Stories of Women in Neuroscience · Stories of WiN

Defining Your Legacy in Science and Beyond (Panel Discussion)

·53 min·3 clips

Denise Cai describes gender bias in grant reviews and the “man of the year” workaround for service overload.

1. Stories of Women in Neuroscience presents “Defining Your Legacy in Science and Beyond” as a panel recorded after the show’s first in-person event with support from the L'Oreal for Women in Science Award. 2. Dr. Nancy Padilla Coriano moderates the discussion with Drs. Huda Akil, Denise Cai, and Aaron Calipari, all of whom are named as Stories of Win returnees. 3. The episode asks what scientists want to be remembered for, and whether legacy comes from discoveries, mentorship, leadership, or public advocacy. 4. Huda Akil says she has had a lab for almost 50 years at the University of Michigan and has studied the neurobiology of emotions, stress, addiction, and depression. 5. Denise Cai says her lab at Mount Sinai studies learning and memory, open-source technology, and the open-source Miniscope platform. 6. Aaron Calipari says her lab at Vanderbilt studies neural mechanisms of decision-making and drug-related changes tied to substance use disorder. 7. Akil describes legacy as “what you have discovered and the people you have trained and mentored.” 8. Akil also argues that scientists can “frame things” when a field is stuck, especially when ideas are spinning around familiar models like “dopamine equals reward.” 9. Cai says she wanted to “change the way we do science” by making research more accessible through open-source tools and collaborative authorship. 10. Calipari says she built her lab around helping each person identify strengths and weaknesses rather than forcing one scientific personality. 11. Akil introduces the phrase “citizen scientist” and ties it to using science as a positive force in “dark times.” 12. Cai says each paper from her lab has 10 to 20 authors, and she tries to make each trainee’s “superpower” visible in talks and recommendation letters. 13. Calipari says every person who has been in her lab has gotten a fellowship, and she links that outcome to grant support and trainee ownership. 14. Cai says gender bias became clearer when her own grant reviews criticized her in vivo calcium imaging work while a male collaborator was called a “world leader and innovator.” 15. Cai says women in her department are often asked to do more service work, and she jokes about a rotating “man of the year” who gets redirected requests. 16. Akil says leadership should not happen by drifting into it, and she prefers to choose roles where she can affect science, advocacy, or education. 17. The panel sounds conversational and candid, with interruptions, back-and-forth questions, and personal examples from labs and universities. 18. The tone mixes mentorship advice, practical leadership talk, and self-aware humor, including jokes about heat in Tennessee, Twitter-era followers, and being asked to do too much service. 19. Best for trainees, early-career scientists, and anyone deciding what kind of academic leader to become. 20. Not for listeners wanting a tightly scripted science lecture or a single-issue technical talk.

As heard by us

A candid live conversation about legacy, leadership, and what scientists leave behind.

A panel on legacy in science lands best when it stays with the real choices behind a career: what gets built, who gets mentored, and what endures after the paper trail fades. Dr.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a frank, thoughtful panel on what a scientific legacy really looks like.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Stories of Women in Neuroscience