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CAREERS From Bench to Bedside: A Scientist Makes the Switch Questions about whether they are suited to a life of research may divert some graduate students from an academic path. But that is a rare move for an established academic scientist. Tamar Enoch, HMS associate professor of genetics, will be leaving her position on Jan. 31, after a successful career exploring the problem of checkpoint control in fission yeast. She will become a speech-language pathologist. Science writer Misia Landau asked her to discuss her decision. "I've always been inspired in my work by the passion and dedication of my students and postdocs," said Tamar Enoch. Photo by Graham Ramsay Focus: You're at the peak of your career. Scientists strive to reach this point, but you're leaving. Why? Tamar Enoch: I think science really has to be a passion. I think I did have that for a long time. When I came here, that was added to by the challenges of managing a lab and the opportunity to work on my projects in a bigger way. But I think gradually I found I was less and less interested in molecular mechanisms and more interested in broader problems, maybe problems that don't have reductionist solutions--such as this molecule touches this one or this phosphorylates that. We started looking into aging, using yeast as a model. And I realized that nothing was really capturing my interest deeply enough. So it was more a question of being honest with myself. F: Why speech-language pathology? TE: My father had a stroke. When something like that happens to you, you tend to drop out of your routine. You have an opportunity to ask yourself deeper questions. You realize life is short and it's not to be wasted, and you don't want to be doing something less than what you can do. But it was also very fascinating to watch him struggle with language and gradually recover and learn how to communicate again. It just raised a whole lot of questions for me that I found I was really excited by. And I really thought that given the progress of the human genome, we were reaching a point where we would be able to bring genetics to problems that couldn't be touched any other way, like human language. F: But you're not planning to do research on language. You're planning to do clinical work. TE: The thing that followed--and here I want to stress how supportive Harvard Medical School and, particularly, Phil [Leder], my chairman, have been--was that I took a leave of absence to get a master's degree in speech-language pathology. I did a lot of clinical work, which I wanted to do because as a biologist I always feel like I want to see things for myself. F: Where will you be going next? TE: I'll be taking some time off now, but eventually, probably in September, I hope to be working in a school for special needs children, on a clinical fellowship which I'll need to be fully certified. So I'll spend a year doing that. F: What will you miss most about HMS and your life here? TE: I will really miss the people. My colleagues here are wonderful, and I especially want to mention Fred Winston. He also works on yeast. We've had a wonderful scientific interaction. I'll really miss his lab. There are a lot of other wonderful people in this department--actually, all of my colleagues are wonderful. I could name them all. They are all good friends. I think the other thing I'll miss is the creative freedom. And to be listened to. When I was a postdoc, it seemed no one was ever listening to me. Then I came here and people listened. F: Looking back on this first phase of your professional life, what are you proudest of? TE: I'm really proud of my students, postdocs, and research assistants and their accomplishments, and not only their accomplishments as scientists. I felt we always functioned really well as a team. I could sit in my lab and hear them explaining things to each other and helping each other. They got to the point where they thought I was kind of superfluous and, actually, I think that's good. They've all gone on to have very interesting lives, and so I think that, by far, is the most rewarding.