Dr. Kristen Frenzel Senior Lecturer and Associate Director Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University
Did you always know that academic research and teaching was the career path for you? If not, how did you get to where you are today?
I didn't know that academic research was even a thing. Even into college, the only thing I knew was that I liked biology, and I was a biology major at Georgia Tech. Starting out, I really wanted to be a biomedical engineer, but it didn't exist at GT at the time. I knew I loved all the mechanistic parts of biology, and I didn’t know what to do with my biology degree. I tried becoming a doctor and had even taken my MCAT and applied to medical school, but my first two years in college were not the strongest in terms of academic experience, and so that didn’t end up working out. But fortunately, through a friend, I ended up joining a lab at Emory as a senior undergraduate at GT, and I ended up working there as a Research technician after I graduated. That’s when I found out that I can pursue research as a career, and I applied for the PhD program at Emory. It felt like everything that happened in those years was serendipitous because I never went searching for it, but I am so glad I found it, and that’s how I got started in academic research!
Continuing off of that, within research, how did you end up making the transition from cellular biology to neuroscience?
Well I’m not a trained neuroscientist, I got into the graduate program at Emory that at the time was called Cell and Developmental Biology. I was really interested in cell signaling and how things work, and so I joined the lab of a faculty member who was looking at cell signaling at the synapse. I fell into neuroscience a bit backwards, by starting out with neurobiology. Before I defended my PhD, I ran into the guy who I worked with as a research technician at GT years ago. After defending my PhD, I wasn’t 100% sure about where I wanted to do a postdoc. Again, it was like serendipity, because he offered me to apply to a year long sabbatical in Paris to do a postdoc in cell signaling in renal pathology. It was an amazing experience, but the one thing that I would recommend is asking for advice from your mentors. At that point, I hadn’t even spoken to my PhD advisor about this, and even though it was such a great experience, if I could go back I would use the support and connections from my mentors and advisors to broaden my choices and opportunity. There were so many neuroscience labs in Paris that I could have found out about if I had talked to my advisors beforehand. But, it all worked out in the end.
“You just don’t know what doors are going to be opened in your life if you just say YES to things!”
That Paris trip was such an eye-opening experience. Even though not all of the research worked out in terms of significant results, it was my first time living anywhere outside of Atlanta. It challenged me and helped me grow as an individual. I made lifelong Parisian friends who I am still connected with. And because I lived there for a year for my postdoc, we are now able to host the NBB Paris Program at Emory. After working on a few research projects, in Paris and after I got back to Atlanta, that had some hiccups along the way, I was unsure of my next step. Should I do another postdoc? Here’s some more serendipity: I ended up applying to a Development position that had to do with grant writing at the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, which I later found out was a part of Dr. Lennard’s work at Emory. I ended up not getting that position, but I had TA’d for Dr. Lennard’s electrophysiology class back in grad school, and he remembered me and wanted to work with me again! He offered me to come in as a professor to teach a section of NBB401W, which was something that I enjoyed immensely. Even though I didn’t know I wanted to go into teaching, after that first class, I loved it so much. Emory was hiring for full-time faculty the following year, and so that’s how I got into teaching and joined as a full-time faculty!
A common theme throughout your story has been taking opportunities as they come and growing within each opportunity, whether it was directly in your realm of interest or a little separated from it. What advice do you have for undergrad students who either want to go into these fields or who may not know what they want to do?
My advice would be to talk to your advisors and mentors in your life. I have zero regrets about my choices, but I think that maybe I would have learned of other opportunities if I had reached out earlier. I think if I had done that, I don't know that I would have made any different choices, but I think I would have just known what more things were out there. Engage with people who are doing the things that you're interested in and don’t be afraid to ask them how they got there. You’ll soon find out that everybody's story is as crazy as mine and that nobody’s story is linear, and I think that's reassuring. People are interested in helping you and supporting you, and seeing you move along your path, but they can’t help you if they don’t know that you are looking for something specific. Even if it’s just an email to initiate a conversation, it can be a great way to cast your net more broadly. Who knows, maybe someone you know has a connection with someone else and could connect you with that person!