Speaker 1: Just to check that I don’t have anything misunderstood. You are a senior scientist at Schrodinger, right? Yes. OK. And so because that obviously isn’t the most descriptive, could you just clarify for me what it is that you exactly do in terms of your role or responsibilities?

Speaker 2: Yeah. So in the company, we have many different teams. So our team is focused on research and development of molecular simulation tools. So we work on computational chemistry and computational physics methods that eventually makes its way into the software that we sell to companies. My role, my team, works on testing methods, thinking of ways to improve our software in terms of accuracy, efficiency, all that kind of stuff. So we have scientists on the team. We have developers on the team. I’m on the scientists. I’m in the scientists group. So yeah. So I’m focused on research and doing science and method development. OK.

Speaker 1: I mean, so maybe you expected this question with the period in time that we’re at. But how much of a part would you say that AI and machine learning play in your day-to-day job?

Speaker 2: It doesn’t play a role in my day-to-day job. It depends on the project. So my project is not really specific to machine learning. So far, it doesn’t use any machine learning tools, maybe in the future it would. But as of now, it doesn’t. So it’s mostly focused on a lot of computational biology and physics and chemistry and less machine learning so far. OK.

Speaker 1: So this might be a bit more subjective. But would you consider that your role involves, would you say that there’s an ample variety of problems to tackle, and maybe in the sense that you aren’t always focused on one particular problem or subject?

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So the methods that we work on, well, when we develop a method, we want it to work on as many systems as possible. And while a lot of the times, they don’t apply to all systems that we encounter, but we don’t really work on a specific single system. So let’s say I’m developing a method that improves a drug candidate, maybe the representation of a drug candidate, then I want it to work on as many of those little molecules as possible and not just like that specific one. That’s what our team focuses on, because it’s a method development team. And so we have teams in the company that are doing drug discovery against a single target. And so they focus more on what is this target doing? What is this small molecule doing? What’s the environment like?

Which part of it should we go after and target and inhibit? So it depends. But yeah, I don’t know if that answers your question. Oh, definitely. That’s what I think.

Speaker 1: I’m getting that picture that it’s like you’re a less specifically focused group. Yeah, that’s great. So you already mentioned that you work with a lot of people, and that your team is diverse in terms of roles and stuff like that. But outside of your role as a scientist, would you say that you’re involved in a variety of activities, like communicating with other teams and so on?

Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. So while my project is my project, so I’m focused on it, I do collaborate with people within my team and outside of my team. I’ve collaborated with multiple teams, in fact, on applying the technology that I’m working on and testing it on their systems. So there was a couple of cases where they came to us. They told us we have this target and your method might work.

We heard that you’re working on this method. Can you help us assess a certain situation? So we helped them with that. That’s happened a couple of times. So actually, for us, we work on these tools, but we’re always looking for certain cases and examples where our tools would work and we prove that it works. Or if it doesn’t, then well, we need to expand our tools to cover those cases where it doesn’t. So it’s very collaborative, I would say. Yeah, even though I’m the one who’s focused on my project. Of course, I work with my manager, with my teammates.

I go to them for questions and sometimes they come to me for questions. So it’s not, you know, it is, you know, we present our work to scientists within the company, not just within our team. We have monthly meetings with the machine learning team. We have meetings with the structure prediction team. We have meetings with drug discovery teams.

So, you know, we’re always in touch with different groups just to see how our technology could help them or if they have some examples for us to include in our data sets. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I personally really appreciate that kind of collaboration. Yeah. So, I mean, you talked a little bit about what is it, how your methods and your tools sometimes worked on things that you hadn’t planned them to work on. So, sorry, this is just building on some thoughts here. But how, would you say that sometimes… I’ll take a second. Yeah, no problem.

Speaker 2: So what I was saying is that, you know, we always try to… So these would be the examples I gave you would be like applications of the method, right? So, you know, let’s say you are, I don’t know, you’re designing a new AC for buses, right?

And you’ve been working on school buses all this time and then all of a sudden now you get like one of those big greyhound buses. Well, okay, is my AC going to work in those very well or do I have to change it a bit? So, okay, well, let’s try. So you put it in the big greyhound bus and you see how it works after two hours. What about after six hours? What about after one month? Does it still work?

Is it still efficient? So that’s what I mean. So like, you know, when we get different targets, different examples, they’re just useful cases for us to test new methods that we’re working on. So these methods don’t exist.

