thank you good evening and thanks to all
the organizers for inviting me to this
great event and before we go further
today’s International Women’s Day so
could I have a word of thanks to all the
women who make our life better here
thank you that’s an easy way of getting
some applause here what I’m a scientist
I never thought I would say that one day
in all my life I wanted to be one and
what I’m going to tell you today is a
bit about how this came about and I
think this is you know it’s a personal
story but at the same time I think it
will help especially those of you who
are about to make some very important
choices like what university you’re
going to what career you will follow in
your life I hope by the end of this you
will be convinced that whatever choice
you make you’re not gonna die you will
be able to follow your path as long as
you got strong passion and as long as
you’ve got strong will to follow a
direction I am a professor at the
University of Oxford I study malaria
parasites but that’s not how it’s always
been as a small kid I I wanted to be a
scientist I really did and when I was 12
I I learned about Darwin and how his
theories were much better than Lamarck’s
and in the thought that old life came
from a single source that he had changed
gradually then he has spread around the
world that our humans where were animal
our early humans were animals and you
know we are all related this was a
marvelous concept in my head and I
really wanted to be somebody who made
who studied this however there was there
was a problem with that when I started
studying biology it all seemed like were
soup to me you know it was it was very
very long difficult words in in Greek
and in Latin and a lot of sort of parts
of the body and parts of a tree and
parts of this and that and cycles it
didn’t seem to have any logic to it
whatsoever and that wasn’t who I was
you know I I liked I liked to be able to
work from first principles and build
things up so biology’s really wasn’t the
thing for me that I was more I was more
of a physicist so I did study physics I
I studied to school and I went on to do
a degree in physics as it turns out and
and I have to say I really loved it I
was good at maths that’s one thing you
have to do if you want to be physicist
but especially I was very interested in
semiconductors and electronics and I
know I’m talking about a very long time
ago here so in the middle in the mid
1980s electronics and computers were
were very big deal now you know we have
them in our pockets so but when I when I
graduated I went to work for for a
research center designing electronic
circuits first and then learned how to
program computers and and that was
really really exciting at the time it
was it was easy to get a job in it’s as
well which was a bonus point but I could
also use my physics because you know one
of my first Jobs was analyzing speech so
that I could program computers to
reproduce it and teach computers to how
to speak now again we take it for
granted we got in our pocket but in
those days it was a big new thing and I
you know I also developed one of the
first graphical user interface systems
so it was very exciting time and I
worked I worked in that field for a
while but then change happened you know
change and we come into it
change happened computing in many ways
became commoditized if you if you can
understand the word and you know I met
the company I was working for was not
doing so well and all this and suddenly
something happened and I got I got a
chance I don’t like to were to sit in
the aisle on the plane but in this case
you’ve probably good company but it was
but you know one time I was going to a
conference in the in the US and I only
had an aisle seat left and I sat next to
this chap who happened to be a professor
at the National University of Singapore
and we started talking to each other and
he would eat told me he was in software
engineering and I said that was in
software engineering and by the time we
got to Boston basically I had a job
offer to go and and teach in Singapore
now what do you do with that you know
you’ve you sort of your earring living
in England you you have a job in Italy
in this case it was and then suddenly
now you’re offered to go the other side
of the world so when this when this type
of choices come about I kind of be my I
have this mental image or you know this
lumberjacks
that so took three trunks down the river
and sort of stood on them and then they
had to jump from tree trunk for one free
track to the other to direct them you
know and every time you jump you kind of
have to be sure that you’re not going to
go under right you have to make sure it
is not too far you have to make sure
it’s gonna take your weight you have to
make sure that it’s not gonna roll you
over and think so that and I I felt at
the time that you know I was I was about
to jump on on the trunk and I decided to
take the opportunity and go by the way
within a year the company I was working
for was no more and so another thing
when you jump from
to attract to the other never look back
okay just now you’re in a new trunk
you’re going now I I worked in Singapore
as a lecturer and I must have trained
over a thousand software engineers and
masters courses and so on and it was it
was a great time I was you know I was
very happy I learned many new things I I
did many new things and yet at some
point I sort of I sort of needed some
change again and what happened is in
2003 and of course most of you are too
young to know it but in 2003 there was a
very big hoo-ha and the first draft of
the human genome was published and it
was like every day was on the radio on
the newspapers and all this and I found
myself not knowing anything about this
stuff
bit embarrassing really so I started
reading up about it and I suddenly
realized that that biology that was full
of fancy words and a lot of disconnected
things in fact at the very foundation
was very basic if you understood DNA you
could understand the complexity of life
not only but DNA ultimately was kind of
a computational problem and that’s what
I was good at so suddenly the little
child in me who wanted to study Darwin
actually had a chance now the thing is
it’s all very well to say okay there’s
been a change and you want an
opportunity but where where does the
chance come from and sometimes it’s very
unexpected I went to a barbecue and when
I went to a barbecue and I met the chap
none none of the people pictured here
were part of that event I met a chap and
