in general?
I have a great deal of advice for students interested in MD-PhD programs, too much to include in a brief interview.  For those interested in science in general, my advice is not to pigeon-hole yourself too early on.  It’s impossible to know if you’re interested in a field until you’ve been properly exposed to it, and I think it’s important to gain a diversity of experience before honing in strongly on one area in particular.  Even if your experience with an area leads you away from it, there are always lessons and skills that you can carry with you from any scientific situation.

Many thanks go out to Stephen. Stay tuned to learn more about his research and for future installments of Better Know A Scientist (index).

——
Posted by Tim Roth, author of the political blog Think Anew and Act Anew