Kiran Dhillon, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Milestones
My road in life took a while to figure out.
As a child in India, my grandfather told me, "You're going to be a doctor." It sounded great to me!
In high school, I loved science; we did some live dissections that really stuck with me.
After finishing my undergraduate work, I still thought I wanted to go to medical school.
I spent some time drawing blood at a lab and realized that I didn't want to be a physician.
I loved human disease though, so I decided to instead pursue a Ph.D. in genetics & go into research.
Teaching a genetics class for the first time really helped me understand and appreciate the field.
I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer; my role as patient has lent new views to my research.
Keep following my journey
Education
High School
Associate's Degree
Whatcom Community College
Whatcom Community College
Career
Postdoctoral Researcher
I study chemotherapy resistance in breast and ovarian cancers.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Science
Medicine
Problem Solving
Day to Day
I do lots of cell lab experiments working in a hood and taking care of cells in petri dishes that are grown inside of an incubator to mimic the human body. In the main lab, you'll see me doing lots of molecular biology and experiments involving manipulating DNA. I attend many seminars to hear about the work of others, and I give my own seminars to present my work as well. I also co-founded an org that promotes diversity amongst scientists, so there's some administrative work involved with that.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for high school students
It's a really long path that you have to go down before you can start doing postdoctoral work, so make sure that you have that passion and endurance to put in all of those years of schooling and hard work. The best way to test the waters is through an internship, so start looking for those as early as high school. You'll be able to see that research in the real world is much, much different than the science that you're taught in text books, plus, you'll have a head start going into college!
Recommended Education
My career is related to what I studied. I'd recommend the path I took:
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Society in General:
"You're a first-generation female scientist of color - how are you going to do this?"
Challenges I Overcame
First-Generation Immigrant