and I asked you know as one does what do
you do in life and he said oh I’m a
bioinformatician
oh yeah you know I studied DNA and we
write program
it’s fantastic eyes this is what I want
to do come and see me on Monday morning
I almost literally like that so I went
to see him and he said ok if you want to
do this stuff you have some very good
skills by that time I was 40 years old
by the way I should point that out why
don’t you join us but you got to do it
seriously you got to get out of your
comfort zone don’t go to a school of
computing they don’t know anything about
biology go to the School of Medicine mix
with the doctors go with the biochemists
make good stuff that makes the
difference so actually I did a PhD I I
studied influenza viruses and how they
evolved and I was in there I was doing
evolution of pathogens for stuff that
mattered in humanity because of course
influenza is one of the very major
diseases that plague the human race
after that after I completed my PhD
again a wonderful chance came about
University of Oxford was looking for
somebody to work pretty much on the
similar type of work but on a different
disease on malaria a disease that kills
hundreds of thousands of children in
Africa alone every year and and that was
a beautiful coincidence because not only
was I going to do the science I wanted
to do but I was also going to do
something useful which by the way I
don’t know how everybody feels but I
think that’s a pretty important thing in
life to feel that you are doing
something that’s that’s making a
difference so right now 10 years later
I’m leading large projects in Southeast
Asia where we take blood drops from
people who have malaria we extract the
DNA of the parasites we compare them and
we study we identify the things that
make them resistant to the drugs that
we’re using so that we can use better
drugs and treat more people and
eventually eradicate the disease
so this is where I am today and I hope I
have conveyed that it’s not being a
straight path by any means but I wanted
to summarize the my main point so points
to remember the first one is that
everything changes all the time your
circumstances will change your what you
like will change you will change the
place where you live will change the
weather will change everything will
change so embrace that it’s not
something that that you fight against
change means opportunity second thing
the opportunities translating to chances
that we get you get occasionally now
I’ve told you only about the chances
that I did take I didn’t take you all
the ones I I passed by you have to be
you have to judge whether a chance is
worth taking and there would be probably
more chances you’ll give a miss than the
ones you’ll take and how do you evaluate
that well you know that’s a
million-dollar question of course but
certainly I’ve always found the best
thing to go by was a nice commonplace
thing to say but it was with my heart
right so follow your passion follow what
you think is right follow what you think
will make a difference so my third and
last piece of advice is have a passion
follow it it may change it may not be
the same today as in ten years time it
doesn’t matter
keep on chasing it and you know shape
your life that way thank you very much
[Music] [Applause]
the organizers for inviting me to this
great event and before we go further
today’s International Women’s Day so
could I have a word of thanks to all the
women who make our life better here
thank you that’s an easy way of getting
some applause here what I’m a scientist
I never thought I would say that one day
in all my life I wanted to be one and
what I’m going to tell you today is a
bit about how this came about and I
think this is you know it’s a personal
story but at the same time I think it
will help especially those of you who
are about to make some very important
choices like what university you’re
going to what career you will follow in
your life I hope by the end of this you
will be convinced that whatever choice
you make you’re not gonna die you will
be able to follow your path as long as
you got strong passion and as long as
you’ve got strong will to follow a
direction I am a professor at the
University of Oxford I study malaria
parasites but that’s not how it’s always
been as a small kid I I wanted to be a
scientist I really did and when I was 12
I I learned about Darwin and how his
theories were much better than Lamarck’s
and in the thought that old life came
from a single source that he had changed
gradually then he has spread around the
world that our humans where were animal
our early humans were animals and you
know we are all related this was a
marvelous concept in my head and I
really wanted to be somebody who made
who studied this however there was there
was a problem with that when I started
studying biology it all seemed like were
soup to me you know it was it was very
very long difficult words in in Greek
and in Latin and a lot of sort of parts
of the body and parts of a tree and
parts of this and that and cycles it
didn’t seem to have any logic to it
whatsoever and that wasn’t who I was
you know I I liked I liked to be able to
work from first principles and build
things up so biology’s really wasn’t the
thing for me that I was more I was more
of a physicist so I did study physics I
I studied to school and I went on to do
a degree in physics as it turns out and
and I have to say I really loved it I
was good at maths that’s one thing you
have to do if you want to be physicist
but especially I was very interested in
semiconductors and electronics and I
know I’m talking about a very long time
ago here so in the middle in the mid
1980s electronics and computers were
were very big deal now you know we have
them in our pockets so but when I when I
graduated I went to work for for a
research center designing electronic
circuits first and then learned how to
program computers and and that was
really really exciting at the time it
was it was easy to get a job in it’s as
well which was a bonus point but I could
also use my physics because you know one
of my first Jobs was analyzing speech so
that I could program computers to
reproduce it and teach computers to how
to speak now again we take it for
granted we got in our pocket but in
those days it was a big new thing and I
you know I also developed one of the
first graphical user interface systems
so it was very exciting time and I
worked I worked in that field for a
while but then change happened you know
change and we come into it
change happened computing in many ways
