Megan Riel-Mehan
Interview Posted By: Ashley Smith
1. Can you tell us a little about your background? i.e. Where you grew up, what education do you have, a summary of your resume, did you always want to do what you are doing now, when did you start to become interested in STEM, what internships/ volunteering
I grew up in Encinitas CA. I was super lucky to be born to two people who really valued education and have made it their life goal to improve education for others. When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher. Now I want to be a professor, so my goals haven’t changed that much, although it hasn’t seem like a straight path. I got interested in science from a really young age, and had many great teachers, but my high school chemistry teacher is who really propelled me to keep studying chemistry. There is something about it that spoke to me. I think everyone loves figuring out how things work, it’s just a matter of figuring out which “things” you are actually interested in.
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
I have a hard job to describe, because it exists between so many different fields, mostly molecular biology, art, and computer science. My job title is PostDoctoral Scholar, and I work with Graham Johnson as my Principle Investigator (boss/mentor). He has a background in scientific illustration and molecular biology, and as a lab we do Scientific visualization, which covers a broad range of projects. Today I did some web development for a research network I work with, and now I’m working on building a 3D simulation of the cell layers of coral for a video that is going to be shown at an aquarium.
I got interviewed about my job for this site “LabTV”, and I talk more about what we do if you’re interested, video above.
3. How does STEM relate to your job?How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
There has been some effort to rebrand STEM and STEAM with the arts put back in. I say put back in because for a long time there was little distinction between artists and scientists, with the preeminent example of Leonardo De Vinci. I have degrees in Chemistry, Art and Chemical Biology, and I use all of them all the time. When I work with scientists to visualize their research it is super important that I can understand what they’re researching in addition to being able to draw/animate/model it.
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
It’s hard to answer this question. I’ve never personally felt overtly disrespected by anyone I work with because of my gender. But that’s not to say it doesn’t effect me or my career. There are a lot of small things, like I’m very aware of how I speak when I give research talks. I probably make less jokes or fun analogies than I would if I was a man, because I don’t want anyone to doubt my expertise. Many women have written about being talked over or interrupted during meetings, and I’ve noticed this too, but not with people I directly work with. I love a lot of Tina Fey’s advice on this from “Bossy Pants", which is basically keep doing what is important to you and you’ll outlast anyone else.
But I think more important than these small slights and misperceptions is systematic institutional sexism that takes the form of unconscious biases when people are hiring, or awarding grants, or offering salaries, and not having paid family leave for both genders. These make it so that even if we never encounter one sexist comment, our careers are still not fair. I think some of these issues will improve as the people making the decisions become more aware of unconscious biases and as more women get into positions of power. I guess my advice is: don’t leave your path if it gets hard, become the boss and make it better.
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
Best part by far is that I’m doing the work I’m interested in doing. If someone just gave me a salary and I could spend my time doing whatever I wanted, I would still being doing this. It’s super fun. The only thing I wish I could change is having more time. I have many projects and I want to work on all of them, but sometimes it’s important to remember that “done” can be better than “perfect".
5. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
It can be hard, especially if you’re doing work that you are passionate about, because it’s not something that you necessarily turn off when you come home. I have a lot of hobbies though, like painting, woodworking, and scuba diving, and you need to make room for the other things you are passionate about outside your work, the things that refresh you. One thing I do is I don’t answer work emails on the weekend (with the exception of a grant deadline or something that is urgent). You can definitely have your online presence be 9-5 even if you are working much different hours in reality.
6. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received ? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
Although I was not exactly a tomboy when I was young, for a long time I think I internalized our culture's sexism, and it made me value things more if they weren’t considered “girly”. I would be proud when someone said, “you’re not like most girls”. I wish I could tell my younger self to be more proud of being a girl, of being myself, without it being in opposition to anything. We still see it all the time with the labels of "Chick-Lit", or “Chick-flix”; these are not intended as compliments, and often they’re applied to good movies and books that just happen to be by or about women. Don’t be afraid to like what you like, to be interested in what drives your own curiosity, regardless of what people call it or how it’s perceived.
This is more practical advice: LEARN TO CODE! I do it so much now, and I wish I would have learned earlier. I think every job is going to expect some scripting skills, and it’s soooo easy to start. I totally bought into that idea that programming was only for the guys who had grown up taking apart their computers, that you couldn’t learn it by just taking some classes in college. But it’s not at all, and the earlier you learn the better. Plus, I didn’t know until recently, a lot of the early programmers were women because at the time, they thought the important work was the engineering, and then when programming became more important, those women’s stories were just erased. You won’t always get taught about women scientists in school, so do your best to find your own role models and heroes.