If they existed, we wouldn’t be spending so much effort and research into working on them. But when you work on a new method, you also… It’s very important not just to work on the method and make it work. In some cases, you want to test it on different new cases all the time, right?

Okay. So that you get more confident. You know, when I want to go sell it to a customer, I want to say, okay, well, look, this method, it’s been proven. We’ve developed it, we’ve worked on it, we tested it, and we applied it to do useful things, right? Because, you know, when it comes to calculations and simulations, you can always do simulations and calculations and get some numbers out of the computer. But then they have to help people in some way, right? And that’s where the collaborations come in, right? How can I help this team? How can I help that team? How can they help me? Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: Okay, yeah. It definitely clarified a few things. Yeah. For me personally, I love a job where I get it and then I grow as I work through that job. Would you say that throughout your time in this road that you’ve grown as a scientist?

Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, whenever you’re in a research, even if you’re not in a research-based position, you can always learn something new. And you learn it by looking at new data sets, that’s one way.

And the other way is you learn it by talking to people. Our software in Schrodinger is very big. The company has been working on this software for decades now. And there are many different applications and new tools that are coming out every year.

And in order to use a tool, you need to understand what the tool is doing. And so for me, I had a lot of background in molecular simulations, molecular dynamics, and protein modeling and things like that. And I didn’t work on drug targets.

I didn’t work on small candidates of molecules that could help a drug discovery project. So ever since I started here, I’ve been learning about those. How does it work? How do drug discovery scientists think about going after a target? And how can I use my tool sets and my skill sets to help them with their mission? So I’ve been learning nonstop since I came here. And I think that’s very important. I mean, of course, you can work on things where you’re constantly applying your knowledge.

And that’s fine. To me, it’s also important that I’m always improving and understanding what are the new tools out there? What’s the software doing?

What can we do for improving it and that kind of stuff? And it’s a nonstop learning experience. So yeah, it’s been fun.

It’s been fun. Most importantly, not everything you do is going to be glamorous in science and not everything you do is going to be fun. But if you get these fun moments to keep you going, then that’s usually a great thing. And fun means different things to different people. A programmer, what a programmer considers fun is maybe rewriting a whole piece of code that would run in 15 minutes and get some good results as opposed to having to run it for three hours. So that’s the fun for them. For a scientist, the fun could be like setting up the system in the right way and getting a good result that you can show to a different team.

That could be the fun for a scientist. So you have to figure out what is fun for me. What would I consider to be fun? And most of science is not glamorous. It’s not fun most of the time. You have to do the tedious work. Sometimes it’s a little boring to set up the same thing over and over again and make it work. And other times it’s just like reading about a new technology and you’re like, whoa, this is interesting.

And I wonder if it’s going to work for me. So it’s like this. And to expect it to be just like this is not realistic. It’s not going to be very glamorous and fun all the time like that. And it’s also not going to be, it shouldn’t be boring and tedious all the time. So it should be like this. That’s the fun part.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow. From what you’re saying, I definitely, it’s definitely starting to paint a picture in my mind of what it might be like. Good. And I really like what I’m hearing so far.

It seems very engaging the way that you describe it. So you talked about approaching these problems. And I was wondering like how much freedom to use your creativity? Are you given when it comes to solving those problems and tackling challenges and so on?

Speaker 2: So I mean specifically to my role, we’re given a lot of freedom to apply whatever we think is the next best idea for the project. And that’s very good. When you are working with scientists, especially when you have supervisors and colleagues, they’re going to challenge you. When you say, you know, this is a cool idea, new technology that I want to try on my project, they’re going to ask you. They’re going to ask the good questions in case you missed them when you were thinking about a cool technology. They’re going to ask you, you know, if you’re going to spend one month trying to do this, what kind of results do you expect?

What are the challenges that you’re going to face? And maybe you thought about them, maybe you don’t. Most of the time, more experienced people would have better questions than, you know, you could think about in your own head when you’re looking at a new technology. You know, it’s if you see, let’s say an iPhone that’s just came out two months ago and you’re like, I want this iPhone and it’s I’m going to spend, you know, a good chunk of my budget to get this iPhone and, you know, get the high internet speed on it and everything.

And you go propose this to your supervisor, you know, can I, you know, can I work on this? Can I use this iPhone? Can I get it?

