Latha Nair

Of course, it is hard work, definitely hard work, and I mean, blessing. I have a very supportive family - my husband and my kids. They support me for everything I do, so many of my girlfriends say, how can you do all these things? It's just because of their support. They are always there for me, and any activity I do, they all help me. The summer research programs are 8-week programs, and sometimes I feel like I don't want to do it again next year because of the stress. But my family is with me for every single thing. Both my kids help me with the project management side of everything, and this is all unpaid, but still they do that. Every year they do everything from the planning stage onwards, because they know how I stress.

The best advice I've received is to do what you like and don't shy away from anything. I had the opportunity and was lucky to have very good mentors throughout my PhD and postdoctoral work. Both my mentors, Dr. Vichy Nair and Dr. Bud Fraser, were very supportive and always told me: don't shy away from anything, just do what you like. That's something that helped me a lot. My family, especially my husband who is also in the same field, has been very supportive as well. We actually met in graduate school.

I would definitely think that they should go with their passion, be brave, and go with their passion. I mean, I know that when I was a small molecular scientist, I didn't have that many women colleagues with me at that time. Now it's changing, as I said, especially in chemistry and working in a pharmaceutical lab at that time was not that common. But it's changing a lot, and everybody's accepting women, and everybody's giving women the maternity leave, parental leave, everything is there. I had only 6 weeks, and even that was nothing after you have a baby. But it's changing a lot, and I think women, they have to be brave and do what they like. There's diversity and inclusion everywhere nowadays with DEI. Even when I was at Merck, I was an ambassador for LINC, which was kind of a diversity club, but at that time it was not as well recognized. Now it is DEI everywhere.

The biggest challenge is that even though everywhere it is well supported now, I don't know whether women are getting the full potential they deserve. We need good mentors and good sponsors to advance in our career. That may be where priority changes also come in. I mean, many of my colleagues who I worked with in the same room are now CEOs, CSOs, or something like that. I'm not regretting it, because I changed and took a deviation from my career path to academia for my daughter, as I told you. Still, I think I can do much better, or I can take both responsibilities in my career too. The biggest opportunity is that if I have a good mentor or sponsor, I can be in the C-suite at some point.

I think relations work in my home and my family - my family is my biggest strength. I consider myself as a people person, and that's what I consider my strength in social settings also. My most important value is to help others and try to do what you can to help others. That's what drives me in both my work and personal life.