On Math, IMposter Syndrome, The Importance of Friendship, and Saving the WOrld With Phage3/19/2015 Arrowsmith: The Classic Microbiologist HeroArrowsmith (Sinclair Lewis, 1925) tells the story of an academic microbiologist and his research in early 20th-century middle America. The tale contains one of my favorite passages of academic fiction, encompassing math, imposter syndrome, late nights, and friendship all against a backdrop of phage research. I thought of this passage often as I relearned calculus in graduate school, coded differential equations into Mathematica, and read phage modeling papers. In the story (excerpt abridged below), Max Gottlieb is the senior scientist (think PI), Martin Arrowsmith is the new scientist (think grad student/postdoc/associate professor), and Terry Wickett is the guy working down the hall. I share these quotes here for educational use, mostly to encourage those of us going through similar challenges. Behold the new scientist grappling with math and imposter syndrome while trying to invent phage therapy and making a friend along the way... Gottlieb observed, “Martin, I haf taken the privilege of talking you over with Terry, and we concluded that you haf done well enough now so it is time you stop puttering and go to work.”
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