Save Kumwenda, 41, Ph.D. student
"The biggest challenge is to get funding, let alone enough funding. Most grants assume that the institutions where you are applying from have some basic infrastructure, especially related to research involving the lab. But when you get the funding, it is not enough, because most of the equipment is not available and if it is available, it is outdated. Using it makes your results questionable and difficult to publish in high-impact journals."
Jacque Pak Kan Ip, 35, postdoctoral researcher
"We are planning to have kids. I cannot ask my wife to sacrifice her career again. But it has taken me a lot of time to do my research already. When she is pregnant and might need help, I might need to dial it back to help her. So we hesitate. A tenure-track position(终生教职)would be much more stable. Maybe at that time, we could plan to have a child. But then, I am 35; she is 34. The time window is getting narrower for us to have children."
Sophia Nasr, 26, second-year Ph.D. student
"The most devastating experience I ever had was applying for an NSF scholarship. I put my whole heart into it. I think my application was solid, and it just took one reviewer to flush it all down the drain. I found out right in the middle of my qualifying exams, so it was just crushing to my confidence. I've bounced back from that, but as a theorist, it's kind of hard to look for other places that will even offer me funding. For me, the NSF was where it was at, so it was heartbreaking.
Ashley Juavinett, 28, postdoctoral researcher
"So few people within academia talk about it because it's so expected: ‘Of course, you'll move across the country for a postdoc because that's what everybody does.' The move definitely took a toll on my relationship. My partner is in the Bay Area. There was, for a long time, this question of whether she should move to New York instead."