became commoditized if you if you can
understand the word and you know I met
the company I was working for was not
doing so well and all this and suddenly
something happened and I got I got a
chance I don’t like to were to sit in
the aisle on the plane but in this case
you’ve probably good company but it was
but you know one time I was going to a
conference in the in the US and I only
had an aisle seat left and I sat next to
this chap who happened to be a professor
at the National University of Singapore
and we started talking to each other and
he would eat told me he was in software
engineering and I said that was in
software engineering and by the time we
got to Boston basically I had a job
offer to go and and teach in Singapore
now what do you do with that you know
you’ve you sort of your earring living
in England you you have a job in Italy
in this case it was and then suddenly
now you’re offered to go the other side
of the world so when this when this type
of choices come about I kind of be my I
have this mental image or you know this
lumberjacks
that so took three trunks down the river
and sort of stood on them and then they
had to jump from tree trunk for one free
track to the other to direct them you
know and every time you jump you kind of
have to be sure that you’re not going to
go under right you have to make sure it
is not too far you have to make sure
it’s gonna take your weight you have to
make sure that it’s not gonna roll you
over and think so that and I I felt at
the time that you know I was I was about
to jump on on the trunk and I decided to
take the opportunity and go by the way
within a year the company I was working
for was no more and so another thing
when you jump from
to attract to the other never look back
okay just now you’re in a new trunk
you’re going now I I worked in Singapore
as a lecturer and I must have trained
over a thousand software engineers and
masters courses and so on and it was it
was a great time I was you know I was
very happy I learned many new things I I
did many new things and yet at some
point I sort of I sort of needed some
change again and what happened is in
2003 and of course most of you are too
young to know it but in 2003 there was a
very big hoo-ha and the first draft of
the human genome was published and it
was like every day was on the radio on
the newspapers and all this and I found
myself not knowing anything about this
stuff
bit embarrassing really so I started
reading up about it and I suddenly
realized that that biology that was full
of fancy words and a lot of disconnected
things in fact at the very foundation
was very basic if you understood DNA you
could understand the complexity of life
not only but DNA ultimately was kind of
a computational problem and that’s what
I was good at so suddenly the little
child in me who wanted to study Darwin
actually had a chance now the thing is
it’s all very well to say okay there’s
been a change and you want an
opportunity but where where does the
chance come from and sometimes it’s very
unexpected I went to a barbecue and when
I went to a barbecue and I met the chap
none none of the people pictured here
were part of that event I met a chap and
and I asked you know as one does what do
you do in life and he said oh I’m a
bioinformatician
oh yeah you know I studied DNA and we
write program
it’s fantastic eyes this is what I want
to do come and see me on Monday morning
I almost literally like that so I went
to see him and he said ok if you want to
do this stuff you have some very good
skills by that time I was 40 years old
by the way I should point that out why
don’t you join us but you got to do it
seriously you got to get out of your
comfort zone don’t go to a school of
computing they don’t know anything about
biology go to the School of Medicine mix
with the doctors go with the biochemists
make good stuff that makes the
difference so actually I did a PhD I I
studied influenza viruses and how they
evolved and I was in there I was doing
evolution of pathogens for stuff that
mattered in humanity because of course
influenza is one of the very major
diseases that plague the human race
after that after I completed my PhD
again a wonderful chance came about
University of Oxford was looking for
somebody to work pretty much on the
similar type of work but on a different
disease on malaria a disease that kills
hundreds of thousands of children in
Africa alone every year and and that was
a beautiful coincidence because not only
was I going to do the science I wanted
to do but I was also going to do
something useful which by the way I
don’t know how everybody feels but I
think that’s a pretty important thing in
life to feel that you are doing
something that’s that’s making a
difference so right now 10 years later
I’m leading large projects in Southeast
Asia where we take blood drops from
people who have malaria we extract the
DNA of the parasites we compare them and
we study we identify the things that
make them resistant to the drugs that
we’re using so that we can use better
drugs and treat more people and
eventually eradicate the disease
so this is where I am today and I hope I
have conveyed that it’s not being a
straight path by any means but I wanted
to summarize the my main point so points
to remember the first one is that
everything changes all the time your
circumstances will change your what you
like will change you will change the
place where you live will change the
weather will change everything will
change so embrace that it’s not
something that that you fight against
change means opportunity second thing
the opportunities translating to chances
that we get you get occasionally now
I’ve told you only about the chances
that I did take I didn’t take you all
the ones I I passed by you have to be
you have to judge whether a chance is
worth taking and there would be probably
more chances you’ll give a miss than the
ones you’ll take and how do you evaluate
that well you know that’s a
million-dollar question of course but
certainly I’ve always found the best
thing to go by was a nice commonplace
thing to say but it was with my heart
right so follow your passion follow what
you think is right follow what you think
will make a difference so my third and
last piece of advice is have a passion
follow it it may change it may not be
the same today as in ten years time it
doesn’t matter
keep on chasing it and you know shape
your life that way thank you very much
[Music] [Applause]
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