Her Story
About Orli
Orli Snir Dagan serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York City and as an Assistant Professor and senior lecturer at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She entered academia in 2006 and earned her bachelor's degree in molecular biology focused on plants from Tel Aviv University in Israel, followed by a master's degree in molecular biology from the same institution. She completed her PhD in epigenetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel in 2018. Her research centers on intercellular inter-organ communications and how parental care has evolved in insects, using build systems to study communication between adults and offspring. Orli attributes her success to hard work and supportive mentors, and she advises young women entering academia to expand their horizons, question assumptions, and have no shame.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Orli
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say hard work. And also, I must say that a lot of men have supported my past. And I think that's a big change in there, in academia or industry in general, that takes mental... Much more willing to step forward and it helped women to weigh in to achieve their goals. And I mean, this is super important, because once I started, these were the majority chiefs. So I was really lucky to be under mentors that just saw my potential. We're willing to support that. Mentoring or letters or whatever took.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Have no shame. That's the best career advice.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't look under the light... expand your horizon. And don't assume that what people have discovered so far is set in stone. And question everything, because it's about building up a new... Like, putting the pieces of the puzzle together is not usually not only adding this one piece. I really have to rearrange a lot of it. Especially in these days, I must say, in academia. That is, a lot of problems with replication. So it's really easily have to doubt and question.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges are that academia and the change it's faced. It's really touching upon a lot of the things we just talked. You know, because it became an industry to produce mass like papers in mass, and truths and facts are no longer a milestone people aim. So compete with that. It's a challenge. And you compete, you know, you compete for grants, you compete for your paper to be published at high prices. You compete with people that this is not something that you... They live upon. And it's a hard competition. Opportunities: I hope that one of the opportunities is actually to be different than. I hope it will because it's so rare, I feel. I hope that when I talk about this with this will actually create an opportunity for me to do what I want.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Intellectual values are... Because also, it's a, I see that in our community, in the Yay. And both at work, and the kids we grow. We raised. It's the fact that we teach and educate. And live by a, the standard of tools, like taking the truth. But seeking to the degree of like really understanding the facts. And I feel this is the best way to be equal with other people, like to achieve equality. And therefore I really am... what's the word for that? Like, this is what I try to live by and educate by. Integrity, but it's more than yes, it is integrity, for sure. But it's also communicating negative for what I mean. Like, it's so easy need to to just live by those rules and to communicate by those rules. And of course, with the social media today and fake news is just a you know, it's even more important to talk about these things and to shows and to try to distill the truth, the facts the truth from situation from different situations, you know, from physics tool. We'll just everyday life. In order to, To still, you know, like, live together other people.
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