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Meet the Community: Tatiana Murnikova
Interview by Brian Gottesman
Q: How would you describe what your job really is? A: My job is about managing the lab. Mostly it deals with people, people's concerns, people's problems with each other, if there are any. Also budgets, grants and fellowships preparation, recruitment and visas etc. I do everything that needs to be done except for science. Q: What would be a typical problem someone would have that you would help them solve? A: All situations are different, but many are visa-related. For example, post-docs start their work here with a J visa. Then they need to switch to an H-1 visa. While they are at the stage of J, wives are allowed to work. At the stage of H, wives are not. So for wives who are already employed, there are problems: how to get their own H’s, or to leave work and stay home. And this sort of thing has to be decided so that all our members are less stressed about things and can work productively. Q: What percentage of the people in the lab are not U.S. citizens? A: Well, I am a U.S. Citizen, but naturalized. There are two other Russian women who are naturalized. There's Joel Stern, a research assistant: the one American citizen who was born in America–in addition to Jack [Strominger], of course. But all of our post-docs are from abroad. Q: Any one country represented in particular? A: Right now it’s China. Until recently we had a more European group. The fact is that currently a pool of applicants for postdoctoral positions consists 80% of Asian scholars, and the challenge we face nowadays is that we have to recruit the very best people and at the same time try to maintain cultural diversity. Q: In terms of doing budget work, what kinds of things do you have to tackle the most, and what's the most difficult? A: Grant renewals, although they're not difficult so much as stressful. There are usually last minute requests from NIH via OSR to clarify one point or another in our renewal application, and our timely funding depends on my response. So I do not enjoy receiving such requests. Because we are funded by four NIH grants, there are four renewals every year, four possibilities of a major stress for me… Thank goodness, from next year there will only be three, one grant is now running on a no-cost extension. The rest of budget work is straight forward, and I really appreciate the fact that we have a Financial Office working for us, where Ellen Quirk, who manages all Strominger Lab accounts, is always available to answer my inquiries or make adjustments that I request. Q: I assume you get into conversations with other lab administrators within the department. What's unique about the Strominger lab, and what do you find you have to do more often than other lab administrators because of something particular to Jack’s lab? A: I’m not really sure how it works in other labs but, for instance, when I worked in [Professor] Gelbart’s lab–the other lab I've worked in and where my position was a little different–Bill was more in charge of money than Jack. Jack relies very much on me on how the money is spent, how equipment is purchased and this sort of thing. So it’s much more responsibility I would say. Plus, human resources too: I have to talk with every person individually when they ask for more money, when they have some personal problems we need to address and so on. Or they have problems with each other. Q: Interpersonal problems? A: Yes. People come to my office to talk about things, about lab life in general and sometimes there are grievances, personality problems, complaints, bad moods, you name it. Unless it’s something totally extraordinary, I know that Jack would prefer me to handle difficult situations myself, and I think now, after four years, I am getting much better at that. Still, there is a long way to go… Q: Does that mean that you’re sort of like a mother figure to the lab? A: I wouldn’t use the word “Mother”! [laughs] "Older sister figure", maybe... I think I have lot of common sense and am always eager to share it, and the fact that I am a little older really helps. I think I have a good working relationship with everybody, more or less. Q: What was your position in the Gelbart lab and how long ago did you come to the Strominger lab? A: It’s been four years since I started with Jack. I was with Bill for three years. It was a job share of sorts. I was 50% lab administrator, as a staff assistant III, and 50% assistant to the undergraduate program coordinator, Barbara Cerva. Q: What did you do and where were you before working for Gelbart?
