Amanda Hummon

Meet Amanda Hummon

Instrument you couldn’t live without? Besides the obvious MS and cell culture hoods, I would say that the most important items for my group, especially over the last 16 months of the pandemic, are the tools of communication to keep everyone in touch. From my phone, I can check the group Slack channel, call (or more likely, text) my students, I can email them and if necessary, I can even Zoom with them. As much as I hate to admit it, the cell phone is far and away the most important instrument in our group.

Advice? Don’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know. As academics, we want to pretend that we have the answers and understand everything. The reality is that most of the important problems facing the world today are complicated and nuanced and it is impossible for one person to understand all the salient points. You can still do that important research, just seek out the appropriate collaborators and work as a team.