Stephanie Diezmann, PhD, who received her doctoral degree from Duke in 2009, has joined the Wellcome Trust as a senior research manager on its infectious disease team. She now helps guide global efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance in fungi and bacteria. “Wellcome is an inspiring place to be,” she said.
Diezmann credits Duke with shaping her into a rigorous scientist and critical thinker. “MGM was a vibrant environment filled with labs tackling some of the most difficult problems in science,” she said. “Being part of such a dynamic and supportive community profoundly influenced my development as a researcher.”
Her path to Duke began unexpectedly. As an undergraduate at Humboldt Universität in Berlin, she came to Duke on a German Academic Exchange Service stipend to complete the lab component of her degree in the Mitchell lab and the Vilgalys lab.
After presenting her research to the Duke Mycology Research Unit — following a sleepless night of data analysis — she was approached by Joe Heitman, PhD, whose question, “What are you going to do now?” changed her plans entirely. Instead of returning to Berlin, she joined the Duke University Program in Genetics and Genomics and completed her PhD at Duke.
Her advice to future trainees: “When a door opens, go through, and ask questions later.”