Can I buy it? Is going to ask you, well, do you need that much of a fancy camera? What are you going to use it for? You know, what would you expect to get out of this? Is it worth getting the high speed internet on it?

It depends, you know. Like you have to show why you are, you have to convince them and these are smart people, you know, they’re going to have the questions that you haven’t thought about. And and that’s good because it’s it becomes a discussion, you know, it’s not like you go to your supervisor and he’s like, no, we’re not doing this. It doesn’t work like that.

And it’s, you know, I’m lucky that it doesn’t work like that, you know, my supervisor is going to ask me, okay, you know, that’s great. How fast is it to install and start using it? You know, how fast is it going to get your results and are the results going to help with your project? So we’re giving creativity and you know, you come up with your own ideas. We read publications and papers and technologies that come out all the time. And then if we think something is worth looking into, we look into it. So we do have a lot of freedom, I would say. And and I think, yeah, I think most of my colleagues would say the same thing, just from going through discussions with them in meetings and they always come up with ideas and we ask questions and they ask us questions. That’s how it works. Okay.

Speaker 1: The asking the asking questions for personally really like that. I feel like that’s, as you mentioned, that’s a great way to learn. And I think it’s definitely probably a conducive environment to learning. And so, I mean, now we talked about like I talked about, I asked you about freedom, like when it came to solving problems. But in general, would you like consider that that your job comes with, you know, how much what degree of flexibility do you think your job comes with, maybe in terms of time or pace?

Speaker 2: Time and pace for the project, you mean, or for like me doing work on my own time. Are you talking about like schedule flexibility or are you talking about like project deadline to flexibility?

Speaker 1: More of like schedule flexibility. Sorry about that.

Speaker 2: Oh, no worries. I mean, you know, this is a professional company. So, you know, you are expected to be in the office or to be, you know, within working conditions, I would say starting at nine o’clock, finishing at five, something like that. But, you know, it doesn’t usually go by the minute. So, you know, if you’re on days you’re early or you’re late a little bit, as long as you don’t have meetings set up, right? So, I have usually a couple of meetings per day on average.

And most of the time I’m working on my own pace, just because it’s still in the development stage, it’s research based. So, you know, but of course, even if you don’t have a meeting, you know, if your supervisor texts you at 10 a.m., you know, let’s have a discussion, you better be ready, right? So, you can’t, you know, you can’t be like, oh, I’m still not in the office yet. So, that’s not professional anyway, right? Whether you have a meeting or not. So, you know, the expectations are very reasonable, I would say.

And, well, here’s the thing though, because it’s research based. If you have a deadline and it is five o’clock in the afternoon, and you think you should work more to get to that deadline, then you do that, right? So, it’s not like, you know, you punch in at nine and you leave at five, working in the off hours is quite normal.

It shouldn’t happen all the time and it doesn’t happen all the time. It’s just whenever there are deadlines that you’re trying to get to, that maybe you can finish things in the office. And, you know, working from home is encouraged here, working, we take our laptops home, you know, on Monday, Thursday and Friday, you don’t have to come to the office if you don’t want to.

I come into the office every day, even though it’s optional on those three days, because I like it here. And I like to talk to people, everybody’s nice. And so, yeah, so I would say I have a lot of flexibility, but, you know, within reason. But for the most part, I work on my own pace. And sometimes I’ll be honest with you, sometimes if I don’t feel very productive on, you know, on a Thursday or a Friday, then I end up waking up on Saturday at home and going to the cafe and doing some work and, you know what I mean? So, it’s, I do have a lot of flexibility, probably because of the research-based position that I have.

Speaker 1: Yeah. So, you talked about how, you know, you were given a bit of like flexibility to work at your own pace and that sometimes, you know, bring your laptop home and go work on Saturdays. Just like to maybe to get a better idea, could you just like describe, you know, like the big picture of what like a regular day may look like for you?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so, you know, in the, well, in the team, within the team, within the company, we have meetings, of course, on every, you know, any day that you need to have a discussion. But we tend to have more meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, just because everybody’s in the office and talking to somebody in person is not the same as, you know, having a quick call. Because in person, you can, you know, you can have longer discussions, you know, it’s just more, it’s more efficient, I would say.

