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Siobain Duffy

Childhood and Early Years

Despite her successful career and advances in microbial research, Duffy had not always been interested in the science field. She had no scientists in her family and when given chemistry sets by her parents on Christmas, Duffy claims that “they didn’t take” and could not pique her interest. When in high school, however, she took part in a cooperative program at the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche as a way to escape the mundane classroom environment. Further encouraged by her mother who greatly stressed the importance of hands-on learning, Duffy enrolled and found a mentor in a molecular biologist. In her experience, she learned the difference between genuine research and the dull lab courses she had been exposed to before. Lab courses were too structured and linear for Duffy. Instead she preferred the autonomy of research, where she could design her own experiment to her satisfaction. She was given the opportunity to work on her own projects and even had one of her papers published a few years later. When looking back at the experience, Duffy states, “...without that program I would not be a scientist today.”

Education

Duffy was never a science loving girl, she only realized her passion for it once she was able to sit in a laboratory and have hands-on experience for research. She participated in programs that allowed her to get out of lecture style classes and she got to work with a molecular biologist who she was inspired by. After this, she knew she wanted to continue with science and came to Rutgers as a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry major, regardless of whether that would be her future career, although it did allow her to have a strong base in chemistry for her current job today. She went on to complete a PhD from Yale University in 2006 and is now an assistant professor with Rutgers.

Career

Work she started when she was sixteen led to her first published paper and from then on went to publish many more papers and theories. She has become an assistant professor at Rutgers and has subsequently traveled to labs around the world in attempts to further her research for Rutgers. Along with the ability to travel, she has been given multiple grants and fellowships as rewards for her hard work and although it hasn’t been perfect, her journey thus far has been smooth, according to her.

Awards

Duffy was one of the five Rutgers SEBS faculty members to be honored for teaching and scholarly excellence on May 5th, 2015. She received the Rutgers Faculty Scholar-Teacher Award, which recognizes “faculty members who have made outstanding contributions in research and writing” and includes a $1,000 honorarium. One of the reasons Duffy was chosen as a recipient includes the experimental and computational approach she used in her research on evolution of natural virus populations.

Other awards Duffy has received include: “2008 Postdoctoral Post Prize, Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution; 2007 John Spangler Nicholas Prize, Yale University; 2006 Raymond W. Sarber Award, American Society for Microbiology; 2005 Travel Grant, World Summit on Evolution, Galapagos Islands.”