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BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
5
AUGUST
2016
Not because I did not want to come back, but
it was difficult to leave my son at daycare after
only two months and think straight while being
sleep deprived,” she shares. “In spite of this, I was
lucky I could count on my husband. We worked
as a team to enjoy our family and still be produc-
tive in the lab.” Her advisor, Goodman, was also
a support during this time. “When I told her I
was pregnant she gave me a good piece of advice:
plan the experiments you want to do for 10–12
months after you come back from your mater-
nity leave and have everything written so you can
execute your plans straightforwardly,” Vásquez
recalls.
In Vásquez and Cordero’s quest to maintain
two successful careers, Vásquez has found role
models in another married couple running a lab
together:
Lily Jan
and
Yuh Nung Jan
. “The way
their research lines complement each other, ion
channel function and neuronal development, is
quite amazing,” she says. “One of the quotes in
Yuh Nung Jan’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute
profile has always fascinated me, especially be-
cause my husband and I started our lab a couple
of years ago, after receiving our postdoctoral train-
ing in somatosensation with the goal of studying
ion channel structure-function, electrophysiology,
and behavior: ‘It is relatively rare in science that
two researchers complement each other in ability
and in temperament such that the sum of the col-
laboration is more than the two parts.’”
The Biophysical Society has been a supportive
community for Vásquez over the years. “The So-
ciety has given me the opportunity to collaborate
and publish with people who otherwise I would
not have met. The Annual Meeting is the ideal
setting to broadcast the science we do in our lab
and to find and nurture long-term collaborators
and friends,” she says. “The first time I went, I
felt overwhelmed because I did not know anyone
and everything was too new and exciting. Now, it
feels as if I’m going to a family reunion. I use the
meeting every year to boost my enthusiasm and
recharge my batteries.” She has met many other
Latin American scientists at Biophysical Society
meetings and became involved with SOBLA,
the Sociedad de Biofísicos Latino Americanos, a
group with the goal of strengthening biophysics in
Latin America.
Outside of work, Vásquez loves to spend time
with her family. “Because we all live apart, I
always find the time to travel and meet with my
parents, siblings, and niblings,” she shares.
Vásquez offers this advice to biophysicists starting
out in their careers: “I would advise young bio-
physicists to follow what they are really passionate
about. I feel very lucky because I get paid to do
something that I love to do, and I always tell my
juniors that working in a research lab should not
feel like a job but instead something fun and en-
tertaining,” Vásquez says. “Curiosity should drive
their research and their willingness to explore
more and more everyday.”
2016 Biophysics Week Affiliate
Event Award Winner
Congratulations to
Pavle Andjus
, University of Belgrade, Serbia, who was selected from the 2016
Biophysics Week affiliate event organizers to receive a complimentary registration to the Society’s 2017
Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Biophysics Week event held by Andjus was a series of
popular public lectures at the Kolarac Foundation in Belgrade. This event was one of the many won-
derful affiliate events held by biophysicists around the world that made Biophysics Week a success.
We expect the next Biophysics Week, March 6-10, 2017, will be just as successful with enthusiastic
participation. Keep an eye out for the 2017 call for Biophysics Week affiliate events in fall of 2016.
Profilee-at-a-Glance
Institution
University of Tennessee
Health Science Center
Area
of Research
Functional and Structural
Basis of ion channels
involved in
mechanosensation
Valeria Vásquez with her son.