When it's personal

摘要

When graduate student Xiujuan Zhang had her baby, Tate, on 7 August 2005, she knew that she needed to adjust the balance between time spent in and out of the lab. Three weeks later, both her research at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and her life were turned upside-down by Hurricane Katrina. Zhang and her husband, both students from China, left the city with their newborn son, stayed with friends in Baton Rouge for a month, and eventually relocated to Houston, Texas, where she continued her research. In those trying times, Zhang kept her biomolecular-engineering PhD project alive by relying on her husband and her adviser, who were both supportive, and learning to compartmentalize her work and personal life. Her coping mechanisms kept her moving towards her research goals, even if at a much slower pace.