Researcher, postdoc, grant writing coach, optimist.
Jennifer Kong
PhD in Neuroscience
Bio — When I look back, I realize that there was little to no organization in my career path. I was born/raised in Hawaii and went to a small liberal arts college in Oregon where I majored in Biology. Uncertain of my next move, I spent a year using electron microscopy to study crustacean nervous systems at the University of Hawaii. Honestly, my story may have ended there, but I had very supportive mentors in Hawaii that encouraged me to go to graduate school. So, with no formal education in Neuroscience, I applied to many Neuroscience PhD graduate programs across the country and got into my dream school UCLA! Currently, I am a postdoc in the Rohatgi Lab at Stanford University where I am learning how to use biochemical assays to study signaling pathways critical to embryonic development at Stanford. I am currently a sixth year postdoc, K99 awardee, and grant writing coach.
Why I created this website — I recently turned 6 years old… in postdoc years. I honestly don’t know how to feel about this… older? As I reach the completion of my postdoc and contemplate a transition to life as a professor, I find myself wanting to provide some hope, knowledge, advice, or simply a listening space for other graduate students and postdocs. Like so many things in life, this is an experiment. I hope this is a resource that others find useful to affirm that science is cool and research is fun, but yes, the process that is the academic path is often both physically and mentally exhausting and we really need to support each other through it.