With only a few weeks to go until the final exam period, some students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs are considering abandoning ship. The Varsity interviewed Dr. José Nobrega and asked him about his journey through undergraduate and graduate studies to become one of the University of Toronto’s most successful researchers. He offered up words of advice to those students who struggle under the stress of exam season. Nobrega is a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), where he leads the Behavioural Neurobiology Lab Research Imaging Centre. He is also a professor of pharmacology, psychiatry, and psychology at U of T. His general area of research is neuropharmacology, studying how drugs interact with the nervous system.
The Varsity: Drawing from your experience, what made you push through the hard times?
José Nobrega: Life in academia is a continuous process that requires setting new goals at each stage. As an undergraduate, the goal was to complete courses with good grades; in grad school, it was writing a thesis; as a postdoc, you dream of establishing your own lab, and so on. In other words, the whole process never ends. For me what has always helped was trying to look a little further ahead, having clear goals at each stage but without losing track of the ultimate objective. What is further ahead often helps you get through the current challenges.
TV: What can students do, at the present moment, to get that much closer to achieving their dream of being successful researchers?
JN: Work hard, never get discouraged, and always keep sight of your ultimate goal, while setting objectives that can be achieved on a short-term basis.
TV: What has CAMH done to support its students in achieving their goals?
JN: CAMH is a hospital that is affiliated with U of T. As a U of T professor, I supervise undergraduate as well as graduate students. I find that undergraduate student associations can be very helpful to students. There are several U of T program-specific student associations (e.g., pharmacology and toxicology) that help provide targeted mentoring and hold events that encourage student and professor interactions.
TV: What are the benefits of being an academic scientific researcher?
JN: For me it is doing what I enjoy and having this as my profession. Like many people from my generation, I did not plan to be a “neuroscientist” — that word did not even exist back then! But I knew I wanted to study the brain. There was this fundamental curiosity, which is really what still keeps me going. Things like making money or travelling were never really enticements. For me it has always been the thrill of finding things out, or better yet the thrill of the chase. But it must be recognized that academic scientific research is not for everybody. For every success you achieve, there are many, many failures.
TIMOTHY LAW/THE VARSITY
TV: What is the mark of a good university?
JN: One that challenges the students to work hard because life in academic scientific research gets tougher at every level. None of the academic researchers I have met ever expressed regrets for having to work hard in their undergraduate years.
TV: Do you have any last remarks?
JN: If you like your subject of study, if you are primarily driven by a desire to understand how things really work, if you deal well with frustration and are highly motivated and persistent in your work, I think you may already be on your way to becoming a good academic researcher.
