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prioritizing mental health and well-being
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2 source claims · Reviewed Sep 9, 2026
Biographical context: prioritizing mental health and well-being
Amar Desai: Yeah. And the reason that's great advice to anyone watching this. You have a 23 award winner and a K 99 award winner who will send you our proposals when you want them. So, you know, get our email addresses. And if you want your very first one of three, I think there's two right here that that kid that would be willing to send them, the second is mine is probably more philosophical. I don't feel like I'm in a position to give advice on how to be successful in academic science, because I'm still figuring that out, and we're still navigating sort of how to be stable and confident. And maybe that never comes. But, you know, I don't think I can tell someone, hey, go do this and it'll work. My most important thing is, prioritizing mental health and well-being. It's a it can be a very dark industry. It doesn't have to be, but I've seen a lot of people just sort of get so lost in the minutia of their science that they lose the individual. And that's a it's a really sad and scary thing to see where, you know, I think this can be part of your life, but it should not be your whole life. And you know what I tell everyone in my lab is, hey, go have fun. You guys are young. Like, you don't owe me Saturday evenings here. In fact, I don't want you here Saturday evening. You know, it's time to go make friends. Go on a walk, call your parents. You know, read a book, do something. And so, I think finding that balance between how can I be a happy, well-rounded individual and then also be a badass? Scientists are for swearing. I think is a really great balance and a sort of secret recipe to a happy life, which is it's okay to not think about it sometimes and to go, you know, swing a baseball bat or go jump as high as you can in the air and just, you know, breathe in the cool air. And so, you know, I think it's very, very important. And this is an industry that suffers from a lot of depression and mental health issues because, you know, a lot of our as we talked about earlier, a lot of our self-worth is is determined by an increasingly narrow pay line, which is just silly. And so my advice would be, hey, just realize that that, you know, it's there's many facets to an individual and your work can be one, but all the other things are what are actually important.
Identity: Amar Desai
Amar Desai: Yeah. And the reason that's great advice to anyone watching this. You have a 23 award winner and a K 99 award winner who will send you our proposals when you want them. So, you know, get our email addresses. And if you want your very first one of three, I think there's two right here that that kid that would be willing to send them, the second is mine is probably more philosophical. I don't feel like I'm in a position to give advice on how to be successful in academic science, because I'm still figuring that out, and we're still navigating sort of how to be stable and confident. And maybe that never comes. But, you know, I don't think I can tell someone, hey, go do this and it'll work. My most important thing is, prioritizing mental health and well-being. It's a it can be a very dark industry. It doesn't have to be, but I've seen a lot of people just sort of get so lost in the minutia of their science that they lose the individual. And that's a it's a really sad and scary thing to see where, you know, I think this can be part of your life, but it should not be your whole life. And you know what I tell everyone in my lab is, hey, go have fun. You guys are young. Like, you don't owe me Saturday evenings here. In fact, I don't want you here Saturday evening. You know, it's time to go make friends. Go on a walk, call your parents. You know, read a book, do something. And so, I think finding that balance between how can I be a happy, well-rounded individual and then also be a badass? Scientists are for swearing. I think is a really great balance and a sort of secret recipe to a happy life, which is it's okay to not think about it sometimes and to go, you know, swing a baseball bat or go jump as high as you can in the air and just, you know, breathe in the cool air. And so, you know, I think it's very, very important. And this is an industry that suffers from a lot of depression and mental health issues because, you know, a lot of our as we talked about earlier, a lot of our self-worth is is determined by an increasingly narrow pay line, which is just silly. And so my advice would be, hey, just realize that that, you know, it's there's many facets to an individual and your work can be one, but all the other things are what are actually important.