Name: Prof Aoife McLysaght
Occupation: A lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin is one of the world's leading genetics researchers.
Education: She started at TCD in 1994 and, as she says, never left.
“It was to be a big event for the Genetics Society in Trinity College, but somebody put the wrong date on the poster. So hardly anyone turned up, and we had too much beer. I suggested that everyone come back to my house. A gang of us landed in the sittingroom, where my parents were watching TV, and we changed the channel. They quietly retreated. We scattered ourselves around the room, and my all friends stayed the night, singing songs. The next morning, I was apologetic. My parents said it sounded like we’d had fun.
“Living at home during college is something that everyone navigates in their own way. I was never wild, and I’d always let my parents know if I’d be out very late or overnight, and they accepted that. We got along well. We still do.
“In some senses, I would have loved to have had the college experience of living away from home, but I wouldn’t have dreamed of asking my parents to pay my rent so I could live down the road. I often envied my friends from outside Dublin, but maybe they were living in some awful digs or under the thumb of a miserable landlord, envying the comforts of home.
"When I did my PhD, I received a stipend, which I used to move in with two friends from my course. It was so exciting for myself and one of the other girls, being away from home for the first time. We were chuffed with ourselves on that first day when we headed out to Tesco together to buy groceries. The novelty soon wore off. We struggled to budget, like every student. And we discovered the joys of baked beans and waffles. The Trinity College dining hall offered good value meals, so I'd have a big meal at lunchtime and a smaller dinner.
“In first year, I joined all the societies, with great plans and intentions. Great plans and intentions don’t always work out. In the beginning, I made friends with people from all around college. After a while, it was the Genetics Society that sucked me in, and I got involved in organising events and speakers.
“In college, you get to choose your friends, and this is a really liberating feeling. I will admit one regret: at one point in college, I focused too much on my boyfriend, neglecting my friends. I don’t regret going out with him but, if I could go back, it wouldn’t be so hook, line and sinker! I did learn the importance of a balanced life when surrounded by so many competing possibilities.
“I went to college and studied science because I had learned, in school, that I really enjoyed it. I like figuring things out; science is a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle in that respect. And I really, really love learning. Because of this, going to college was a revelation: I felt at home. I discovered opportunities that I never knew existed. I didn’t know that you could be a scientist for your job: I had never seriously sat down and given thought to who made discoveries.
“Some part of me, I suppose, had absorbed the image of the scientist as a man with white hair. There are lots of areas of life with unconscious sexism, including academia. It needs to be acknowledged so that people will be aware of an unconscious bias, asking themselves if they’re being fair. The worst ones are those who are so certain that they could never be sexist. But there are so many areas of life where women have, traditionally, not been considered as contenders.
“I have found my groove in genetics. I still get a buzz from it. I love my research; I love that I have the opportunity to share that with students. When it comes to it, college is fun, but is primarily a place of learning. I love learning. I have learned that there are people who feel the same, and who want to discover and to grow, and it is okay to enjoy that.”
