OLD SCHOOL/NEW SCHOOL
Nathan Nelson remembers the day he realized a career in academia wouldn’t be his calling. It was the moment his university advisor asked him to begin a fourth thesis project. Nelson had been studying neuromuscular communication at Oregon Health and Science University, but when he stopped to think about what he wanted to do—in science and in his life—he realized that nothing he enjoyed doing actually required a Ph.D. Even if he stayed in the neuroscience field, he didn’t need a doctorate to do the hands-on research benchwork that he loved so dearly. So he finished his thesis and left the university with a master’s in neuroscience instead of continuing with his doctoral program.
The decision seemed a bit like a midlife crisis, though Nelson was hardly old enough to qualify.