So we tend to have more meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday is what I’m trying to say. But in general, on average, I would come in, you know, I would start working on my, I would answer emails, important emails, if I have seen any pressing ones. I would start working on my project, set up some new simulations, or maybe check the results from the simulations that I was running from the day before. So that, yeah, I do that on my own. You know, you take a coffee break whenever you feel like you need one and, you know, go to the cafeteria and chat with people and come back. And then we have a everyday meeting where we update our supervisor, the head of our team, we have a meeting with him every day. Just for 15 minutes, everybody, we take turns, you know, everybody tells everybody else what their, what problems they’re facing today, if they need help with something, or like what they’ve been working on today. And so that’s usually, like I would say, one minute per person type of thing, you know, just like, you know, today I’ve done this, I’ve been working on that, I’ve seen these results, and I’m trying to make sense of them. So this usually happens every day in our team.

So that’s more team specific. We usually, we have it in the afternoon every day. And then other than that, usually there’s a meeting, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon. And yeah, it depends on the collaborations that we’re having at a certain time period.

But then, you know, other than that, I would go back and do my work and, yep. Make, oh yeah, so, you know, one thing about doing research is you have to communicate your research. So, you know, we, I spend quite a bit of time making slides and presentations so that when my, you know, when I have that meeting with a collaborator, I have some results to show on a slide. Of course, you can sit here and describe what you’ve done. But in science, it’s not the same as having, you know, results and figures, clear figures, clear results.

And that’s an art that you learn, how do I tell somebody else what I’ve done if they haven’t been working on the project, right? I mean, they have an idea. That’s why they came to you. But they don’t know what your technology does on a detailed, you know, line to line of Python and code.

And, you know, you have to communicate it clearly. What is the end result? What’s the big picture? And so we spend a lot of time working on those results and thinking about, you know, what is the take home message? What’s the conclusion that I want to convey? So yeah. Okay.

Speaker 1: So you talked about how like there’s a lot of collaboration. And I feel like, I mean, just like what you said, I feel like it kind of like dictates your day, you know, the flow of things build around that. So going back to like how you mentioned before, sometimes, you know, you could, there’s like, there’s, there’s this nine to five, but then there’s also working a bit off hours, you know, a bit extra, you know, answering emails and things like that. Would you say personally that your job offers a good work-life balance?

Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So most of the time, you know, we log off and, and we, you know, we go home and, you know, do our hobbies and go for walks and dinners and all that kind of stuff. It’s just, you know, whenever you have a deadline and you feel like, okay, I better make this deadline, if you have a big presentation coming up, well, I want to practice on my presentation and work on my slides.

So sometimes I do that, you know, let’s say on a Saturday morning, when I’m like, you know, my head is clear and, and I can wake up and have my coffee and think about it. So it really depends on how you operate, you know, a lot of my colleagues only work when they’re in the office and they get everything done. And that’s fine for me. Sometimes I feel like I’m more productive on a Saturday morning than a Friday afternoon, you know, you know what I mean? So, but in general, it’s, it’s a pretty good work-life balance. I’ve never had issues with that so far.

Speaker 1: Oh, okay. Yeah.

Speaker 2: And that’s important, you know, that’s important. Some people don’t mind working seven days a week. And I’ve seen so many successful scientists that love doing that. And that’s fine. But whenever you’re seeking an opportunity, whether it’s a research group, whether it’s a company, or it’s a graduate program, you know, think about, okay, well, am I okay doing this for the next few years? Am I okay working, you know, when you’re doing your PhD, a lot of, a lot of the times you’re working on weekends, you’re working on evenings, maybe not every day, but it happens quite often. And, and it’s, it’s okay, you know, you know, it’s temporary and you know, you’re going to get your degree and be done with that. So if you’re okay putting the putting in these hours, that’s perfectly fine. So it depends from person to person. But at our company, from what I’ve seen, there’s a pretty good work-life balance. Okay.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Important, just as you said. So just, just to like give me an idea, to like the best, to the best of your ability, could you like try and describe for me the path for a student like me, who’s in high school, to get to a position that you are in today?

Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you mind me, do you mind reminding me what grade are you in now? I’m going into 12. You’re going into 12. Okay. So, so yeah, I mean, obviously, to hold a scientist research type of position in a, in a leading company, you need, you need graduate degree. And so the path would be getting a bachelor’s first and, and then going for a PhD if you want a scientist’s research role within our company. Some company, you know, some roles, some companies, if you have a master’s and you have a couple of years of experience, then they, they’re fine with that.

