Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1493016
REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2023 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE I I-CONNECT007 43 Nguyen: In your keynote, you talked about parental leave. What is your advice for par- ents in STEM fields, having experienced that yourself? The bigger question is: How do you juggle it all? How do you do both? It can be very intimi- dating because everything takes time and energy. There's an analogy that resonates with me: Managing all the tasks you have to do in your life is like juggling a bunch of balls in the air; every once in a while, one of those balls drops. But that's okay, because some of those balls are rubber; the other balls—the ones you can't afford to drop—are glass. In other words, you have to prioritize. There are things that can fall to the wayside for a week and it'll be okay. If I stop working out for a week, I can pri- oritize my health next week after my kids are looked after and I have finished my incredible speech at IPC and all the other things I need to do first. I can pick up the rubber ball that's my short-term health later. But when my daughter is sick, when I feel like I need to get a checkup for my long-term health, or my parents need something—those are glass balls that I will not drop; if they broke, it would be bad. I do, however, keep in mind that those balls can change. They can be rubber one day and glass the next. There could be a recital that, if you miss one, it's not the end of the world. But if it's the recital at the end of the year? That's the one you don't miss. The point is: You can't do everything all at once. It's all about prioritizing and finding a hierarchy of importance with the things in your life. Te: Really great advice, thank you. Now we want to talk about your role as a science com- municator. Science communication is a new field that started taking shape during the pandemic, especially with those who had a background in immunology and an understanding of vaccine science. Those people took on the task of communicating research findings on COVID and its vaccines to the general public so that people could understand what was going on. Science communicators have been so crucial and needed these last few years. You can extrapolate that experience to every industry where highly technical information needs to be communicated to the general public. Nguyen: How did you make the transition to becoming a science communicator?