Q: What boat were you traveling on? A: A racing sailboat, an 83-footer. Really something, designed by my husband back in Russia. We lived on this boat for two years, traveling in the U.S. along the east coat with the Goodwill Tour to promote better relationship between people of America and Russia. This was at the time when the Cold War situation just began to loosen up its grasp. Our boat was the first pleasure vessel carrying a Soviet flag around here. So I was doing some volunteering. It's very rewarding, especially in the beginning when you don’t know the language, the country or the traditions, and you are given a great opportunity to learn hands-on. Q: What year did you come to the USA? A: 1990. It will be fourteen years. Q: How much English did you speak when you got here? A: Little. Some. I understood more than I could speak. I read fairly well, and that helped me a lot. Often Americans we met during our first years of travel on board would tell me “ Your English is better than my Russian” which to me indicated that my English was really poor! Q: When you lived in Russia, what were you doing there work-wise, or were you working for your husband? A: No, in Russia I was an architect. I have an architectural background and education, so I was creating drawings of buildings. Q: Commercial or residential? A: Mostly commercial. Residential buildings in Russia were not really significant; like boxes, and not nice. Now things have changed. Q: Why did you decide to not pursue architecture here in the States? A: Because there was so much opportunity to do other things. This was time for a change and, since we changed our lifestyle and everything, I decided why not change to something else. I always enjoyed communicating with people more than designing in solitude, and here I had a chance for a fresh start, totally anew, and I grabbed it. Obviously working in academia is the best place to learn and that’s where I am. Q: Since you arrived at Harvard, what skills have you accumulated that you didn’t have before? A: Since I arrived at Harvard I took this great opportunity of T.A.P. at the extension school. I took three or four terms of English. When I graduated from English, I enrolled into a graduate program called Special Study in Administration and Management. I graduated in 2002, received a Certificate. I specialized in human resource management, because that’s what interests me a lot. Q: And you apply that here on the job I assume? A: Definitely. I felt I needed to know more before I could handle certain interpersonal situations. The new knowledge I gained helps me a great deal in my daily work with people in the lab and with Jack too. It even helps in my family life. Q: What’s your favorite part of your job? A: Communicating with people. Also, I feel very privileged to be working with the brightest young scientists from all over the world. They are so talented, so dedicated, so hardworking, simply an unbelievable group of people. I know they're the future of science in this country and in their home countries. My being a small part of their future success is what motivates me a great deal. I am also very fortunate to be working for Jack. Q: What do you like about him? A: He’s just an amazing character! [laughs] He’s such a unique, unique personality, with a touch of eccentricity of course. He has many great stories to tell and there is never a dull moment in my workday. Jack is a natural communicator, so you feel totally at home talking with him. There is no gap between “the professor” and us, the lab members. And one thing that differs him perhaps is that his door is always open, no appointment needed, really. If someone in the lab needs to see him, he or she would just knock and Jack always stops whatever he does and responds. He is the same way with students too. Everyone appreciates that. In general, I think Jack and I have a lot in common and understand each other well on intuitive level. A sense of humor and appreciation for a good joke is what makes our work together so enjoyable. There is a good laugh behind almost anything, and we laugh a lot! Q: How you would describe the department as a whole; as a work and as a social universe?
Q: And as a social environment? A: I think Suzanne [Smith] is doing a great job as event organizer. First of all, the weekly seminars she runs, these are great. People love them, Jack loves them, they're very useful. And then the way she puts together the parties twice a year, the Christmas party and picnic in the summer! I think both are wonderful, and everyone in our lab is very, very happy to participate. Right now we all are looking forward to the summer cookout. My daughter-in-law works in the Graduate School of Education and they don’t have anything like that. That’s the only feedback from the outside I’m getting. All in all, I think I am lucky to be a part of the MCB community. I love working here. Q: What are you looking forward to in the future and where do you see your career going? A: Well, my career could go… I don’t know. I was thinking about continuing at Harvard after Jack retires—yes we have to face this fact even though he does not plan on it in the near future. I can see myself working with Harvard Undergraduate students. Or graduate students. Or postdocs, taking on another lab maybe. Definitely working with people… My interests could lie in HIO work, in becoming an Advisor, because with my immigrant background I relate well to people from other countries. At some point I was thinking about going to law school and studying immigration law but then I decided no, it’s too much work, it’s not for me. Not at this point anyway.
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