And our company, I think they have that too. But most of the scientists that I meet have their PhDs. Just because you need that experience of leading a project, you know, taking it from beginning to end, that’s, that’s the experience that you get from being in a PhD program. You know, you’re an expert in the field. But, you know, another important thing, other than being an expert in the field is that you’re also capable of, you know, starting a new project and putting in the effort over time to take it from beginning to end and get some, you know, good results and presenting the results and communicating it to the world through publications. So these are things you learn mostly from PhD programs. And so that’s why a lot of these research positions in good companies require PhD degrees, which in the US, you can start after your, your bachelor’s.

So that’s like in general what the path would be. I could tell you more about mine if you want, but I’m not sure if you were asking, you know, in general, probably.

Speaker 1: Oh, I mean, I’m, if you want to, if you’d like to share with me that, that’d be great. Just because I’m definitely interested.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I went to, I went to college in Canada. I went to university in Canada for my bachelor’s. I wanted to be a medical doctor. And then I realized that, you know, being in the hospital and in clinics all the time is not something where it’s not an environment I want to work in. So I did a, an exchange program because I want to not exchange, sorry, a co-op program where, you know, you would put your classes on hold and you would work in a company or research institute, whatever you apply for, for a year.

And so, you know, you, you instead of graduating in four years, let’s say you would, you would add one year because you’ve taken that year off. But for me, it was important because I wanted to try out research, you know, I wanted to see, okay, well, people talk about research, what’s research like. So I did that, I worked at a, at a research group at my university at UBC in Vancouver. And then after that, I did a co-op experience in Germany. So I, you know, I went to work for a research institute in Southern Germany. So that was a good experience, both of them were. And I realized, you know, so research is something that I like to do.

I, you know, I don’t mind that at all. And so in my bachelor’s, I was in a biophysics program. So this is where you take the physics and math courses that you require for a physics degree. I was in the physics department, but then your electives would be, you know, in biology and biochemistry and genetics, you choose your electives.

So that’s why you combine, you know, that’s how you combine physics and, and biology. And, and that’s what I did in my masters as well. So in Canada, you cannot start your PhD after, after bachelors, you have to start a master’s program. And then you can switch after one year into the PhD program, or you can finish your masters and then start a PhD. So I decided that, you know, I wanted to finish my masters and, and, and, you know, do my PhD at a different university, just to, you know, meet new people and, and get new experiences.

And that’s what I did. And then I came to the US for my PhD program, which was in, in the chemistry department. So my PhD was in computational chemistry. So it was a lot of simulations, a lot of protein, protein dynamics and protein folding and that kind of stuff.

Yeah. And then when I was finishing my PhD, at the same time, I was applying for jobs. And, and that’s where I, that’s where I landed. And it’s been now it’s been almost two years for me in this company. Okay.

Speaker 1: Um, just curious, did you have any, any sort of mentor throughout your path?

Speaker 2: Uh, well, I, you always have mentors, of course. So in my bachelors, I, these, these university programs always have coordinators. So the biophysics program had the biophysics coordinator, which is an experienced professor in the department that you can go to for questions and help. So I, you know, I went to him for questions sometimes and, you know, I asked him about what his thoughts were on getting that work experience that I told you about in the co-op program. So it was more of an internship type of co-op. Did you guys have co-op in the US? I’m not sure.

I think you could, it’s internship essentially. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And so, you know, so, you know, I, and then in your masters, I did a research based master’s program. So, you know, I was working in a research lab and there was the, the head of the lab, the professor, and, you know, there were master students, there were PhD students, there were some postdocs working with him.

So, it was a proper research lab at UBC in Vancouver. And then for you, for my PhD, of course, you have to choose a PhD advisor that would lead you throughout your PhD journey and would, you know, give you things to help you with your project and your report to him. And so it’s, that’s all, yeah, there was, there was always a mentor. And, you know, other than your professors, you can always look up to and, and talk to people within your research group. So, whether they are, you know, when I was in my master’s, I used to get help from PhD students and, and postdocs and work with them on top of working with your supervisor, the head of the team, right? Same thing with my PhD program, you know, we had the professor that was leading the, directing the group and the institute at the time. And, and then I would go to mentors within the lab. I was a PhD student. So, you know, I got help from the postdocs in the lab.

