Question: Are there any specific skills or qualities that are particularly valuable for pursuing a career related to agrobacterium or genetic engineering

Ryan Weir answered on 27 Jun 2023:

I think there are 3 important qualities to pursuing any science career.

1. Passionate: Sometimes science can be very hard and finding the motivation to keep working on experiments that keep failing is very hard. Being passionate about what you are doing and not just working for money is very important.
2. Inquisitive: Science is all about asking the right questions. Being to sort of person that wants to understand how things work is a good scientific quality.
3. Reasoning: Being able to reason and think logically about the world is much more important today than many people think. Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution by asking questions and logically thinking through the possible answers.

To work in genetic engineering specifically, you need to have a lot of patience as the process of using agrobacterium to modify plants takes a long time!