Aditi Mulgaonkar, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Radiology, Research
"Celebration of this women’s history month is an empowering platform to voice our opinions as women in research and talk about our different journeys in life to achieve our professional goals. We must realize and value our importance to the community as we strive hard to play our different roles as mother, daughter, wife, professional, and so on. Our ideas are important, and we must learn to voice them when needed and learn to gracefully take the credit where it is due.
My greatest personal achievement is my baby. I have a 2 1/2-year-old son, named Vivaan, born in the middle of the pandemic in August 2020. I consider him as my personal motivation and an achievement. He is my “sunshine.”
My greatest professional achievement has been working at UT Southwestern. It has given me that clinical platform to take research from bench to bedside. I saw my work clinically translated for investigational imaging of renal cancer and patient care. It reached the stage with an IND on file with the FDA for clinical trials. It makes a difference as a scientist to see the impact on the community. That doesn't happen often with too many scientists.
I am just starting to achieve things in the field of my own. I would really like to be known as a good teacher, good mentor, and to have my mentees continue the science. My students and their success are the legacy I would like to leave behind. And I again wanted to thank UT Southwestern for giving us researchers this translational platform to apply our science, to show that it can help the patients to have a better quality of life.
My advice to the newest generation of medical students, residents, fellows, and learners is to never stop exploring There are always so many unanswered questions out there in science, still left for us to decipher. So never give up, never stop exploring. Especially for women, I think there are times when we back down and we tend to be shy and step back a little. Be upfront, confident, and keep pushing yourself to the glass ceiling to make sure you continue your stride in the field of science and achieving excellence. That is important and I wish all of them the best in that exploration journey."
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