Super good article about the history of women in tech:
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/10/06/345799830/the-forgotten-female-programmers-who-created-modern-tech
I grew up in Encinitas CA. I was super lucky to be born to two people who really valued education and have made it their life goal to improve education for others. When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher. Now I want to be a professor, so my goals haven’t changed that much, although it hasn’t seem like a straight path. I got interested in science from a really young age, and had many great teachers, but my high school chemistry teacher is who really propelled me to keep studying chemistry. There is something about it that spoke to me. I think everyone loves figuring out how things work, it’s just a matter of figuring out which “things” you are actually interested in.
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
I have a hard job to describe, because it exists between so many different fields, mostly molecular biology, art, and computer science. My job title is PostDoctoral Scholar, and I work with Graham Johnson as my Principle Investigator (boss/mentor). He has a background in scientific illustration and molecular biology, and as a lab we do Scientific visualization, which covers a broad range of projects. Today I did some web development for a research network I work with, and now I’m working on building a 3D simulation of the cell layers of coral for a video that is going to be shown at an aquarium.
I got interviewed about my job for this site “LabTV”, and I talk more about what we do if you’re interested, video above.
3. How does STEM relate to your job?How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
There has been some effort to rebrand STEM and STEAM with the arts put back in. I say put back in because for a long time there was little distinction between artists and scientists, with the preeminent example of Leonardo De Vinci. I have degrees in Chemistry, Art and Chemical Biology, and I use all of them all the time. When I work with scientists to visualize their research it is super important that I can understand what they’re researching in addition to being able to draw/animate/model it.
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
It’s hard to answer this question. I’ve never personally felt overtly disrespected by anyone I work with because of my gender. But that’s not to say it doesn’t effect me or my career. There are a lot of small things, like I’m very aware of how I speak when I give research talks. I probably make less jokes or fun analogies than I would if I was a man, because I don’t want anyone to doubt my expertise. Many women have written about being talked over or interrupted during meetings, and I’ve noticed this too, but not with people I directly work with. I love a lot of Tina Fey’s advice on this from “Bossy Pants", which is basically keep doing what is important to you and you’ll outlast anyone else.
But I think more important than these small slights and misperceptions is systematic institutional sexism that takes the form of unconscious biases when people are hiring, or awarding grants, or offering salaries, and not having paid family leave for both genders. These make it so that even if we never encounter one sexist comment, our careers are still not fair. I think some of these issues will improve as the people making the decisions become more aware of unconscious biases and as more women get into positions of power. I guess my advice is: don’t leave your path if it gets hard, become the boss and make it better.
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
Best part by far is that I’m doing the work I’m interested in doing. If someone just gave me a salary and I could spend my time doing whatever I wanted, I would still being doing this. It’s super fun. The only thing I wish I could change is having more time. I have many projects and I want to work on all of them, but sometimes it’s important to remember that “done” can be better than “perfect".
5. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
It can be hard, especially if you’re doing work that you are passionate about, because it’s not something that you necessarily turn off when you come home. I have a lot of hobbies though, like painting, woodworking, and scuba diving, and you need to make room for the other things you are passionate about outside your work, the things that refresh you. One thing I do is I don’t answer work emails on the weekend (with the exception of a grant deadline or something that is urgent). You can definitely have your online presence be 9-5 even if you are working much different hours in reality.
6. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received ? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
Although I was not exactly a tomboy when I was young, for a long time I think I internalized our culture's sexism, and it made me value things more if they weren’t considered “girly”. I would be proud when someone said, “you’re not like most girls”. I wish I could tell my younger self to be more proud of being a girl, of being myself, without it being in opposition to anything. We still see it all the time with the labels of "Chick-Lit", or “Chick-flix”; these are not intended as compliments, and often they’re applied to good movies and books that just happen to be by or about women. Don’t be afraid to like what you like, to be interested in what drives your own curiosity, regardless of what people call it or how it’s perceived.
This is more practical advice: LEARN TO CODE! I do it so much now, and I wish I would have learned earlier. I think every job is going to expect some scripting skills, and it’s soooo easy to start. I totally bought into that idea that programming was only for the guys who had grown up taking apart their computers, that you couldn’t learn it by just taking some classes in college. But it’s not at all, and the earlier you learn the better. Plus, I didn’t know until recently, a lot of the early programmers were women because at the time, they thought the important work was the engineering, and then when programming became more important, those women’s stories were just erased. You won’t always get taught about women scientists in school, so do your best to find your own role models and heroes.
Super good article about the history of women in tech:
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/10/06/345799830/the-forgotten-female-programmers-who-created-modern-tech