A Creative Process Posted on October 19, 2007 For Robert C. Malenka (bio), a research career provides a creative outlet.

The reason to embark on this kind of career – an academic career or becoming an academic physician, whether it’s a basic scientist or a clinical researcher – is that at some level you really like it and that you have a passion for it and that most days you like coming to work and doing the things you’re doing and thinking about the issues you’re thinking about.

I didn’t say every day; I said most days. There’s no job in the world that every day is going to be perfect or every week you’re going to love doing it. You’re always going to have to do chores that are not fun. I’m a fairly senior academician now and I have to do a lot of stuff that I don’t really like doing or enjoy doing but nonetheless, I can honestly say that most days I like coming to work. I like seeing what’s going on in my lab. I like reading some new papers and thinking about new topics and talking about this or that with my colleagues.

I even like complaining about my colleagues and criticizing their research. But just the intellectual endeavors is very satisfying as well as the creative aspect of research because research is – you know, for those of us who don’t have artistic talent, who can’t sing or play a musical instrument, which is me, it’s a very creative process. It’s creating something out of nothing. It’s creating a new piece of knowledge, and that’s, to me, can be very creative and very exciting.

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