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"I produce 10 data points that completely undermine what everybody thinks they know about the archaeological record here. It was really important and really interesting, and almost nobody believed me." -Joan Brenner Coltrain

"This idea of research was foreign to me. I'm sure that had it not been for that opportunity, I would not be a scientist today." --Wilfredo Colón

"Generally, I find that people are attracted to enthusiasm if it's unfettered and for the right reasons," says Hendrik Poinar, director of McMaster University's Ancient DNA Laboratory.

Julia Kempe couldn't bring herself to choose between physics and maths, nor between two graduate institutions. So she did two Ph.D.s at once in quantum computation.

"To me, having a Ph.D. and being a professor is a lifelong learning experience. The degree, to me, is to teach you how to teach yourself later on." --Adil Shamoo

Sandrine Etienne-Manneville "knew exactly what she was doing, where the project was going, and what needed to be done," says former postdoc supervisor Alan Hall.

"Andrea treats me like someone who’s intelligent enough to run a laboratory experiment by himself, but she’s always there for questions. She’ll have a long conversation with a former student who’s visiting from med school, or talk to us about our futures, or hang out and discuss TV. She’s your friend, and she cares about you." --Matthew Mansh

"This choice was more practical because you try to build up a career, and if you do what people are already doing, you need to be very good, but also lucky, to make it," says Edwin Cuppen.

Though it is often--and justifiably--maligned, it is ignorance--and recognizing where it exists--that drives scientists to do groundbreaking science.

"I think that looking at the observable effects of diversity on a group’s performance is a really fruitful way to get a sense of what diversity really means." --Samuel R. Sommers

Although "the researcher is free to do whatever he wants," says Marché, "I will be working in a team, so I will necessarily get interested in their field of research."

"He said I could go back to school, or I could be a missionary and translate the bible into foreign languages. So I went to school." --Jessica Maye

"Be aware of where your day goes, implement whatever strategies you can think of to save time, and do not get so caught up in the day-to-day that you lose site of your objectives."

RyC fellows have a harder time fitting within the Spanish academic system unless their university decides to make a welcoming gesture.

The interview process, she points out, goes both ways: They are interviewing you and you are interviewing them.

In the 15 years since its inception, the HHMI International Research Scholars award has given 74 Canadian researchers nearly $30 million.

“People are creating security problems faster than we can fix them,” says computer science professor David Wagner. “So I think that computer security people are going to be in demand for a while.”