Dan Pensinger

PhD, Microbiology

Senior Research Scientist, Promega Corp.

he/him

Dan Pensinger, PhD – Speaker Bio

Current position: Senior Research Scientist, Promega Corp.

Previous positions: Researcher, Hyrckowian Lab, UW–Madison. Post-doctoral Researcher, Pagliarini Lab, Morgridge Institute for Research. Research Specialist, Sauer Lab, UW–Madison. Research Associate, Quintessence Biosciences.

Current position description: My overall scientific career goal since my undergraduate degree has been to advance science to improve the treatment of disease. I wanted to find a position where I had both the agency to drive my research direction, while still directly performing experiments at the bench, and maintain a good work-life balance and I am lucky to have found something that fits all three criteria. I am also an environmental advocate focusing on local efforts to make the city better for biking, walking, and public transit to address both climate change and traffic violence.

Advice for trainees: At an individual level, I think doing self reflection on one’s values and how to prioritize them is essential to be happy in one’s career. From my own example, I chose to stay local at several decision points and this likely altered my career opportunities, but importantly it also meant that I stayed close with my family in the area.

Collectively, I think that to have an honest conversation about future careers which might span the next 30-40 years, we need to include consideration of climate change and ecological overshoot. The trajectory of emissions, warming, and ecological degradation means that we can no longer escape severe impacts in the coming decades, and these impacts will affect the whole of society, not least the research enterprise. Much like the Wisconsin Idea compels the University to go beyond the classroom to address societal problems, I also think we as scientists need to engage more with the broader community to both combat the drivers of climate change and to start preparing to adapt to the impacts of it.