With a Little Help From My Friends

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Happy 2018! The start of a new year is a time for making resolutions, reflecting on the past and looking forward to new opportunities. We have written many blogs about work-life balance and succeeding in science, and a common theme in many of these blogs is that none of us do it alone. We need friends and family to keep us grounded. At home, our partnerships are vital for maintaining our sanity and supporting our family responsibilities. Collaborations at work often allow us to take our science into new realms and also share both the fun and the burden of getting a project done. Friends in science are also necessary for venting; they can relate to struggles with experiments, publishing, and funding, sometimes offering a helping hand or simply a sympathetic ear. 

The community of ISEH is overflowing with close friends and collaborators. It is an ever-growing group that has the close-knit, inclusive feeling of family. Some friendships were forged at the annual ISEH meeting, while others were friends first, and then recruited to ISEH. The annual meeting provides a forum to meet up with old cronies and to foster new friendships. The society is especially focused on developing the hematology leaders of the future. For junior investigators entering into the field, new investigator events are a great way to meet people. I remember meeting so many cool people (both newbies like me and seasoned veterans of the society) at the new investigator event at my first ISEH meeting (Boston 2008). Those events have grown in both number and scope over the past several years, and are now a major focus of the meeting. My experiences with ISEH as a junior investigator motivated me to get involved with the society in a way no other meeting had before. That said, it is the wonderful mentorship and involvement of senior members of ISEH that keep it so inviting. The perspectives of those who have already walked the road of scientific success, overcome setbacks and failures, and come out still smiling at the end are invaluable. The seamless generational intermingling of ISEH helps make the society what it is today.

Are you feeling the urge to get involved? Simply Blood is looking for fresh perspectives to share with ISEH. Have something to share on your life as a scientist? Perhaps you want to discuss emerging technology in hematology research. Whether you have something specific to say or think there are topics we need to discuss, we are always looking for new voices and ideas, so please join us as a new contributor! If interested in getting involved, please reach out to us.

This New Year, I want to say thank you to all of you. May you have all the success you deserve in 2018 and my hope is that we continue to support and cheer each other on. To those ISEH friends we have lost over the past year, know you will be greatly missed. It’s a tough world out there, but we can get by with a little help from our friends!

Teresa V. Bowman, PhD
Publications Committee Member
Former Chair, New Investigators Committee

Assistant Professor, Department of Developmental & Molecular Biology
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (Oncology)
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Bronx, NY

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