And so, yeah. So, so it’s good to have, you know, you can go in research, there are multiple ways of doing things, right? One way is you go to your desk, you focus on your project, you’re like, focused, focused, focused, and it’s great.

You get good science, you get good results, you, you know, you have to publish your data and all that kind of stuff. And that’s great. But the other way, which I am a very big proponent of, is to network while you’re doing your work, you know, network, talk to people, because you always learn from people, you know, and, and it’s never really a waste of time. It’s, it’s always something that you’re building a bond with your colleague and your teammate.

And they come to you for help, you come, you go to them for help. And it makes things more fun, at least in my mind, you know. So, and, and you don’t have to, you know, put your research on hold to do that, of course, you know, it’s just when you go to get coffee, don’t, don’t get coffee by yourself, you know, go to your colleague, tell him, do you want to get coffee? And then you go and sit in chit chat and, you know, 15 minutes, you each go back to your project anyway, you know. So, so yeah, it’s, it’s really, you get what I’ve, okay, here’s the thing, here’s the conclusion. Whenever you’re doing research in a research group, the mentorship that you get is really up to you.

It’s really up to you to go to a senior colleague and say, you know, I have a question for you, or do you mind helping me with this whenever you have time? Some people don’t do that, right? And that’s fine, if that’s what they want. But if you do want mentorship, I think usually research groups and research teams are always, they always have people that are more senior to you. So it’s on you to go and say, look, can you help me with something? Or can we work on this? That kind of, that kind of thing. Okay.

Speaker 1: I mean, I’m, I definitely know that I really appreciate working with other people. So I definitely won’t hesitate to reach out to, to mentors and things like that. But just, I mean, I don’t want to take too much of your time. So would you have any like last pieces of advice to give me? And, you know, other high schoolers in general?

Speaker 2: Um, yeah, you know, I would say when you are thinking about a program, think about it carefully, of course. But just know that, especially when you go through college, and maybe, you know, when you, you know, you’re doing a graduate school or something, plans should be flexible in the sense that, look, like for example, I went into college, I wanted to be a medical doctor, but then I realized that that’s not what I want.

You know, I’m not devastated. It’s just, it’s something I thought I would like. And then, you know, you have to ask questions early on, you know, what is this, and you’re doing exactly the thing that I think every student should do. You know, what is research like?

Well, how do I know? I go talk to research people, right? Take notes, you’re recording meetings, you know, you’re going to go back and check, okay, well, that’s what I should expect. But is that really what you’re going to expect in your first research experience?

Probably not. It could be miserable. It could be a lot more fun than I would then, than what I’m talking about, you know, than what I’m describing to you. So experiences are, they change your path and, you know, be flexible and that’s fine. I think if you do something, you do it well and you’re, you know, you’re not, you like it to some degree and then, you know, that’s perfectly fine too. So just be flexible and keep an open mind and talk to as many people as you can. I think that’s the, you know, because when I, when I realized I don’t want to be a medical doctor, I spoke to my, to the program director at my university in my bachelor’s program and I told him, look, I wanted to apply for the medical school program, but I’m not sure. I might be changing my mind. I have that feeling and I also like to take physics and chemistry.

And, but then I also want to keep my options open in case I do want to apply to medical school. And he told me, you know what, I know of the perfect program for you. And I’m like, okay, what’s that? And he said, it’s a program called biophysics. It’s in the physics and chemistry department. Sorry, it’s in the physics department. So you take physics, math chemistry, all that stuff. But then you take bioelectives. So you can choose your bioelectives to be the medical school prerequisites like biochemistry and physiology and all those courses. So I’m like, oh, I’ve never heard of this program before.

You know what I mean? And that program kept my options open so that if I want to go to medical school and apply, I could because I have the prerequisites. And if I realize I don’t want to, then I have a strong background in physics and math that I can go into a graduate program that helps me apply my knowledge to biochemistry and biology and, you know, work in research in biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry and that kind of stuff.

So it’s important. And there was no way for me to know unless I spoke to somebody, right? Unless he advised me about that program. I would have probably had to make a really, really tough choice for me at the time, which is, shoot, do I go into the math and physics programs or do I focus more on the pre-med type of programs? And, you know, the only reason I was able to kind of do both in my bachelor’s is by talking to somebody and then telling me about what they know that I didn’t at the time. Right? So I would say talk to people, keep doing what you’re doing. You’re already on a good, good path, I would say.