Get to Know HudsonAlpha: Chris Gunter

Dr. Chris Gunter, director of research affairs, discusses the path that led her to HudsonAlpha.

Q: When/how did you get started in genetics? What drew you to the field?

I am one of those geeks who knew they wanted to be a scientist pretty much all along.  In high school, I was drawn to genetics and biochemistry by a desire to use research to help people, and eventually decided to go to graduate school in human genetics. 

Q: How did you end up at HudsonAlpha?

I am from Atlanta, and got my Ph.D. at Emory in the same lab as faculty investigator Devin Absher; across the hall from our new investigator Shawn Levy; and across the other hall from my best friend in graduate school, director of education and outreach Neil Lamb.  After graduate school, I went on to a postdoctoral fellowship in Cleveland where I decided to go into science editing rather than pursue a strict research career.  Even though people told me I was "stepping off the track" and I would be a "failure," I really enjoyed the editing process and pursued jobs with several journals, including Human Molecular Genetics and Science.  I ended up as the editor handling all genetics and genomics papers at Nature, the most highly-cited general research journal in the world. At Nature, I published big papers like the chimpanzee genome and international human haplotype map.  So, I feel like I did okay!  After six years at Nature I was ready to try something different and wanted to move back to the South to be near family.  The institute was just about to open, so the timing was perfect.  I am grateful and excited to be on the team shaping this new and unique research environment.

Q: What is your role as the director of research affairs?

My job includes all aspects of managing research at the institute: writing and editing grants, presenting our research to both scientific and non-scientific audiences, working with the external affairs team for advice and outreach, meeting with local leaders and government officials to update them on our progress, writing and editing papers for publication, representing HudsonAlpha at international meetings, setting up relationships with universities in the state and region, and even publicizing our work in all forms of media (check us out on Facebook and Twitter!).  Basically, I do a lot of scientific "other duties as assigned" and it's been a blast so far.

Q: What have you learned while at HudsonAlpha?

I've been struck by how involved this community is -- people really want to learn here, and boy do we want to teach them.  We depend on support from and interaction with the public, and the people I meet all the time are so engaged.  I've also learned that working at a nonprofit institute is very different from either a university or a large publishing company!

Q: Why do you like working at HudsonAlpha?

It feels like a warm and fun family in addition to a workplace; they have taken in this single working mother and made it feel like home.  I also get to translate some of the coolest research out there into terms that anyone can understand.  How does a job get better than that?

Q: What are your recommendations for students interested in science careers?

Don't let anyone tell you that you will fail (especially as a woman):  pursue what you are interested in and it will pay off. 

Be creative about your role:  I've worked with several places to create jobs from scratch, based on similar positions elsewhere.

Network, network, network:  almost all of my positions have started out as discussions with people I knew.

And most importantly, everyone you meet has something to teach you.  Pay attention.