Soapbox Science 2022

Soapbox: Did you choose a scientific career or did the scientific career choose you?

Agnese Codutti: I was chosen! I actively tried to escape academia, thinking I was not good enough for it, and went to work in a bank, but I was unhappy. A friend suggested I should try to apply for a Ph.D. position in Germany. I applied, I got it, and I moved to Germany within a few months. Doing the Ph.D. I discovered again how much I really loved science. Science called me back by chance!

Soapbox: What is your scientific superhero power? Or what superhero would you be?

AC: Asking questions, precise and awfully painful questions, the ones that make you doubt your work and yourself! It doesn’t seem like a crazy superpower, but to be a scientist it’s a very necessary one. To understands things, questions are necessary!

Soapbox: What is the most exciting aspect of your research?

AC: Being paid to learn; which other job pays you to do that? Especially learning amazing things about bacteria, and how they can affect us in different and unexpected ways. So tiny, but still, incredibly impactful on our life.

Soapbox: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what scientific equipment would you bring with you?

AC: I would love a microscope, even though being a theoretician, I do not know how to use it well. But it would open endless possibilities to explore the microscopic world and make things very very interesting in an otherwise boring place. Who knows which new bacteria species can be found in an unexplored place!

Soapbox: In these pandemic days, what funny/interesting experiments, books, talks or podcasts can you recommend to our audience?

AC: Each time someone tells you science is not for girls, science is difficult, science doesn’t give you a job… that is precisely the moment when you can tell them NO! Science is for everyone, and girls in science are especially needed. Science is difficult but at the same time amazing, and being difficult is not a reason to give up. And you can find amazing jobs in and out of academia, thanks to your science background! So if you feel like science is your way, just go for it; it is an amazing journey, worth trying.